Biden Border Crisis Burdens U.S. Education System — Taxpayers Foot the Bill; The Elephant in the Classroom: Mass Immigration Imposing Colossal Cost and Challenges on Public Education, and related stories

By admin On Oct 5, 2022

Biden Border Crisis Burdens U.S. Education System — Taxpayers Foot the Bill:

A new report found that the Biden administration’s immigration policies are costing the American education system tens of billions of taxpayer dollars every year.

The report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is titled “The Elephant in the Classroom: Mass Immigration Imposing Colossal Cost and Challenges on Public Education.”

The report contains a number of concerning findings. According to FAIR, one in ten students is considered “Limited English Proficient,” which has resulted in an annual expenditure of $78 billion to provide remedial English instruction.

Furthermore, the surge of illegal immigration during the Biden administration means that the need for remedial English instruction is “outpacing the nation’s education system’s ability to hire enough teachers qualified to meet the needs of LEP kids.”

Perhaps even more concerning, the $78 billion price tag only takes into account enrollment figures from 2020 due to a “two year delay in releasing official enrollment and detailed cost data in most states and school districts.” This means that the cost of the Biden border crisis on the American education system has not yet been fully realized.

This figure is up $18.8 billion since 2016. Additionally, the price tag does not include the cost of free or subsidized meals.

The report found that as of 2020, “5.1 million students in American public schools, roughly 10 percent of all K-12 enrollment, were classified as limited English proficient.” —>READ MORE HERE

The Elephant in the Classroom: Mass Immigration Imposing Colossal Cost and Challenges on Public Education:

Public school districts across the United States continue to suffer under a massive unfunded mandate imposed by the federal government: the requirement to educate millions of illegal aliens, the school-age children of illegal aliens, and unassimilated/unvetted refugees, all at taxpayer expense. Further adding to this burden are millions of students from legal immigrant families admitted into this country despite being unable to fluently speak English. FAIR estimates that it currently costs public schools just over $78 billion to serve this burgeoning population based on data from 2020. The struggle to fund programs for students with limited English proficiency (LEP) represents a major drain on school budgets as they redirect resources away from American citizens to support English learner programs for this cohort.

Currently, 5.1 million students – or more than 10 percent of all students in American public schools — are designated as LEP. Despite this, only 370,000 of teachers hold the proper certifications to adequately educate them, according to the U.S. Department of Education. It is estimated that at least 76,000 additional teachers are needed to properly educate this cohort over the next 5 years. Currently, more than 100,000 instructors are acting as LEP teachers despite lacking the proper certification.1

The lack of necessary teachers and infrastructure to educate this population has hindered the performance of LEP and non-LEP students alike and has severely stunted the ability of the children of new immigrants to assimilate into American culture. As a result, the children and grandchildren of immigrants in America today are finding far less educational and economic success than they did in the past.2

Since the most recent cumulative data on this subject comes from 2020, it’s important to keep in mind that, unless otherwise noted, the figures detailed within this report do not take into account the massive surge of legal and illegal immigration into the United States since President Biden took office.