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Massive Illegal Immigration is Crippling America's Schools - How many elected officials at the federal, state and local level support lower quality education, lower per capita spending on students, and larger class sizes? If these politicians are to be judged by what they do, rather than by what they say, the answer would have to be most of them. On top of all the other challenges facing the American educational system, massive illegal immigration is costing the nation’s schools $7.4 billion annually and has added 1.1 million students to the country’s overcrowded classrooms, finds Breaking the Piggy Bank, a new report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform. And those figures do not even take into account the impact of untold numbers of U.S.-born children of illegal aliens who must also be educated in school systems that, in many cases, can’t afford enough books or even to replace crumbling plaster in classrooms. Claiming to be in favor of dramatic improvements in the nation’s schools, while at the same time tolerating, or even encouraging, large-scale immigration is like claiming to support energy independence while driving a Hummer. It is simply duplicitous to be exacerbating the very problems you purport to be solving. Money alone will not cure all the ills facing American schools, but $7.4 billion could sure go a long way toward alleviating many of the resource issues that tie the hands of educators. The money currently being spent to educate more than a million K-12 illegal alien students could put a computer on the desk of every junior high school kid in America. In California, which has the greatest number of illegal aliens in its schools and, not coincidentally, a budget deficit as large as the other 49 states combined, the $2.2 billion now devoted to educating illegal immigrants could be spent hiring an additional 41,764 teachers, or adding enough new schools so that no child in the state is sitting in an overcrowded classroom. North Carolina’s expense totals nearly two hundred million dollars. An amount that substantial could furnish textbooks for every school in the state for two years. The money could also fund “School Technology” for seven years, a program that supplies a technology facilitator for every eighth grade class. Similar dramatic improvements to schools, educational resources and even the health of schoolchildren could be made in more than a dozen states that are incurring the greatest expenses to educate large numbers of illegal aliens. Because of the nature of the illegal alien workforce in this country, the parents of these 1.1 million students are likely to be working for very low wages, often off-the-books, and therefore contribute very little toward the enormous cost of educating their kids. Given the reality of finite resources, we must chose between providing education to an ever-increasing number of students, or providing more kids with a better education. How to deal with the educational needs of illegal alien children is obviously a very sensitive matter. No one is comfortable with the idea of denying education to children who are in our country. What is needed are policies that discourage illegal immigration and convince those who are already here to return home. An effective policy against mass illegal immigration will obviate the need to spend already scant resources on educating the children of illegal immigrants. These children can get an education back in their home country. The dramatic costs of educating the children of illegal aliens is yet one more example of the exorbitant price most Americans are being asked to pay for the cheap labor of a relatively small number of business interests. The $7.4 billion a year that American taxpayers are currently paying to educate illegal alien students quantifies only the monetary costs for one program. It cannot measure the lost educational opportunities suffered by millions of other students citizens and immigrants alike due to expenditure of scarce resources on a large and growing body of illegal alien students in our nation’s schools. It does not take a whole lot of political courage to profess a dedication to improving education, and it’s easy to blame a lack of resources when campaign promises are broken. Making policy choices that would begin to reduce the number of illegal aliens in our schools requires leadership and courage. Unfortunately, when it comes to deeds, there are very few elected officials in America who truly are working to improve our schools. |
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