Most people don't think of their children as serving in the front lines of our immigration conflict. Yet as Christopher Daly points out, they are not only daily participants, but are most likely to sustain long term damage to their educational progress.
From the article overview:
As a nation we have witnessed outrage after outrage during the past 15-20 years as our once- workable immigration system has fallen apart. Today’s headlines constantly carry reports on the ongoing problems related to the estimated 12 million+ illegal immigrants living in the United States. The list includes better protecting our nation’s southern border, soaring costs of billion dollar entitlement programs, increasing pressure to grant citizenship to undocumented residents, and the criminal consequences of more and more states, cities, and other government entities adopting “sanctuary” policies.
What is not traditionally in the news, is that the breakdown of our nation’s immigration laws and policies has put a huge strain on America’s educational system — especially grades K thru 12.
The problem can be summed up by stating that from big cities to small towns, immigration overload has adversely impacted the carrying capacity of many schools. This reality means that countless young people, both natives and new immigrants, are paying for Washington’s failure to get the immigration problem under control. All of this has occurred with little national debate over the ability of our schools to educate and integrate hundreds of thousands of new students into our society.
What’s desperately needed is a drastic reduction in immigration rates to a truly sustainable level in order to protect our nation’s many resources for generations to come. Our educational system is greatly affected by continued high rates of immigration and needs to be part of the national debate regarding realistic immigration reform.
Can such a goal be achieved? The answer to that question is very elusive. And it will take a new priority commitment from our nation’s leaders to make it a reality. If we can get our country’s immigration system back on a responsible and workable track, the reward will be far less overcrowded schools, far fewer overburdened teachers, a less stressful learning environment for students, and greater educational accomplishments across the board.