Recent immigration enforcement actions in North Carolina have doubled the school absences Eric Davis, chairman of the state Board of Education, warned on Wednesday that some schools have been affected.
“Children cannot learn when they are in survival mode. Students cannot learn when they are afraid and their families’ safety is threatened by the actions of the government itself,” Davis said, following recent immigration operations in the state.
The increase in absences also puts attendance-based school funding at risk, adding pressure to districts already facing operational challenges, he added. Start of the School Board meeting.
The impact of fear on students
Davis criticized the fear-inducing impact of the Border Patrol operations conducted in November in the Charlotte and Triangle area.
“Families in North Carolina, especially in Charlotte and Raleigh, have experienced fear and disruption due to recent immigration enforcement actions, which affect what the law requires: to educate all students,” Davis said.
In Charlotte, 30,399 students did not attend classes on Monday, November 17, the first day of school after the start of the Operation “Charlotte’s Webb”".
Meanwhile, in Wake County, 19,471 students did not attend on Tuesday, November 18, and in Chapel Hill-Carrboro, 883 students did not attend on the same day.
Davis appealed to empathy: “We must take care of the foreigner, because we all descend from someone who came from another land.”
State Board member Olivia Oxendine requested information on the number of excused and unexcused absences in school districts affected by Border Patrol operations.
Related: School absences: another consequence of the Border Patrol's presence in NC
Criticism of the federal plan to close the Department of Education
Davis also questioned the approach of closing the Department of Education and criticized the impact it would have on the state.
“This plan could shift responsibility and funding to entities with no proven experience. There is no evidence that this dismantling will improve education in the country or make the system more efficient,” he said.
The Trump administration has made closing the Department of Education one of its priorities.
Although it would require congressional approval, the White House has pushed through a “pilot project” to transfer educational functions. These changes include more than $31 billion in federal funds, such as Title I and Title II funds, to other agencies with no experience in K-12 education, Davis criticized.
So far, Davis said the administration has withheld or frozen more than $10 billion in K-12 funds. Among them, Title I funds, Title II-A funds, English language learning services and extracurricular and summer programs.
President Trump has argued that closing the department would return educational control to the states. But Davis insisted that the federal agency has been key to expanding opportunities and guaranteeing educational rights for decades.
“If this is some kind of experiment, no parent wants their children to become subjects of an unfounded strategy,” he said.
It highlights the resilience of educators, families, and students
Despite these difficulties, Davis praised the resilience of North Carolina's educators, families, and students.
Furthermore, he highlighted the state's strategic plan, which emphasizes equality, compassion, and comprehensive support for children, and underscored the importance of state leadership when federal oversight is uncertain.
“North Carolina has a long history of acting in times of national uncertainty,” Davis said. “We’ve done it before, and we’ll do it again, based not on politics, but on our duty to every child who enters a North Carolina public school classroom.”
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