Originally published March 17 2015
American education heading for bankruptcy due to influx of illegal immigrants
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) A massive influx of illegal alien children last summer is causing economic problems for some local school districts that were already suffering from scarce funding.
A new report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR -- a think tank that favors stronger immigration laws and increased border security -- noted that schools in the nation's capital were going to be particularly hard hit.
The report, titled, "Cost in Translation," notes:
The high cost of educating K-12 public school students who are not proficient in English is well documented. So too, is the fact that most Limited English Proficient (LEP) students are children of illegal alien parents. The recent "surge" of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) and families with young children who poured across our borders in the spring and summer of 2014 exacerbated an already formidable and costly task for public school educators and administrators in many localities across the United States.
As further reported by the Washington Examiner, quoting the FAIR report, since the 2005-2006 school year, the number of students enrolled in English proficiency courses has grown by some 70 percent across Washington, D.C.-area school districts. Furthermore, FAIR notes, the cost of those classes equals about one-quarter of the annual budgets in each of the seven districts examined, a figure that is swelling as the number of new students who either are in the country illegally or are children of illegal aliens grows.
As the illegal alien children population grows, so do the costs to educate them
Citing data from the Department of Health and Human Services, the FAIR report said that more than 55,000 UACs had been released to relatives or sponsor throughout the U.S. between October 2013 and November 2014.
More than 5,100 of those relocated to the Washington, D.C., metro area, "where there is a sizeable illegal alien population of approximately 438,000 with an additional approximately 100,000 U.S.-born children of illegal aliens," the report's introduction states.
"The illegal alien population in the D.C. metro area has grown steadily along with the overall foreign-born population. So, too, has the number of students in area public schools that are not proficient in English," it adds.
Meanwhile, "education programs are being cut," said the report's author, Eric Ruark. "We're not saying that [English proficiency classes] are the cause, but it's certainly taking money away from them."
The FAIR report notes further that the additional costs are not small:
The money spent on LEP education in the D.C. area is substantial. Most of that funding comes from local sources, usually from property taxes, with most of the rest coming out of state budgets. The federal government, which is primarily responsible for the influx of immigrant and children of immigrant into local school systems, contributes only a negligible amount of funding to offset the cost of LEP education.
Other school districts, many of which are supported locally via property taxes and other levies, are suffering additional expenses as well.
Local school districts - and taxpayers - have no choice
The Jefferson Parish (Louisiana) School system, according to the state's department of education, is one such district. The department, in responding to an inquiry last fall from U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, said Jefferson Parish would be forced to hire dozens more staff to teach English to more than 500 additional illegal alien children relocated to the district by the federal government.
"It's a very significant cost to the Louisiana taxpayer, and that's just education," Vitter said in an interview with The Washington Free Beacon. "We have plenty of other categories that are impacted, like health care, emergency room and other health care, and other benefits. That's just public education."
"American taxpayers are being forced to pay the huge cost of providing schooling to every illegal immigrant under 18 (and many 18+) who is dropped inside the U.S.," a GOP aide with knowledge of the situation told National Review Online last summer. "This is just a tiny slice of the bill taxpayers are being asked to absorb that we're supposedly forbidden from discussing in polite company."
Federal law requires state school districts to provide an education to all children, including those in the country illegally -- a fact of which the U.S. Department of Education reminded local districts in a "Dear Colleague" letter sent jointly with the Justice Department's civil rights division[PDF] in May 2014.
Sources:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com
http://www.fairus.org
http://freebeacon.com
http://www.justice.gov[PDF]
http://www.nationalreview.com
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