Schooling illegals costly

Utah spends at least $54.9M to educate immigrants' children

By Deborah Bulkeley
Deseret Morning News


It cost somewhere between $54.9 million and $85.4 million in state and local funding to educate undocumented children in Utah last year, according to a new legislative audit.

Deseret Morning News graphic And the Senate Education Committee chairwoman hopes that the audit by the Utah legislative auditor general could help Utah gain some leverage in dealing with the federal government.
The costs were about 2 percent of the $3.1 billion the Utah Office of Education reports was spent on education by state and local educational agencies in fiscal year 2006.
The audit is timely given that lawmakers in Washington are discussing a bill that would revamp the nation's immigration system and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has asked for Utah lawmakers' input, said Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, who requested the audit.
"Since (Hatch) asked for input, I'm glad he's got some information," Dayton said. "We needed to know what it really costs to educate all the children in our state."
During a Legislative Audit Subcommittee meeting Tuesday, state lawmakers voted to send the audit to the interim Education Committee.
Dayton said the state is in a "lose-lose situation," saying that while the federal government should pay for the costs of "failed immigration policy," federal funds typically come with strings attached.
She added that this information would help state lawmakers evaluate their own spending on education, saying "maybe we're not charging enough income tax."
The audit estimated 10,714 to 16,667 undocumented students comprised roughly 2 percent to 3 percent of the public school system's 505,185 children.

That number was derived from the Pew Hispanic Center's estimate that there are 75,000 to 100,000 undocumented immigrants in Utah, and that the K-12 student population is estimated to be one-sixth or one-seventh of that population.

"It seems like a lot of guesswork," said Richard Gomez, the state's coordinator for educational equity.
Gomez pointed out that U.S. Supreme Court rulings require public schools to educate all children regardless of their immigration status and prohibit schools from asking a student's status.
"These kids are supposed to be treated like regular students regardless of their immigration status," he said. "Finger pointing is not appropriate."
If the state is looking at targeting enhanced federal funds, it would be better to emphasize all students eligible for those funds, such as Title I funds for low-income students, he said.
"Those are federal funds designed to help all kids whose families meet those poverty thresholds."
Auditors estimated the cost for educating undocumented high school students at $20.7 million to $32.1 million. The estimated cost for educating kindergartners through eighth-graders was $34.2 million to $53.3 million. The audit doesn't include U.S. citizen children of undocumented immigrants.
The totals were based on an estimated per-pupil expenditure of $5,140 for students in five school districts who require low-income and English Language Learner services, regardless of immigration status.
The audit's estimated per-pupil cost was $5,500 for high school students, compared to $5,000 for a student who doesn't require those services.
The cost was estimated at $4,900 for elementary school students, compared to $4,800 for students who don't need the services.
The five districts — Granite, Ogden, Provo, Salt Lake and Tooele — represent 80 percent of all "highly impacted school money," which is in part based on the number of low-income and English Language Learner students.
The estimates are lower than the Office of Education's statewide average of $5,322 per student for 2006. Auditors said their methodology was likely different from the state's and may not have taken into account all of the costs in the statewide estimate.
During the legislative session, Latino community leaders had called on the state to conduct a broader audit and suggested as a model one done in Texas, which showed undocumented immigrants produced $1.58 billion in state revenues, but that "local governments bore the burden of $1.44 billion in uncompensated health-care costs and local law enforcement costs not paid for by the state."
During Tuesday's meeting, House Minority Leader Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, repeated that call, saying, "We're really only getting half of the equation."
Afterward, Rep. Christopher Herrod, R-Provo, agreed. Herrod, who sponsored legislation in this year's session to curtail benefits to illegal immigrants, said, "We do need a comprehensive study. Without numbers we can't make sound policy."
He said the educational audit by itself was useful because "it lets people see there is a cost to illegal immigration."--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com



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