Education degradation and school overcrowding - consequences of mass immigration
The huge educational impact of mass immigration includes:
- Without school-age immigrants and the children of immigrants, school enrollment would not have risen at all during the past decade.
- One in every five students has an immigrant parent. One-quarter of these children were foreign-born.
- Immigration will account for 96 percent of the future increase in the school-age population over the next 50 years.
- School enrollment increased by 14 percent between 1990 and 2000. U.S. school enrollment is at an all-time high. At 53.1 million students, current enrollment exceeds the record set in 1970 by the baby boomers.
- About 14 percent of schools exceed their capacity by six to 25 percent, and eight percent exceed it by more than 25 percent. To alleviate overcrowding, more than one-third of schools use portable classrooms, and one-fifth hold classes in temporary instructional space, such as cafeterias and gyms.
- Enrollment in grades 9-12 is projected to reach an all-time high of 15.8 million in 2005. Total enrollment will reach 55 million by 2020 and 60 million by 2030, according to the U.S. Department of Education. By 2100, the nation's schools will have to find room for 94 million students - almost double the number of school-age children the nation has now.
- The California State Department of Education estimates that 16 new classrooms will need to be built every day, seven days a week, for the next five years. That's effectively one new school per day! The number of teachers will need to be doubled within ten years, meaning that 300,000 new educators will need to be required.
- Immigration will account for 96 percent of the increase in the school-age population over the next 50 years. If mass immigration continues, the education of all children in America will continue to be undermined. Education costs will continue to escalate and quality of education will continue to decline.
- The total K-12 school expenditure for illegal immigrants costs the states $7.4 billion annually—enough to buy a computer for every junior high student nationwide.
For more information, see the full report, No Room To Learn - Immigration and School Overcrowding, Federation for American Immigration Reform.
Also see Breaking the Piggy Bank: How Illegal Immigration is Sending Schools Into the Red, Federation for American Immigration Reform.
The total K-12 school expenditure for illegal immigrants costs the states $7.4 billion annually—enough to buy a computer for every junior high student nationwide.
Plyler v. Doe - education to children of illegal aliens at taxpayer expense
Under the 1982 Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court ruling, illegal alien students are entitled to enroll in our public schools at taxpayer expense. This ruling was issued for two reasons. One, the ruling was issued in 1982, when the 1986 Amnesty program was already being discussed, and it was felt that these students would be amnestied anyway. Also these students were small enough in number that they posed no threat to the education of America's students and they were not a financial hardship on United States taxpayers.
However, written into the decision is the following: Congress can reverse the decision if these illegal alien students prove to be a financial hardship to taxpayers and if the students who are legally residing in the United States begin to have their own education negatively impacted by the presence of illegal alien students. Both of these conditions apply today, and it is time to reconsider this decision. Included in the decision are the following statements by the Justices:
Congress, "vested by the Constitution with the responsibility of protecting our borders and legislating with respect to aliens,"... bears primary responsibility for addressing the problems occasioned by the millions of illegal aliens flooding across our southern border. Similarly, it is for Congress, and not this Court, to... assess the "social costs borne by our Nation when select groups are denied the means to absorb the values and skills upon which our social order rests."
Bilingual education
In the October 13, 2002 Denver Post article Bilingual deception, Al Knight states:
The sponsors of Amendment 31 included language that makes individual teachers and administrators financially liable if they grant, "in error," the request of parents who ask to have their children enrolled in bilingual classes. This is not, as opponents suggest, a Draconian provision. The amendment is clear. Exceptions to "English immersion" are to be rare. Only three categories of students can request a waiver. Administrators, school board members and teachers can easily avoid problems by following the law.... Importantly, without some enforcement provisions, administrators, board members and teachers would be virtually invited to undermine the intent of the amendment.
America took in many races, religions and nationalities and made them one nation. Let us debate the best methods of teaching English to our children but let us be careful with our metaphors. It is a significant asset for an individual to be bilingual, but a path of conflict and tension to have a bilingual nation."
Read the complete article, It is a Blessing for an Individual to be Bilingual; It is a Curse for a Society to be Bilingual by the Hon. Dick Lamm, former Governor of Colorado.