Illegal Migrant Wave Overwhelming School Districts

Municipal school systems around the country are gearing up to absorb tens of thousands of children who arrived illegally from Central America for the new school year, The Wall Street Journal reported. The influx, mostly from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, will stress the resources of schools from large metropolitan areas to small towns from California to New York. A minimum of 37,000 children who have been placed with sponsors as of July 31 are eligible to attend public school, according to the Journal. Among the systems expected to be most heavily impacted are Texas, where over 5,000 illegal migrant pupils will be showing up for school as well as New York and California, which will each get about 4,000 arrivals, the Journal reported. Many will come with psychological scars requiring trauma counseling. Almost all will need remedial help in learning English. Every single one will have access to subsidized nutritional programs. Public schools are obligated by the federal government to enroll the children regardless of their immigration status. Alberto Carvalho of Miami-Dade County Public Schools said, "We have both a legal and moral obligation to teach these kids," the Journal reported. Superintendent James Meza of Louisiana's Jefferson Parish Public School System said, "I don't think we can handle it without hiring additional personnel." Some schools put the added cost at $2,000 per pupil...more