Impacts of Immigration in Forsyth County Schools

Residents of Forsyth County like to share this fact: Forsyth has one of the best school systems in the state of Georgia. We top the state in test scores, graduation rates, per student expenditure, and ours is the only district in Georgia with an 8-year 5-star financial rating. ​

This fact has made our county notable to many people wanting to raise their families here, including the immigrant community. Immigrants are moving to Forsyth in large numbers because of the high quality schools, wanting to raise their children in a family-friendly, education-focused community like any American. 

According to a recent US Census, Forsyth has the fastest growing Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community in Metro Atlanta, having tripled the population of Asian residents in the last 10 years. As a result, Forsyth County Schools (FCS) are now a minority-majority school system. And with this, FCS has seen many positive changes.

As noted in this AJC article, Indian families typically have high expectations in education and technology offerings in local schools. Not surprisingly Forsyth has seen an uptick of AP and IB classes and more STEM-focused learning. 

Long time teacher and Democratic BOE candidate for District 3 Debbie Stair agrees. As a 27- year teacher in Forsyth schools, Ms. Stair has seen the impact of immigration on the community – to our benefit. She says the schools have risen up to meet the standard requested by  parents. “When we first started getting many AAPI students in our classes, we had a lot of training and our principal was sensitive to how parents wanted the best for their kids. In their home countries they had to compete to get into high school and learning this gave us teachers an understanding that even in the 1st grade there was a push for excellence.”

Excellence comes in many forms and in the 1st grade it came in the form of more transparency. Ms. Stair explained how teachers started sending home more detailed information of what was being done in the classroom and gave suggestions of what to do at home or over the summer. This type of communication not only satisfied immigrant families but served those who have lived in the community ongoing too as they could see how the evolution of the classroom population brought new benefits and a standard of excellence for all students.

Another impact of immigration in our schools is that Ms. Stair saw how everyone really enjoyed the new festivals that the schools hosted, as well as the new food offerings in the cafeteria. For example, the lunch room manager met with parents to discuss recipes and ways to develop new meals to serve throughout the school year. 

“Broadly speaking, immigration is a positive for our schools.” Candidate Stair explains. “It helped bring the schools up to the level they are now.” She finds our diverse schools to be beneficial to all students, and to hear people talking about how they don’t want DEI, she feels that hampers learning and “does not represent who we are.”

Having a growing immigrant community does mean having a more diverse approach to teaching, including a need to incorporate more ESOL funding for teachers. ESOL (English as a Second Language) is defined by the State of Georgia as “an educational support program to assist English Learners (ELs) overcome language barriers and participate in schools’ educational programs.”  There are now 69 languages represented in our schools, and the 2024/2025 FCS Budget shows the impact of the growth. The school system will be adding 2.5 full time ESOL teachers to handle the influx of students. 

Data shows the immigrant community has made Forsyth a better place to prosper and is here to stay, but the Republican members on the Board of Education don’t seem to be facing this reality. In the past couple of years we’ve seen Republican efforts to ban books, shut down DEI and SEL programs at schools, and whitewash American history.  In doing so, they are denying children the chance to learn about one another from very different perspectives. This harms all children, as those graduating from Forsyth County Schools are aiming for top-notch college programs and jobs where people from all over the world interact. 

American tradition is interwoven with immigration and always will be. Candidate for BOE Debbie Stair has seen first-hand how embracing new immigration has helped our community in education, and it seems Forsyth County Schools has too, as seen through its budgetary plans.  Republicans running on a platform that denies this broader access to learning will only narrow opportunities for all of us, especially our children.