When it comes to educating immigrant children, the benefits outweigh the costs 

They are the “newcomers” — newly arrived immigrant students, many starting schools this month. And with immigration, crime and border issues at the top of the ballot, they are a big deal this election season.  

The costs to educate these newcomers, and our responsibility to do so, has resurfaced as a political concern. In the past we argued over how a child should be educated: at-home schooling, public charters, private schools, etc. But there was a common understanding that every child should have access to a “classroom,” regardless of their immigration status.  

Now that is up for debate. 

The basic right of young people to access education, regardless of immigration status, was codified by the Supreme Court in 1982, in Plyler v. Doe. In a 5-4 vote, the decision held “that any resources which might be saved from excluding undocumented children from public school would be far outweighed by the societal harms from denying a young person an education.” 

But today, some conservative local, state and policy leaders are pointing to rising levels of immigration — some legal, some not. It’s creating new tensions, given that the share of students in public schools from immigrant households has grown almost fourfold, from 7 percent in 1980 to 23 percent in 2021. 

One conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, is leading the charge to upend the system, because of what they argue are unfair costs to the more than 130,000 K-12 public schools in the U.S. — many still facing post-COVID economic challenges. 

According to the World Population Review, “in the United States, K-12 schools spend about $612.7 billion annually. This is about $12,612 per pupil” (although the numbers change depending on the source of school funding). “Federal, state, and local governments spend about $720.9 billion annually or $14,840 per pupil.”  

Trying to extrapolate from public school data and put an exact price tag on each newcomer — especially those without authorization — is difficult, as children arrive at different times of the year and with different needs, such as English learning specialists (ESLs) or emotional counselors.   

As one expert, Julie Sugarman of the Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, told Congress recently, “If you already have a lot of teachers who are well-trained to serve these kids, then you might need just a minimal number of paraprofessionals or ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers to serve newcomers. … [Schools] can absorb two or three kids with a minimal amount of additional actual cost if they don’t have to actually hire a new teacher.”  

But extra teachers equal extra dollars — and those can quickly add up. 

In testimony before Congress, one expert used data from FAIR — a highly partisan group — and said the costs are high for unauthorized kids because English is not their first language, and they need Limited English Proficiency (LEP) assistance. 

Tennessee says its taxpayers spent $571 million on the education of illegal immigrants last year. Texas says it cost $7 billion a year to educate “illegal aliens.” 

Many state and local leaders want to consider charging tuition for newcomers or find ways to keep them out of school, coming up with their plans of action. 

Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott, among others, wants the 1982 Supreme Court ruling reversed because of the high costs of educating immigrant children. His state has repeatedly bused immigrants to Chicago, where “about 5,600 newcomers were staying at Chicago’s 17 shelters” last week, according to the Washington Post. 

Florida is also debating a crackdown on the presence of illegal immigrants in schools. And in Oklahoma, lawmakers are requiring that school districts report the number of undocumented students in their schools — meaning that teachers and school administrators must check the legal status of students. 

Many teachers say they do not want to become border patrol agents, and that having to report immigrant kids to authorities fuels absenteeism.  

Rarely considered in this debate, however, is the lived experience of immigrant children, who must live with the daily fear of deportation. 

Newcomers face discrimination due to myths about their negative school behavior, even though studies show immigrant students to be highly motivated and well behaved when teachers are prepared and trained to receive them. And there are numerous success stories of immigrant children enriching classrooms and bringing cultural awareness that benefits everyone. 

Immigrant children also become part of a cycle that benefits both the host country and the sending nation. According to a recent report by the Wilson Center, “migrants who gain skills, savings, and experience working abroad, often return home to start companies and employ people in their homeland, thus relieving the pressure for future migration.”  

So, where do we go next? 

First, we need to update antiquated systems for collecting school data and give monetary grants to incentive public schools to provide accurate information on immigrant students. Addressing the precise needs of a newcomer is made more challenging by the lack of data from schools; in Chicago, for example, the number of migrant children enrolled in public schools can range from 9,000 to 17,000, depending on the definitions and metrics used.  

Second, we must provide more federal resources for schools to hire counselors to help newly arriving families with school registration, legal assistance and language skills, including Haitian and Creole. In states like Massachusetts, three out of four recent migrants are from Haiti. 

Third, it’s important that we tell the story of how immigrant kids contribute to keeping America diverse and economically strong. America is a global power and needs ideas from all over the world. As of 2021, about half of recent immigrant children are Latino, but today many come to America from Asia and Africa as well. 

Young immigrant students grow up to contribute to America’s economic growth in two ways: by working and by spending. Their presence in unexpectedly high numbers “explains some of the surprising strength in consumer spending and overall economic growth since 2022,” according to the New Yorker. “Without positive net migration, the U.S. population is projected to begin shrinking by about 2040.”  

Immigration will bolster the American economy by approximately $7 trillion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s 2024 report.  

At the end of the day, you can add up cost numbers and try to argue against educating newcomers. But that is just math — math that misses history and undercuts the future. 

We are a nation of immigrants. We made a promise to educate every child. Let’s keep it. 
 
Tara D. Sonenshine is former U.S. undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and a nonresident senior fellow at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.