Arizona Spends $1.2 Billion To Educate Illegal Immigrants Children

East Valley Tribune

February 14, 2007    Nicole Beyer

People who do track immigration trends estimate that 125,000 to 145,000 children of illegal immigrants attend public elementary and secondary schools in Arizona.

That figure comes from the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C., which is quick to point out that about half of these students are likely U.S. citizens born in this country.
The Pew estimate nearly equals the enrollment of the Scottsdale, Mesa and Chandler unified school districts combined.
More than one in nine Arizona students is an illegal immigrant or the child of an illegal immigrant, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.
To educate these children, school finance experts in Arizona suggest taxpayers will spend as much as $1.2 billion this year alone.

Depending on whom you ask, it costs between $7,720 and $8,500 each year to educate one Arizona child in the public school system.
Those numbers include federal, state and local funding for everything from teacher salaries, transportation, school nurses, meals, tutoring, special education, administration and school construction and maintenance.
The estimate also includes money the state sets aside each year for special English instruction for students not yet fluent.
All this spending infuriates opponents of illegal immigration.
“We have no obligation whatsoever to the illegal immigrant that’s here,” said Albert Rodriguez, a Hispanic U.S. citizen from Scottsdale.

    Mr. Rodriguez is absolutely right! I hate it for the children but to have to take money out of the school budget to teach English to someone that should not be here in the first place is a crime in itself.

    Being from Tucson, I can remember when illegal's where no big deal and we all got along with each other. Today however, from what I hear and read , the people of Arizona would have no problem with taking the immigrants out back and clubbing them!

    I think that we ought to put a few of our high placed government officials out in the desert and let them watch first-hand how out of control things have become with the drug and people smuggling, murders and such. Then maybe we could actually get a real immigration policy put into effect.

    Forget about a guest worker program and amnesty for the law breakers that are here. Send them home!

   I should note that I no longer live in Arizona but that I do keep an ear to the ground when it comes to my state.

 

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