U.S. Commits $9.5 Mil to Migrant Education

It’s not enough that American taxpayers spend billions annually to educate illegal immigrants in the nation’s public school system, this month the Obama administration is dedicating an additional $9.5 million to a special program that helps migrants and seasonal farm workers complete their studies.

The money will flow through the Office of Migrant Education which operates under the bloated U.S. Department of Education, Jimmy Carter’s brilliant creation. The funds will be divided between the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), which will receive $5,407,472 and the High School Equivalency Program (HEP) for migrants, which will get $4,082,415, according to an announcement in the federal register. CAMP helps migrant and seasonal farmworkers and members of their immediate family pay for college. HEP assists them in obtaining a general education diploma that meets guidelines for high school equivalency. The government will then help those folks gain employment or be placed in an institution of higher education, compliments of Uncle Sam.

CAMP services include outreach to eligible persons, counseling, tutoring, skills workshops, financial aid stipends, health services and housing assistance. HEP targets migrants who are at least 16 and not enrolled in school and offers developmental instruction and counseling services to prepare them for high school graduation or the alternate General Educational Development (GED) certificate. Successful candidates then get counseling, job placement, healthcare, financial aid stipends, housing and cultural and academic programs, according to the Office of Migrant Education. HEP candidates already qualify for a free public school education in the U.S., but for whatever reason don’t attend classes and the government is taking the extra step to help them.

The $9.5 million injection comes as the country’s public schools are forced to absorb the exorbitant cost of educating the recent influx of Central America minors that have entered the U.S. through Mexico in the last year and a half. A study determined that educating the initial 37,472 (the number has since grown) Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) made it into the U.S. will cost an astounding $761 million a year. The figure includes special Limited English Proficient (LEP) classes conducted in Spanish or in other indigenous Central American languages as well as free school meals for the new arrivals. In many cases the UACs have very little education, making the task all the more difficult for overwhelmed teachers and administrators.

But even before the U.S. got bombarded with hordes of Central American minors a few summers ago, the cost of educating illegal immigrants was exorbitant. This is especially true in border states because they absorb a huge chunk of the illegal aliens. For instance, California spends an estimated $12.3 billion annually educating children of undocumented immigrants, a recent study reveals, yet only a small percentage of students are proficient in reading. A different study determines that Texas spends $8.5 billion on kindergarten through 12th grade for illegal aliens, including supplemental English instruction. Arizona spends $810 million and New Mexico almost $500 million.

These mind-boggling figures don’t even include college expenses, only kindergarten through high school. Some states—including Texas, California, Utah, Washington and New York—offer illegal immigrants discounted tuition at public universities. This ends up costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year. JW has been a leader in working to end this illegal perk and last month filed a lawsuit against the University of California Regents seeking to end an estimated $19.6 million in non-resident tuition waivers currently being given to illegal alien students. JW’s suit charges that both federal and state law prohibit the public university system from using tax dollars to provide discounted in-state tuition benefits and financial aid to illegal immigrants.

In addition to all this the Obama administration also sends the Central American nations that have recently bombarded us with illegal aliens huge sums of taxpayer dollars to help those who stayed behind. A few months ago Judicial Watch reported on a $13 million allocation to provide job training to at-risk youth in El Salvador and Honduras, two of the countries that have sent over droves of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC). In 2014 the administration spent $2.5 million on juvenile justice reform in Guatemala and El Salvador, presumably to improve life so that minors wouldn’t flee to the U.S.