Refugees who come to the United States often face multiple barriers to education: financial hardship, unfamiliar languages and confusing cultural practices. But as Jo Napolitano asserts in her compelling first book, The School I Deserve, young refugees can and should be given every chance to succeed. Napolitano, a veteran education reporter, recounts a landmark case in Lancaster, Pa., in which six refugees from various countries sued the school district for the right to attend McCaskey, the district's high-performing high school, instead of being shunted to Phoenix, a punitive alternative campus. Their courage would have far-reaching effects not only on their own lives, but for young refugees who came after them.
Napolitano--herself a Colombian immigrant who knew education was her key to a successful life--centers her story on two students: Khadidja Issa, who came to the U.S. from Sudan with her mother and siblings, and Mahamed Hassan, a Somalian refugee who had never been to school before. Both of them, as well as the other plaintiffs in the case, had attempted to enroll at McCaskey in hopes of attending its well-regarded International School. But each of them met with resistance--sometimes in the form of outright lies from administrators who told them they were too old to enroll. Their subsequent time at Phoenix improved neither their English skills nor their general knowledge, though the district insisted they were mastering the necessary material to advance.
Weeks before the 2016 election, the young people and their lawyers argued their case in federal court. Napolitano weaves together the refugees' personal experiences with the broader trends of forced mass migration around the world, the squalid living conditions in refugee camps, and the complicated relationship between the U.S. and immigrants of all kinds. She details the reasons school districts are reluctant to enroll older refugees. Their often spotty educations and language challenges are only two of the reasons refugee students are less likely to graduate alongside their American-born peers, and school districts--already strapped for funding and resources--often push them toward adult literacy centers or alternative schools. Especially as Donald Trump's political campaigns and his incendiary comments about immigrants gathered steam, many young refugees like the plaintiffs feared they would be barred from school altogether.
Meticulously researched and compassionate, The School I Deserve is a fierce defense of refugees' right to a quality education--a key tenet of the American promise. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams
Shelf Talker: Education reporter Jo Napolitano details a landmark case in which six refugees fought for their right to attend high school.