Under the Biden administration, communities across the United States have been forced to bear the burden of unchecked illegal immigration. Perhaps nowhere is the weight of that burden heavier than in Arizona, especially Arizona’s schools.
Though often overlooked, education is one of the industries most affected by illegal immigration. In the fiscal year of 2023 alone, Customs and Border Protection’s Tucson Field Office, Tucson Sector, and Yuma Sector encountered more than 577,379 people entering Arizona illegally.
As revealed by research recently conducted by The Heritage Foundation, if even a small portion of these people enroll in school this fall, it could cost the state’s public K-12 schools millions.
The math is simple. Arizona spends $11,625 per pupil each school year, and we already know that the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement released 861 unaccompanied alien children to sponsors in Arizona. Assuming all of them enroll in school — which is one of the ORR requirements for sponsors — the state will have to spend more than $10 million to educate them.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Between the thousands of children who enter the country in a family unit and “got-aways” — immigrants who intentionally evaded authorities — the numbers of students and dollars it costs to educate them is even higher.
Undoubtedly, this will strain the state’s education budget, which Arizona allocated over $12 billion towards in Fiscal Year 2023. This may seem like a large sum, but its gets stretched quickly between vital expenditures on instruction, food services, and transportation, as well as capital investments in infrastructure like land and buildings utilized by schools.
To get a better sense of the impact that $10 million could have on Arizona schools, consider that the average teacher base salary in the state is $56,882. That means $10 million could potentially fund the hiring of over 175 new teachers or cover the educational expenses of more than 1,400 students’ Education Savings Accounts.
In light of the complex challenges surrounding immigration, it’s important to acknowledge that it’s not the fault of the children that they are here in the United States. But this only underscores the urgency of securing the border. We must prevent the dangerous practice of parents sending their children to the U.S. as if it were a boarding school. Oftentimes, these minors are trafficked, forced into exploitative labor conditions, or physically, sexually, and emotionally abused.
Moreover, this situation is detrimental to unaccompanied minors and places undue strain on American children, teachers, and classrooms already dealing with this influx. One challenge is managing classrooms effectively as more and more children arrive from across the border. Another is addressing limited English proficiency among students. Limited English Proficiency programs are currently expanding more rapidly than municipalities’ capacity to effectively operate or finance them in school districts nationwide.
Should more be done to protect the U.S. border?
Finally and most acutely, schools must cope with the strain on available classroom space. In Texas, for example, teachers had to leave their classrooms in 2022 and instruct 400-plus recently enrolled migrant children in hallways and conference rooms. And in far-off New York, students were even sent home from school and compelled to switch to online learning to allow aliens to shelter in the school gymnasium.
In the absence of a secure border, much less advance notice, or reliable reporting from the administration on the total number of illegal aliens who enter and remain in Arizona, legislators in Phoenix ought to ensure their communities are prepared.
A solid first step would be mandating that school districts gather enrollment data, including immigration status and release this anonymized information to the public to help accurately analyze costs. There should be more transparency around Arizona schools in general, and the border crisis only highlights this need. Providing more information would allow school districts and parents to understand trends, better prepare their communities for enrollment changes, and make appropriate policy decisions.
The exponential rise in illegal immigration has drastically altered the education policy landscape for local communities in Arizona, especially concerning school enrollments and associated costs and challenges. Unfortunately, state taxpayers are being forced to pay for the financial consequences of Biden’s refusal to uphold the fundamental rule of law and safeguard America’s borders. Education is a state, not a federal, issue. It’s time for Arizona — and all states — to take back control of their education policy and costs.
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