Morrent Thang could not have imagined a decade ago that he would be studying neurosciences and chemistry in Indianapolis.

Back then he was living in fear of a military dictatorship in war-torn Burma, a place where education is far from a priority.

He went to his school, along with his sister. But, when she refused to abandon her Christian beliefs and convert to Buddhism, the military began randomly checking in on the Thang family.

"They can just come into your house and take whatever they want, kind of thing,” he said. "If you stand up for yourself they will target you, they will just rob you.”

Soon — like some 3.5 million Burmese over the past 50 years — Thang’s family decided to leave. 

His father sold all the family’s possessions, and they left in secret in the middle of the night, and once across the Thai border, sought refugee status, eventually landing in Indianapolis and Perry Township Schools.

Thang was just 14 years old.

But, he wasn't alone.

Some 8,000 Burmese have moved to Indianapolis. Today, about one in six students walking the halls of Perry Township schools is Burmese.

In 2005 there were fewer than 40 refugees in Perry Township, with a smaller amount enrolled in school. By 2014 – nearly 10 years later – there were more than 1,900 refugees.

According to Indiana Department of Education, there are 24,436 Asian students enrolled in Indiana schools. Perry Township – which is located in Indianapolis and has the state’s second largest Burmese population and enrolls 3,238 Asian students, almost an eighth of the state’s Asian population.

A War-Torn Country

Burma, now called Myanmar, has been in political turmoil and civil war since earning independence in 1948. A repressive military dictatorship displaced more than 3.5 million Burmese in the past 50 years.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees currently live in camps in Thailand and Malaysia – not the best place for a formal education.

“[Chin] is a very small state, very underdeveloped. Basically, my mom went to third grade and then quit school,” said Thang. 

Thang attended school in Burma until about the seventh grade.

“Some people don’t go to school. They don’t mind because it didn’t help them, unless they wanted to go to big towns or do something with your life. College and even high school just didn’t really matter.”

Thang and his family moved to the U.S. when he was 14 after facing military pressure in the Burmese state of Chin.

According to the Burmese American Community Institute, there were more than 146,000 Burmese resettled in the United States in 2015 – nearly 20,000 in Indiana.

More Burmese resettled in the U.S. than any other group in fiscal year 2015 with more than 18,000 admitted into the country according to data from the Migration Policy Institute. 

The U.S. is one of approximately 11 countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Finland, accepting Burmese refugees. The U.S. has historically accepted more Burmese refugees into the country than all other countries combined.

“More of excitation,” said Thang about his thoughts on coming to America. “But when we got here it was very overwhelming, like schools and being able to communicate.”

Learning English

Thang moved to Indiana and enrolled in Perry Township Schools about seven years ago with no English experience.

“In Malaysia, my dad gave me incentives on learning [English] vocab. Every day I would learn 10 vocab and what not,” he said. “When I got here it was kind of easier for me I think than other Burmese students, because I kinda had knowledge of vocabs but I didn’t know how to form sentences.”

Most refugee students come in with little to no knowledge of the English language.

The Indiana Department of Education recorded 2,615 Asian students enrolled in Perry Township schools, with a large majority being Burmese. Almost 20 percent of all Indiana students learning to speak English attend Perry Township Schools.

“The faculty, of course, entered [the situation with] trepidation because the influx of students learning English certainly does challenge the teacher and presents a whole new set of problems,” said Sam Hanley, English department chair and yearbook advisor at Southport High School.  “I think our principal at the time and the faculty really embraced it with a variety of programs.”

Many Burmese students enrolled in Perry Township Schools cannot speak English and have experienced little or no formal education.  English language learners – students learning English in addition to their native language – make up 21.6 percent of the school district’s population.

“We get kids that are all different levels,” said Mike Klopfenstein, newspaper advisor for Southport High School. “If they are fresh in from Southeast Asia, their English skills are very low. What often happens however, is they settle somewhere else in the U.S. then move here. If they resettle, they come in at a fairly high English level.”

In 2015, Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz made additional funding for English Leaners a fundamental part of her legislative agenda.

“Since day one, my priority has been to provide every student in Indiana with the support and resources they need to receive an education of the highest quality,” said Ritz.  “For too long, English learners did not receive the funding or resources needed to meet their needs. That is why I asked the General Assembly to double the funding to these students during the last legislative session, which they did.”

The state increased funding for ELL students to approximately $10 million annually through the Non-English Speaker Program. With more than 60,000 English learners in Indiana, the money is divided roughly to $167 per child a year.

Additionally, Indiana receives about $8 million in Title III federal funding to support these students – an additional $133 for each English learner annually.

With state and federal funding, Hoosier school districts receive about $300 per child each year.

In all, Perry Township Schools received more than $270,000 in state and federal funding for ELL students and education programming according to the IDOE for the 2014-15 school year, increasing from $228,000 from 2013-14.

The funding aligns with the dramatic spike in Indiana’s refugee population as the school district only received $7,600 during the 2003-04 school year when there were fewer than 40 refugees living in the area.

Schools often use the funding for books, translators and after school programs. Some school corporations have been working towards offering night school for parents of EL students, who often don’t speak English either.

The recent funding increase allows students to receive more help. But 10 years ago - when a large number of Burmese were arriving - this was not the case, according to Evan Bever, associate pastor at the First Baptist Church of Indianapolis.

“At that point there were not many other English as a second language classes offered in this immediate area,” Bever said. “They connected with the First Baptist Church because many were already Baptist.”

Many of the Chin people – an ethnic group within Burma – found help within the church. Bever’s said most pamphlets and flyers produced by the congregation are in Karen – a common dialect spoken among refugees.

“When large numbers started arriving as refugees, the First Baptist Church of Indianapolis was really involved in day-to-day assistance and helping people get acclimated,” Bever said. “There were a lot of people teaching new refugees how to drive.”

Today, many more programs offered are in areas with a large Burmese population. In the Indianapolis area, the Burmese Community Center for Education offers several education classes on multiple topics, not just English. The BCCE focuses on environmental education and ecological preservation, community and public health, cultural and ethnic diversity, and civic education and citizenship. The group provides academic tutoring and overall community outreach to help assess and meet the needs of the diverse community.  

Paige Clark is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.