Andler said the movement is not a response toanti-immigrant sentiment in Cambridge.
"An elected School Committee feels accountableto the people who voted them in--it's not that theSchool Committee is anti-immigrant, it's just thatit doesn't feel the pressure of the immigrantweight in this community," she said.
Smith said voting citizens currently gain a lotfrom the presence of immigrants in the communitywithout giving them anything in return.
She referred to the example of the Amigosprogram at Cambridge's Maynard School, whereEnglish and Spanish-speaking elementary schoolstudents take part in a bilingual program in whichclasses are conducted in English one week andSpanish the next.
"The presence of the Spanish-speaking childrenbenefits the Anglo students because they learnSpanish so much more easily," she said, "and yetthe Anglo parents get a voice in shaping theschools while immigrant parents don't."
Smith also said she thinks giving immigrantparents the right to vote for the School Committeewould increase their participation in the schoolsin other areas.
"Even if the same people were [re]elected theywould have a lot more participation from immigrantparents in the schools and in their children'seducation because they'd feel they had somepower," she said. "What incentive is there go to aschool committee meeting if you really are allowedno voice?"
Thus far the coalition has tried to galvanizethe immigrant community in support of the movementthrough discussions with parent advisory councils,high school students, immigrant groups andactivists, Andler said.
She said the group's next goal is to presentits proposal to the Cambridge School Committee inFebruary after having gathered at least 2000endorsements by Cambridge residents.
If the School Committee passes the proposal,the coalition will bring it to the City Council inMay. Their goal, Andler said, would be to havecollected another 2000 signatures by then.
In the case that the City Council passes theproposal, the coalition will have to ask a memberof the Massachusetts legislature to introduce abill granting a home rule petition to Cambridge,giving the city the right to allow non-citizens tovote.
Andler said she feels confident that at leastone of Cambridge's representatives would endorsethe proposal and introduce the bill, but she saidit's difficult to know whether the home rulepetition will pass in the legislature.
Jarret T. Barrios '90, whose term as the 28thMiddlesex district representative to theMassachusetts legislature begins in January, saidhe has already expressed his interest in learningmore about the movement.
"It's very important to involve immigrantparents in their children's schools--what betterway of beginning their involvement than by givingthem the right to elect their School Committeemembers," he said