Written by: Theodore Abara, Visual by: CJ Limjap
The US has historically been open to accepting immigrants. In the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the number of Europeans immigrants entering the US was significant. The US was seen as a place with an abundance of work and educational opportunities. As time progressed, restrictions that limited immigration from Europe led to a new influx of immigrants from Mexico and Central America, many of whom entered illegally. Every year since 2004, approximately one million legal immigrants have earned permanent resident status in the United States.
The ruling in Plyler v. Doe issued by the Supreme Court in 1982 made it unconstitutional to deny students based on their immigration status. This decision led to a significant increase in the number of illegal immigrant children entering in order to gain access to an American education. US public school districts are heavily burdened by the responsibility of educating these millions of immigrant children. In 2018, 45 million immigrants lived in the US, which was almost 14% of the population. The carrying capacity of schools all over the country is extremely overloaded. Despite representing a minority of the school population, the funds spent on the education of immigrant children is actually greater than what is spent on educating Americans. The primary reason for this is that immigrant students often speak limited to no English. A tremendous amount of resources is spent in developing ESL (English as a Second Language) curriculums, which costs the country $60 billion each year.
These statistics suggest it would be beneficial for the US to reform immigration policies.
Summary: This article aims to examine the history of migration to the US and identify how policies have led to an increase in immigration, which has negatively impacted the education system.
Works Cited:
Daly, Christopher J. “The Impact of Immigrant Children on America's Public Schools.” Negative Population Growth, npg.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Impact-of-Immigrant-Children-schools-FP.pdf.
Lou Di Leonardo. “Mass Immigration Also Burdens Our Public Schools.” Washington Examiner, 30 Aug. 2019, www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/mass-immigration-also-burdens-our-public-schools.
“The Elephant in the Classroom: Mass Immigration's Impact on Public Education: Federation for American Immigration Reform.” Leading Fight to Stop Illegal Immigration,
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