School systems complain about the rising costs of handling illegal immigrants. Here’s a spotlight on two cities, one in Massachusetts, the other Colorado.
In Stoughton, Mass., students arrive with traumatic pasts and little English. The same is happening in Denver.
The Wall Street Journal comments on The Massive Immigration Wave Hitting America’s Classrooms
Millions of migrants, most seeking asylum, have crossed the border in recent years and have been allowed to settle in the U.S. until a federal immigration judge decides their fate, a process that can take years. Among the record numbers, federal data suggest, are as many as one million children who have arrived with their families or on their own since 2021.
They are settling in cities and entering public schools around the U.S., adding financial and logistical strains in communities where they have arrived in large numbers. Districts are faced with the need for additional teachers and staff who can teach English and space for new students, often while waiting for promised supplemental federal or state funding.
Denver schools, for example, earlier this year announced a $17.5 million budget shortfall because of new migrant students.
There were recently more than 500 English learners in Stoughton schools, double the number from three years ago. The increase was fueled partly by 90 students, ranging from kindergarten to high school, placed by the state in two nearby hotels serving as homeless shelters. Many are from recently arrived Haitian migrant families.
Haitians have flocked to Massachusetts, which has an established population from the long-troubled Caribbean country.
Increased costs
Adding the 90 shelter students has cost Stoughton, which teaches a total of 3,740 students, at least $500,000 for increased staff and busing costs. The state said it has reimbursed nearly all of that money. But the lag time and uncertainty about how much would be paid back has challenged the district’s ability to plan, said Joseph Baeta, Stoughton’s superintendent.
The most immediate upfront costs this year were hiring five new staff members, including two teachers, and contracting for a bus to shuttle students to and from the hotel shelters, Baeta said. The district has gone from seven to 17 English-as-a-second-language teachers in the past five years.
Massachusetts is legally mandated to offer shelter to any family that seeks it. Migrant families recently comprised about half of the 7,477 homeless families recently living in state shelters, which are at capacity. The state since October 2022 has spent roughly $26 million to reimburse school districts for costs associated with students living in shelters.
The housing search in metro Boston, where apartments are hard to find and very pricey, could mean families who find homes eventually settle outside Stoughton. This already worries Sandla, the eighth-grader, her mother Dianise Archange said.
“She said she loves the school, so she’s asking me to please find housing around here,” Archange, 35, said through an interpreter. Sandla said her favorite subject is science and she hopes to become a pilot.
I was wondering when we would start seeing stories like this. No doubt this is happening all over the country.
In addition to rent competition, we now have crowded schools. I pity any of these kids who end up in hopeless Chicago schools.
Housing Starts
Since late 2022 multi-family construction has fallen by about 50 percent. Single-family construction is up by about 25 percent. Total construction is flat.
Where Do We Put 8 Million Illegal Immigrants?
On May 23, I asked Where Do We Put 8 Million Illegal Immigrants?
Millions of immigrants keep pouring in. New residential construction has stalled and multi-family construction is in decline. Completions are rising, but is that enough housing?
Inflationary Forces
Biden’s energy policy is inflationary; student loan cancellations are inflationary; the push for union wages are inflationary; the inflation reduction act is inflationary; tariffs (both Trump and Biden are guilty) are inflationary; deficit spending is inflationary; and the need to shelter millions of migrants is inflationary.
Meanwhile, there are signs the economy is slowing. For discussion, please see Discretionary Spending Tumbles at Target, Shares Drop 10 Percent
This is not a pretty mix.