The estimated 20 percent of school-age children in Cambridge with immigrant parents enter school with an unjust disadvantage.

"The reason this is important is reflected in the faces of the children in our public schools," he says. "There is no more effective way to increase performance. We simply have no time to waste."

The Red Tape

The lengthy wait to become a citizen makes the voting rights campaign all the more necessary, Smith says.

To prepare for last week's city council meeting, the campaign leaders prepared scenarios following eight immigrants from entry to citizenship. The routes to naturalization ranged from five to 25 years, for a Liberian refugee on a student visa.

Cambridge resident Mario Davila, for instance, immigrated from El Salvador 17 years ago. He says that a backlog of paperwork has left him waiting 15 years for citizenship. All the while, he says he has waited for the chance to vote in school committee elections.

"I speak as a parent who is just concerned about what goes on," he says.

Opponents caution that immigrants might be discouraged from pursuing citizenship once they had the right to vote in a local election.