Cost in Translation:
English Language Education in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area
Read the full report (pdf).
Introduction
The high cost of educating K-12 public school students who are not proficient in English is well documented. So too, is the fact that most Limited English Proficient (LEP) students are children of illegal alien parents. The recent "surge" of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) and families with young children who poured across our borders in the spring and summer of 2014 exacerbated an already formidable and costly task for public school educators and administrators in many localities across the United States.
According to data from the Department of Health and Human Services, more than 55,000 UACs were released to relatives and other sponsors throughout the United States between October 2013 and September 2014. Over 5,100 UACs were settled in the Washington, D.C. metro area, where there is a sizeable illegal alien population of approximately 438,000 with an additional approximately 100,000 U.S.-born children of illegal aliens. The illegal alien population in the D.C. metro area has grown steadily along with the overall foreign-born population. So, too, has the number of students in area public schools that are not proficient in English.
The money spent on LEP education in the D.C. area is substantial. Most of that funding comes from local sources, usually from property taxes, with most of the rest coming out of state budgets. The federal government, which is primarily responsible for the influx of immigrant and children of immigrant into local school systems, contributes only a negligible amount of funding to offset the cost of LEP education.
http://www.fairus.org/publications/cost-in-translation
