Study: Illegal immigrant education costs states millions

Missouri spends about $21.4 million a year and Illinois spends $484 million a year to educate school-aged illegal immigrants, according to a study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

Nationally, taxpayers pay $7.4 billion a year to educate 1.1 million school-aged illegal immigrants, FAIR said. Costs were figured using government estimates of the illegal alien population and each state's per-pupil expenditure. Costs do not include supplemental services such as English as a Second Language, bilingual education or limited English proficiency programs.

Illinois ranked No. 5 among all U.S. states for the amount spent on illegal immigrant education, FAIR said. The money spent in Illinois is enough to supply healthcare to every person under the poverty line for two years or to supply financial aid to the nearly 34,000 college students denied it, and 400,000 additional applicants, FAIR said.

California spends nearly $2.2 billion a year and Texas spends more than $1 billion educating the children, according to the study.

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