WASHINGTON – Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives argued Tuesday that migrants crossing the southern border into K-12 schools are straining resources and teacher-student ratios while having a “staggering” financial impact across the United States.
The hearing before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education took place on the same day as President Joe Biden’s confirmation hearing. supreme commandthat will stop asylum applications at the US-Mexico border if the number of daily illegal border crossings exceeds 2,500 migrants.
Republicans have made immigration a central part of their platform, and former President Donald Trump – the likely Republican nominee – has pledged to tough action against immigration if he is re-elected in November, including mass deportations.
“President Biden has failed to secure the southern border, and the influx of migrants is putting an enormous strain on cities, states and local school districts,” said U.S. Rep. Aaron Bean, chairman of the subcommittee and a Republican from Florida.
“If we assume that every [undocumented] “When an immigrant child encountered by the Border Patrol enters the school system, the cost nationwide is over $2 billion,” he said. Although Bean did not cite a source, similar statistics can be found in a February fact sheet from the Legacy Foundation.
The foundation advises states to “require school districts to collect enrollment data by immigration status,” make that data publicly available, and pass laws that would require public schools to charge tuition for “unaccompanied migrant children” and for children living in the United States with undocumented parents.
Democrats questioned the intent of the Republican-led subcommittee’s hearing, pointing out that immigration policy is not within the committee’s jurisdiction.
The subcommittee’s ranking member, Democrat Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon, said the committee should instead focus on “developing and supporting our nation’s public education system” and “defending the fundamental right of all children within our borders to a free, quality public education.”
Bonamici and other Democrats pointed to the landmark 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Plyler vs. Doewhich gives children in the United States the right to a public education regardless of their immigration status.
Overcrowded schools
Bean said Challenges for schools Problems with educating undocumented children include strains on teacher-student ratios, overcrowded classrooms and the need for modern facilities.
“The bottom line is that it is wreaking havoc on our school systems across America… Teaching is hard enough, but without the unknown factor of the enormous number of newcomers, it is an almost impossible task,” Bean said in his closing remarks.
Testimony at the hearing included Danyela Souza Egorov, vice president of the Community Education Council for New York City District 2, Amalia Chamorro, director of the Education Policy Project at UnidosUS, Sheena Rodriguez, president of the Alliance for a Safe Texas, and Mari Barke, trustee of the Orange County Board of Education in California.
Chamorro said, “Educating immigrant children is a smart economic investment.” UnidosUS is the largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.
Chamorro also said it is up to Congress to “ensure that schools have the resources they need to support all students” and “get a handle on our chronically underfunded public education system.”
But Egorov, Rodriguez and Barke said problems on the ground were increasing.
Rodriguez noted that “the dire negative impacts of the border crisis on public schools extend far beyond the quality of education and the financial burden.”
Barke said, “Our education system in Orange County, California is undeniably overwhelmed, and the governor and legislature are preparing billions of dollars in state budget cuts.”
U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx, chair of the House Expanded Committee and Republican from North Carolina, said it is hard to find English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers.
26 states are forecasting a shortage of ESL teachers for the 2023-2024 school year, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education.
“I’m from North Carolina and it’s hard enough to find teachers, let alone teachers who speak languages other than English. And we know that people come from 160 different countries, so we need not just Spanish and English, but many different languages,” Foxx said.
