If Driver's Licenses, why not Voter's Licenses --Immigration-related posts, Part II

What is that line about wherever Batman is, Robin is close behind (maybe in his shadow)?

Well, in the previous post Bill Shipp notes that California recently approved driver’s license privileges for that state’s million-plus illegal residents.

(Since Mr. Shipp published his most recent column earlier this week, late yesterday Gov. Schwarzenegger followed through on his earlier promise to veto the bill that passed in August that would allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses. The issue in a hot one in the California legislature, and the battle will continue.)

Mr. Shipp could have added that California often is a trendsetter for the nation. And in parts of California, something more than just debates about driver's licenses is going on. Something bigger, much bigger.

Something that would lead Mr. Shipp to say rather than just representing "a world gone haywire," something in America at least represents "a world imploding."

The debate is over whether noncitizens should have the right to vote.

This past July San Francisco's board of supervisors voted nine-to-two to put an amendment on the November ballot that would allow any parent with a child in public school to vote in school-board elections.

Part of the background for this is that more than half of the 60,000 students in San Francisco's public schools are either of Chinese or Hispanic descent. At least one out of three children in the city's school district has a parent who is an immigrant, either legal or illegal.

Those opposing voting by noncitizens in San Franscisco say being allowed to vote would cheapen the value of U.S. citizenship. They add that parents wanting to be heard can be engaged in other ways, such as attending P.T.A. meetings and volunteering at their children's schools.

Noncitizen immigrant parents say that's not enough -- there are larger issues, such as bilingual education and busing, in which they want their voices heard. At present, San Francisco school board policy requires many children to commute to schools that are far from their homes in order to achieve socio-economic diversity in the school system.

Even if the San Francisco proposal passes, it could still require an amendment to the California state constitution. That's likely to be difficult under Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

According to a 9-14-04 wsj article:

[I]mmigrant communities are split over whether to extend voting rights to non-citizens. John Zhao, a Chinese immigrant who became a U.S. citizen 15 years ago, is an outspoken critic of San Francisco schools. But he believes giving noncitizens the right to vote in school-board elections is undermining a privilege. "You have to work hard to be a citizen," says Mr. Zhao, whose daughter Lona commutes two hours to school each day.

The education initiative spotlights an intensifying debate over immigrant rights at a time when the U.S. is absorbing foreigners in record numbers.
"The story of California is the story of what will happen in other states," says Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, an immigration studies professor at New York University. California receives more immigrants than any other state and is the only one where non-Hispanic whites are outnumbered by all other races and ethnic groups combined.

Despite San Francisco's liberal bent, the education proposal has drawn strong opposition. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a former mayor of the city, said it dilutes the promise of citizenship.

"It's political correctness gone mad -- even by San Francisco standards," says Wade Randlett, president of SF SOS, a nonpartisan group campaigning against the initiative. "Citizenship really only means one remaining thing: You have the right to vote."