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Aug 17, 2010
By

Lance T. Izumi

As the debate on illegal immigration rages in Washington and state capitals, it’s troubling to see both sides rely on emotional rhetoric to the detriment of facts. The impact of illegal immigration on public education is a case in point.

No one can deny that increasing numbers of children of illegal immigrants attend public schools in the United States and that U.S. taxpayers pay the costs. Those sympathetic to illegal immigration tend to remain silent about these costs, while illegal-immigration opponents often fall short on specifics. In the interest of more informed discourse, here are the numbers.

According to a study released last year by the Pew Hispanic Center, as of 2008, 11.9 million illegal immigrants lived in the United States, more than triple the 3.5 million who lived in the country in 1990.

Among the states, California has the largest number of illegal immigrants with 2.7 million, nearly double the 1.4 million in Texas. California’s illegal-immigrant population has swelled by 1.2 million since 1990, while Texas has added a million. A large proportion of illegal-immigrant households are families.

Nearly half, 47 percent, of illegal-immigrant households consist of parents with children. This proportion is more than double that of U.S.-born households, where just 21 percent are parents with children. Over the years, the number of children of illegal immigrants has increased significantly.

In 2003, there were 4.3 million children of illegal immigrants. By 2008 that number had climbed to 5.5 million, more than the entire population of Colorado. The large number of children of illegal immigrants greatly impacts public schools and education-funding costs.

The Pew study found that in 2008, “Children of unauthorized immigrants are 6.8 percent of students enrolled in kindergarten through grade 12,” an increase from the 5.4 percent in 2003. The proportion was double in California, where 13.5 percent of k-12 students in 2008 were the children of illegal immigrants.

Given these percentages, cost estimates of educating these children are staggering.

The U.S. Census Bureau just released 2008 figures showing the national average total per-pupil funding from all revenue sources was $12,028. Although estimates of the number of school-age children of illegal immigrants don’t separate those attending public vs. private schools, it’s reasonable to assume that nearly all attend public schools since most come from lower-income families. Therefore, if one multiplies $12,028 by the roughly 3.7 million students with illegal-immigrant parents, then one gets a national total funding cost of $44.5 billion.

In California, total funding per pupil from all state, federal and local revenue sources was $11,649. With roughly 923,000 students in the state with illegal-immigrant parents, these students represented a total cost of nearly $10.8 billion out of a total 2008 k-12 education budget of $72 billion. An important caveat is that these totals rely on average per-pupil funding numbers.

The actual cost of schooling these children could be higher because many education dollars are earmarked for special purposes. At the federal level, Title I funds are sent to schools to support disadvantaged children, which benefits many children of illegal immigrants. In California, the state’s Economic Impact Aid program provides tax dollars to fund English-language acquisition, which aids children of illegal immigrants. Capital costs for school construction may have increased at a higher rate because of the influx of children of illegal immigrants.

Although almost three-quarters of the children of illegal immigrants were born in the United States and are therefore citizens, had their parents not entered the U.S. illegally these children likely wouldn’t be in U.S. public schools and wouldn’t require taxpayer funding. Thus, it’s fair to say that their education cost stems from their parents’ illegal entry into this country.

The public-education establishment can’t have it both ways on this issue. The Los Angeles school board, for instance, harshly criticizes Arizona’s immigration enforcement law, but also complains about its own budget shortfalls. The numbers, however, confirm that illegal immigration imposes large costs on the public school system. Policymakers should acknowledge and wrestle with this expensive reality instead of satisfying themselves with cheap rhetoric.

Lance T. Izumi is Koret senior fellow and senior director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute.

by Matt PalumboPosted: April 6, 2020

She’s at it again!

After arguing that the coronavirus helps make the case for reparations, she’s now “informing” us that if it weren’t for illegal aliens, none of our children would be in school. It’s an ironic argument to hear from her, considering she probably also believes that our schools are under-funded.

The firebrand democratic socialist made the claims in an online video published on Thursday. “Yes, so this is a very important question. So this administration in the negotiations for this bill basically said anything for immigrants is a non-starter,” she said, referring to illegal aliens.

She went on to say that Democrats fought for benefits for illegal aliens, but Republicans would not pass the bill with those provisions included. “Yes, undocumented people pay taxes. Undocumented people pay billions of dollars in taxes every year. We send our kids to public school on the taxes that undocumented people pay,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“Undocumented people pay more money in taxes than Amazon or Facebook, or anything combined. So yes, I believe that if you pay into this system, you should benefit from this system, she added. “So there is not cash assistance for the undocumented, you have to have a Social Security number,” Ocasio-Cortez explained.

The myth that illegal aliens in any way “pay for themselves” because they pay taxes is a myth that I had debunked years ago when AOC was still employed as a bartender. The study I had relied on estimated that illegals pay $10 billion a year in taxes – though AOC recently cited a study back in February arguing that it was as high as $23.6 billion. Regardless, the differences in figures are miniscule relative to a federal government that blows through over $4 trillion a year – and illegals consume far more than they contribute when compared against either estimate.

Assuming AOC’s estimate is correct (a wild assumption, I know), $23.6 billion in taxes across roughly fifteen million illegal aliens comes out to $1,573 per illegal. To put that in perspective, the average American living in the lowest taxed state (Florida) still pays more than double as much in tax ($3,448) just to their state.

What would America look like if every worker paid as much in taxes as illegal aliens? In 2019 our labor force of 164.5 million would’ve paid $259 billion in tax revenue to the federal government – as opposed to the $3.4 trillion we actually paid. Even doubling or tripling the estimates wouldn’t make much of a dent.

Or looked at through another lens – illegal aliens don’t even pay enough in taxes to make up for losses in tax revenue they cause by displacing American workers. All jobs worked by illegals would otherwise be filled by Americans, 100% of which would be paying taxes, and likely at higher wages. One recent study found illegals impose a $30 billion annual cost in lost tax revenue, three times what they pay. In other words, illegals create a net $18 billion hole in paying their $10 billion in taxes.

And that’s just the indirect cost of illegal immigration. Compared against what they cost taxpayers, illegals are hardly net-taxpayers.

Education is the biggest cost. According to the Pew Research Center, from 1995 to 2012, the percentage of K-12 students with at least one undocumented immigrant parent rose from 3.2 to 6.9%. And according to a handful of studies, the cost to taxpayers to educate the children of illegals comes out to:

$44.5 billion annually – The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, reported in 2010.
$59 billion annually – Federal for American Immigration Reform, reported in 2016.

Both estimates were calculated by simply multiplying the number of students with illegal immigrant parents by the average cost of educating a child K-12. Clearly, the cost trend is rising.

Just as these legal children of illegal immigrants are entitled to a taxpayer-funded education, they’re also entitled to a whole host of welfare benefits, given that illegal immigrant families tend to earn incomes low enough to qualify for federal aid. While they don’t qualify for the aid themselves – their legal children do.

The emergency room loophole guarantees that illegal immigrants will benefit from free healthcare at the taxpayer’s time. Despite federal regulations preventing taxpayer funding of Medicaid to illegals, Forbes healthcare analyst Chris Conover estimates that roughly 3.9 million illegal (uninsured) immigrants receive healthcare each year, costing $12 billion a year in free care. Adding in the implicit federal subsidies that nonprofit hospitals receive, among other indirect costs brings the healthcare cost total to $18.5 billion a year to taxpayers. None of this includes the cost of the legal children of illegals, who likely qualify for Medicaid.

Illegals are taxpayers – but they aren’t even close to being net taxpayers. And they certainly aren’t keeping our public schools afloat.

What will she come up with next? Stay tuned for tomorrow.