Illegal immigration is costly for country

The issue of illegal immigration remains a sore spot with many taxpayers. A recent report by the Manhattan Institute found that the cost to the federal government by sanctioning open door immigration policies amounted to a startling $346 billion for fiscal year 2007.

Also noted in the report is that each illegal immigrant costs taxpayers more than $9,000, while every household of four costs $36,000 in taxes. Crime, health care, and public assistance lead the list, but high on the list is the cost of educating the children of illegal immigrant parents.

Here in northern Illinois, thousands of illegal immigrant children are flooding into school systems. In many districts the education of these children is breaking the piggy bank and sending budgets into the red.

An examination of the education statistics for the Waukegan school district are both astounding and worrisome. As of September of this past year, 72.4 percent of the students enrolled in K-12 were of Hispanic ethnic background. Out of a total of 8,849 students in pre K-5, 4,247 were assigned to the district's bilingual education program. At the middle school level, 767 students were still in the program. Even at the high school level, 349 students remained.

Illinois law requires that students learn the academic basics in their native languages as they make the transition to English. This mandate applies to any school where at least 20 students share a native language other than English. According to an estimate by Rand Corporation, because dual language programs are significantly more expensive to conduct than mainstream English classes, they add an additional cost per pupil in the range of $460 to $1,600. Consider the cost involved in the hiring of Spanish-speaking teachers from Mexico and Spain to instruct a whopping 5,363 students assigned to the bilingual education programs in the Waukegan school district.

But are bilingual education programs even working? Might bilingual education be holding children back from learning English more quickly? Diamond Lake School District 76 in Mundelein believes so. Five years ago Fairhaven School in Mundelein bucked the state mandate and began teaching non-English speaking students primarily in English with results that surpassed state expectations in reading and math. It has been proven time and again across this nation that teaching students in their own language will not spur students on to developing their English skills. Waukegan schools should look to Mundelein for help and guidance. Some experimentation might be in order.

Illegal immigration has long-term consequences on the make-up of this country. The education factor alone represents a significant cost to taxpayers in already strapped state and local government. America welcomes more legal immigrants than any other country in the entire world. We must do it the right way.

Nancy J. Thorner

Lake Bluff