i can vouch for marlene tran's qualifications as a kindergarten teacher at cec. i think we are ten years behind the curve. if i'm not mistaken, new york and los angeles did this a decade ago, so if you look at the nature of the population in sfusd, trace it back to the history of chinese children being excluded from the public schools and the case of mamie tape versus hurley. trace it back before that to the 1 882 exclusion act. there are many reasons that immigrants have been discriminated against. i thank aaron for mentioning the central american wars in the 80's. these kids and their parents deserve full empowerment, so we have three meetings a month in chinese, spanish, and english, and we had the first parent grant from the san francisco education fund when gladdie thatcher was alive. and those parents and their kids i think have come through the system and are in the higher education system now. so of all places, why would san francisco not allow voting rights for the parents of the kids in sfusd? oh, and don't forget ethnic studies in k-12. thank you. >> s

i'm marlene tran, a board member of the chai necessary american democratic club, and a retired teacher years of teacher in the first new kummer public elementary in san francisco. before the landmark decision of lau versus nichols in 1974, although bilink well teachers were hired to teach youngsters who had just emigrated to san francisco with their families, we were not allowed to use any other language to assist them. now san francisco is proud of our successful bilink well immersion programs, however r for -- san franciscans pride ourselves of many basic rights and especially decision that affect about 50% of our school students whose parents are noncitizens. why is it after 14 years these parents are still excluded from decisions that affect the children's future? how can schools expect these parents to be more involved in school matters and have a deeper stake in connection to america? why should these parents who come from tens of thousands of miles for their children's education and opportunity have to wait five years to become american citizens in order to have a say in their c