Illegal Immigrants: Deserving of Education?

In recent years, it seems the issue of illegal immigration in the United States has reached a fervor. The state of Arizona has become notorious for cracking down on immigration, and an article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from May of last year talked about how Pennsylvania legislators are hoping to mirror Arizona's immigration bill. This would give police more power to arrest and deport foreigners who have entered the state illegally without proper paperwork.

What the article also mentioned is that State Representative Daryl Metcalfe believes that at any one time, there are about 140,000 illegal immigrants in PA. Thousands of these immigrants are children, and many are currently enrolled in the state's public schools.

How are they allowed in public schools? It is because under law, public schools are obligated to educate any student, without questioning their immigration status. This legal obligation has impacted Reading schools in particular as they educate a growing number of students who have no legal status in the U.S. Many students who enter elementary schools in Reading speak little to no English, and growing numbers of these immigrants are causing adjustments in the Reading school system.

"Reading, according to a public school teacher I know, faces huge demands on schools since many people of Caribbean origin now living in Reading return from their holiday breaks with other relatives and enroll them in school," said Albright political science professor Theresa Smith.

"Some of these kids speak no English or Spanish; some only speak Haitian Creole. We have very few speakers of Creole to teach them, and class sizes are becoming unmanageable."

Christopher Tadley, an Albright Education major who is a student teacher at 13th and Union Elementary School, can back up the claim proposed by Smith.

"Although there is no way to identify illegal immigration students, I hear some students talking about moving back and forth between Reading and countries like the Dominican Republic," said Tadley. "It's known that many students in Reading classrooms have no legal status."

He also admits that difficulty arises in teaching these individual students because they rarely speak in class. Dual-language students usually translate for in school, including translating their answers to the teacher. The presence of students from other countries also makes learning go at a slower pace for English-speaking students.

The Reading elementary schools have dealt with some communication problems by isolating dual-language speaking students with classmates who speak little English.

13th and Union Elementary (seen in two photos above) is one school being impacted by the enrollment of illegal immigrants.

"Teachers in Reading are doing the best they can with the limited resources," said Tadley. "They have to go about things in different ways, such as using the dual-language speakers as a bridge."

A full-time teacher at 13th and Union, Matthew Redcay believes the language barrier is just a new obstacle for the classroom. He also sees added benefits in these foreign-born children, regardless of whether or not they are illegal immigrants.

"Teachers are becoming more culturally aware and developing new teaching strategies," said Redcay. "And having these students interact socially with English-speaking students allows them to grow and relate to the content."

While illegal immigrants are legally allowed to enroll and welcomed by the Reading school system (as seen in door signs above), the PA state government is seeking easier ways to detain and deport these immigrants.

Despite the work of teachers to incorporate more and more illegal immigrants, at some point limited resources will begin to affect school systems like Reading. The Federation for American Migration Reform published a report in July of 2009 citing a major difficulty posed by PA's foreign-born population. The report stated "public school enrollment of students who require special instruction in English has also soared, rising by 187 percent from 1993 to 2006.

This will result in one of the following for school districts like Reading: they will have to add programs for these students, or teachers will be left with classrooms that are hard to run due to foreign-born students unable to speak English.

Existing laws say public schools must educate all students, illegal or not. However, American colleges (even public universities) are not bound by that same standard.

Kate Wilcox wrote a Reading Eagle story on Dec.29, 2010 that discussed an illegal immigrant who attended Reading High. "Carmen", as she is referred to in the article, was an outstanding high school student. However, she could not receive financial aid because of her illegal status in the country. Therefore, she could not attend colleges because they charged her international tuition. She pinned her hopes on the Dream Act, federal legislation that would provide a path to citizenship for students who completed two years of college. The bill was rejected by the Senate.

The story shows that our government allows illegal immigrants to work through our school system and receive a proper high school education. However, these same individuals have little chance of moving onto college without the backing of that same government.

The government needs to make up its mind and take one of two stances.

The first option would be to pour more funds into programs to educate foreign-born immigrants (including illegal ones) at the elementary, high school and college level. This would allow for a better learning environment for all students in school districts like Reading. In addition, legislation such as the Dream Act would need to be passed to allow individuals like "Carmen" to have a chance to get a college degree.

"It is the right of every child to receive an education," noted Redclay.

Or, the U.S. needs to change its law and allow only legal citizens to be educated in our public school system. PA legislators are working to make things easier to deport illegal immigrants. At the same time, however, PA must allow illegal immigrants to receive an education courtesy of the state.

Regardless of personal opinion, both the state and national government must stop contradicting themselves. They need to take a consistent side on illegal immigration. This will allow for a consistent school system from the elementary to college level that gives all students an equal opportunity.