Flood Of Migrant Children To Put Estimated $2 Billion Strain On Public School System
Last month, CBO Director Phill Swagel claimed that the influx of illegal immigrants into the United States will boost 2023-2034 GDP by "about 7 Trillion."
Yet while we wait for those unicorn farts to percolate, the Heritage Foundation estimates in a new report that the influx of migrants is costing American taxpayers billions of dollars, as most of the 470,000 unaccompanied migrant children who have entered the country since Joe Biden's 2021 inauguration have been enrolled in public schools.
In FY2023 alone, CBP encountered 145,474 accompanied and unaccompanied minors nationwide - which, based on the national average of $16,345 spent per student, would increase national education spending by more than $2 billion for one year, according to the Heritage report's fact sheet.
The report looked at instances in California, New York, Texas and Arizona where unaccompanied minors were sent to sponsors, according to data from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a government agency under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
For example, in California, 11,121 unaccompanied migrant children were sent to sponsors. If all those children enrolled in public school, at the state average spending of $16,975 per pupil, that equates to an additional cost of about $189 million for one year.
The report similarly found that in New York, 8,477 unaccompanied migrant children were sent to sponsors. The state spends $28,261 on each pupil per year, making the total additional cost to taxpayers close to $240 million for one year. -Fox News
"Parents should not also have to worry about their kids going to the back of the line in terms of school resources, teacher attention, and academic rigor due to sudden and large influxes of illegal aliens into their schools and classrooms," Heritage scholars and two of the report's authors, Lindsey Burke and Lora Ries, told Fox News Digital.
The report also highlights the misuse of school property, classroom mismanagement and limited English proficiency, which is holding other students back.
As an example, Fox News cites the case of New York City parents who were furious with city officials after Brooklyn Hight School students were forced to stay home for virtual lessons so that migrants could pile into the school gymnasium. Other reports suggest that NY Public Schools have struggled to educate some 20,000 new migrant students