US school districts weigh duty to youth migrant shelters

When San Benito, Texas, school leaders learned of an influx of children to a migrant shelter in their small town near the U.S.-Mexico border, they felt obliged to help.

The superintendent reached out and agreed to send 19 bilingual teachers, mobile classrooms and hundreds of computers to make the learning environment resemble one of his schools.

While a government contractor bears responsibility for educating children at the highly guarded center, local officials say they stepped up partly because of a law that calls on school systems to educate any child, anywhere within their district.

“This is not a political issue. This is not a racial issue. This is a moral obligation, and actually our legal obligation,” said Michael Vargas, who leads the board of the San Benito Consolidated Independent School District.