Thread: Utah Requests Refund for Education of Undocumented Children

By Cheryl Madsen - 13 Aug 2007

In 1977, the Tyler Independent School District in Texas tried to increase its financial support for the education of undocumented children.

They turned to the illegal immigrants.

In order for their children to participate in public education, the parents had to pay $1,000 per child, per year.

The school board and superintendent were sued, and on June 15, 1982, the Supreme Court ruled that the Texas law was unconstitutional, as it violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

Similarly, Utah legislators are seeking income to support their efforts in educating undocumented students. Unlike the Texas school district, Utah legislators are asking the federal government to help.

Legislators are holding the federal government personally liable because of "their failed immigration policy," as stated in a letter the Education Interim Committee voted to send the federal government. They estimate the education costs to be between $54.9 million and $85.4 million, excluding federal funding.

State Sen. Ross Romero, D-Salt Lake City, voted against the motion.

"Asking the federal government to pay is futile and will not be well received," Romero said.

Instead, Romero suggested the legislature should encourage the government to resolve the current issues before them while still keeping the immigration policy on their agendas.

In contrast, Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Utah, emphasized the importance to the state of Utah that the federal government reviews the audit.

"States are paying financially and otherwise for failed immigration policy," Dayton said. "We should tell them so."

Legislators performed an audit of Utah education, estimating the number of undocumented children receiving public education to be between 10,714 and 16,667 during the 2006-2007 school year, according to the audit.

A letter addressed to Utah's congressional delegation and the U.S. departments of Immigration and Education, requesting a reimbursement, will accompany the audit, titled, "A Review of the Public Education Costs of Undocumented Children."

The audit focused on five school districts: Granite, Ogden, Provo, Salt Lake and Tooele.

According to the audit, these districts were chosen because they encompassed 80 percent of all the schools that received highly impacted school money during the 2006 fiscal year. Highly impacted school money is divided among schools with great need of English language-learner programs, and low-income assistance.

When the costs of educating undocumented children were estimated, ELL and low-income assistance were figured in the total, according to the audit.

Auditor General John M. Schaff wrote a letter in response to the audit.

Schaff said: "The Utah State Office of Education is dedicated to helping all children succeed and hopes this audit may be helpful in acquiring additional funding for English Language Learners in Utah."

However, legislators are using the audit to explain how much the state is forking out to pay the costs of educating illegal children.

http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/65074

Let the Mexican billionaire, now the richest dude in the world, pay for the illegals education. But noooo, this would make too much sense. So they'll just continue to soak the angry middle class U.S. citizen taxpayers.

How much of our hard earned dollars do you think Mr. Carlos Slim got?

From me and you ----