Drop in immigration clouds future of school for Spanish speakers

For so many years, there were too many Spanish speakers in the schools, now there aren't enough.    - - Donna Poisl

By Grace Rubenstein

English and Spanish alternate seamlessly in the classrooms at the Mission Education Center in San Francisco. Decorative signs identify objects that in other schools would seem too basic to name: "clock" and "door."

This public elementary school has for 40 years served children who have just arrived from Latin America and speak only Spanish, who beyond its walls are out of their element in almost every way.

Those students are dramatically fewer now. As the flow of immigrants from Mexico has dwindled in recent years, the school's enrollment has plummeted from a high of 264 students in the mid-2000s to 72 this past spring.
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