Thread: OR: Illegal immigrants burden Portland-area schools

Illegal immigrants burden Portland-area schools
By Guest Opinion
October 03, 2009, 5:01PM

By Richard F. LaMountain


In 1982, in its Plyler v. Doe ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court obligated America's public elementary and secondary schools to educate children who are illegal immigrants. Since then, Americans have doled out untold billions to this end.

With a new school year recently begun, let's look at what Plyler costs taxpayers in one Portland-area school district: No. 48 in Beaverton. As children from Latin America comprise the great majority of students here illegally, we'll start by examining some national statistics regarding Hispanics and work our way down to the local level.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, some 34 percent of the more than 45 million Hispanics residing in America are under 18. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that Mexico and its southern neighbors contribute four-fifths of our illegal immigrants (commonly believed to number 12 million to 20 million); the Federation for American Immigration Reform, that some 15 percent of illegal immigrants are school-aged children. However sensitive the fact may be, what all this means is that between 9.4 percent and 15.6 percent of Hispanic children in America are here illegally.

From these figures, how many Hispanic illegal-immigrant students can we estimate are enrolled in the Beaverton School District?

In the most-recently completed (2008-09) school year, according to the district's Website, student enrollment was 37,552; 7,702 of the students were Hispanic. Between 724 and 1,202 of those Hispanic students -- 9.4 percent to 15.6 percent of their total number -- likely were here illegally.

What did they cost taxpayers?

According to the district, in 2008-09 Beaverton schools' base per-student expenditure was some $8,400 (the general-fund operating budget of $315.6 million divided by student enrollment of 37,552). Each English-language learner -- which, by very conservative estimate, likely included half, or between 362 and 601, of the district's Hispanic illegal-immigrant students -- cost taxpayers another $3,000.

More, each child participating in the free- and reduced-lunch program got a federal subsidy of some $260. Washington County's Hispanic children, according to the county's Commission on Children and Families, are four times more likely to live in poverty than its white children; possibly three-quarters of the district's Hispanic illegal-immigrant students, then, received taxpayer-subsidized lunches.

So the total estimated cost of Beaverton School District's Hispanic illegal-immigrant students in the 2008-09 school year: between $7.3 million and $12.1 million. Add the estimated one-fifth of illegal-immigrant students who are other than Hispanic, and taxpayers likely spent between $9.1 million and $15.2 million educating and feeding all the district's illegal-immigrant students -- an amount equal to 2.8 percent to 4.8 percent of the general-fund operating budget.

Now, to counter recession-induced budget shortfalls, in the past year Portland-area schools have reduced teaching staffs, increased classroom sizes, and slashed extracurricular activities. It must be asked: If not for illegal-immigrant students, how many new teachers could have been hired and existing ones retained? How much more attention could teachers devote to their other students? How many arts and athletic programs could be saved or expanded?

The bottom line is this: Americans do not owe educations to illegal immigrants. Our first, foremost, and most sacred responsibility is to our own children. And we beggar our children's education -- and future -- when we spend scarce tax dollars on those who are in our nation illegally.

Portland-area school boards should lobby Oregon's Congressional delegation to introduce legislation to overturn Plyler, and to allow America's school districts to require proof of U.S. citizenship or legal U.S. residence from their students.

Richard F. LaMountain is a former assistant editor of Conservative Digest magazine. He lives in Cedar Mill.

www.oregonlive.com

Illegal immigrants burden Portland-area schools

Illegal invaders are a burden on every school district they infiltrate! We have school districts here in California that are comprised almost entirely of illegal invaders and their offspring! I'm certain the numbers would be staggering if they were even to see the light of day!

This is most definitly a law that needs to be over turned and the American people should demand it.....

it is destroying the education of American children, it is time for parents to get involved and take their schools back, starting with educating illegal aliens to cleaning house of the left wing radicals who are destroying our schools.

it is destroying the education of American children, it is time for parents to get involved and take their schools back

So true, Glenn Beck has the 9/12 moms all fired up and ready to take charge of their childrens destiny and that is a very good thing!

Originally Posted by April

it is destroying the education of American children, it is time for parents to get involved and take their schools back

So true, Glenn Beck has the 9/12 moms all fired up and ready to take charge of their childrens destiny and that is a very good thing!

yes I seen that and thought go get em moms.....I hope they go after the schools with a vengence!!

Originally Posted by SOSADFORUS

Originally Posted by April

it is destroying the education of American children, it is time for parents to get involved and take their schools back

So true, Glenn Beck has the 9/12 moms all fired up and ready to take charge of their childrens destiny and that is a very good thing!

yes I seen that and thought go get em moms.....I hope they go after the schools with a vengence!!

They looked like they mean business to me....they are awake and ready to ROCK!!!