The Effects of Illegal Immigration on California's K-12 Schools
Dear John,
The Biden administration succumbed to political reality this week and announced an executive order to rein in the number of asylum claims by illegal immigrants processed at the border. With the election just five months away, Biden’s failures at the border have become a major liability.
The sheer magnitude of the number of illegal immigrants and unaccompanied minors coming across the U.S. southern border on a daily basis is jaw-dropping. In December, The New York Times reports there were around 10,000 illegal crossings each day, while recently the figure has dropped to about 3,000 daily.
Crossings in San Diego have surged, with more than 37,000 arrests in April, making it the top region for migrant arrivals along the southern border for the first time since 1997.
Another shift? 80 percent of the 185,469 apprehensions in the 60-mile San Diego sector between Oct. 1 and March 31 were “people from China, Columbia, Ecuador, Brazil, Turkey, India and a vast array of other faraway places,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
How does the massive influx of illegal immigrants into California affect our K-12 schools?
Under California law, illegal immigrant children between the ages of 6-18 are mandated to attend school. Last year, California saw the arrival of over 11,000 unaccompanied minors who — by law — must be enrolled in public schools by their sponsors. Currently, over half of the 944 school districts in California (540) are providing services to migrant students.
Earlier this week, the U.S. House Education Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education held a hearing on "The Consequences of Biden's Border Chaos for K-12 Schools." Mari Barke, Director of CPC’s California Local Elected Officials, and a trustee on the Orange County Board of Education, testified before the Subcommittee on Tuesday.
Barke's written testimony on the impact of illegal immigration on California’s K-12 schools follows. You can also watch her testimony here and the full hearing here.
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Testimony of Mari Barke
Trustee, Orange County Board of Education
Director, California Local Elected Officials
Before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce
Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education
June 4, 2024
Dear Chair Bean, Ranking Member Bonamici, and Members of the Subcommittee,
Thank you for the opportunity to address you today on this important matter. As a member of the Orange County Board of Education in Southern California, and Director of California Local Elected Officials for the California Policy Center, an educational nonprofit, I have seen firsthand the impact of illegal immigration on our K-12 education system, and the challenges that it poses to our schools, teachers, and most importantly, students and their families. Today, I’d like to share with you some of the issues that we see every day in California.
Our educational systems in Orange County and California are undeniably strained and the Governor and legislature are preparing to cut billions of dollars from the state budget. Illegal immigration only exacerbates how many parents feel about our school districts. Districts with high numbers of non-English speaking students often require additional resources to provide English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. While there is some additional funding for non-English speaking students, the additional funding does not adequately cover the associated costs.
Though these cost pressures are mitigated by taxpayers through bonds, taxes and other fundraising mechanisms in a state with an already high cost-of-living, it is our citizen students who miss out on a high-quality public education as funds are shifted away from in-classroom learning. In addition, the extra funding received by districts with higher immigrant populations/more English language learners deprives other districts of funding for their most basic programs.
Staffing within the districts becomes difficult with illegal immigration. There is a heightened need for more teacher training and professional development. Districts must often hire additional translators and paraprofessionals to deal with strains on teachers. Immigrant students are put in classrooms with other students but require additional tools such as translation devices to receive content in their home language.
There are also additional costs for staff to provide testing to get a baseline on students’ English language performance, and more funding is necessary to test these students periodically to determine when they are ready to be reclassified. To become Level 1 fluent takes about seven years of schooling depending on other factors such as the age of the student. Younger students typically adapt easier and learn the language more quickly, but it is still a long and expensive process.
In California, there is also standardized testing to assess progress for English learners and migrant students. The 2022-23 statewide proficiency scores reveal more than 75 percent of migrant students fail to meet state English language standards and more than 85 percent do not meet grade-level math standards. Obviously, this impacts the pace and manner in which teachers can teach class material to the class as a whole. There are also frequent attendance issues for these students often due to lack of dependable transportation, which makes assimilation and keeping up with the class curriculum even more difficult.
For schools who do not already have ready access to Title 1 resources, no amount of additional technology or one-on-one aides are effective or affordable.
... Keep reading Mari Barke's testimony here.
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Watch CLEO Director Mari Barke's testimony before the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education
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Radio Free California Special Episode: The Year of Living Dangerously Stupid
CPC's Lance Christensen looks back at school closures during Covid in the light of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s congressional testimony this week. In the second segment, CPC president Will Swaim investigates UC Irvine’s capitulation to campus Hamas supporters in the sudden departure of lecturer Rabbi Daniel Levine. Listen now.
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Radio Free California Episode #334: Unstrange Bedfellowness
On this week's podcast with CPC president Will Swaim and CPC board member David Bahnsen: Meet the clean-energy project that requires the destruction of thousands of Joshua trees. San Diego-based Rubio’s workers get pink-slipped following the state-imposed wage hike that was supposed to help them. University of California teaching assistants organized by UAW strike for Hamas. Listen now.
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WATCH: CPC attorney Julie Hamill, a Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District Trustee, blasts the district's use of closed session to avoid public discussion of an anti-Semitic incident.
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