We Must Educate the Children of Illegal Immigrants Essay example -- Cr

Immigration laws birth been a subject of debate end-to-end Ameri thunder mug history, especially in states such as California and Texas, where immigrant populations ar high. Recently, some citizens have been questioning whether we should continue to set the children of illegal immigrants. tour this issue is steeped in emotional controversy, we must not allow divisive us against them rhetoric to cloud our thinking. Yes, educating undocumented immigrants costs us, but not educating them would cost us much to a greater extent. Those who propose barring the children of illegal immigrants from our schools have understandable worries. They headache that their state taxes go away rise as undocumented children crowd their school systems. They worry about the crowding itself, given the blemish of quality education that comes with large class sizes. They worry that school resources will be deflected from their children because of the linguistic and social problems that many of the newcomers face. And finally, they worry that even more illegal immigrants will cross our borders because of the lure of free education. This last worry is probably unfounded. It is unlikely that many parents are crossing the borders solely to educate their children. More likely, they are in desperate need of work, economic opportunity, and possibly political asylum. As Charles Wheeler of the National Immigration Law gist asserts, There is no evidence that access to federal programs acts as a magnet to foreigners or that further restrictions would discourage illegal immigrants (qtd. in Exploiting). The separate concerns are more legitimate, but they can be addressed by less drastic measures than barring children from schools. Currently the responsibility o... ...re in school, we can make sure they are inoculated properly, and we can teach them the facts about wellness and disease. Do we really want thousands of uneducated children growing up on the streets, wh ere we have little control over them? Surely not. The lure of the streets is flop enough already. Only by inviting all children into safe and nurturing and intellectually act schools can we combat that power. Our efforts will be well worth the cost. work CitedEdmondson, Brad. Life without Illegal Immigrants. American Demographics May 1996 1. Exploiting Fears. Admissions Decisions Should Immigration Be curtail? 7 Oct. 1996. Public Agenda. 10 Feb. 1999. http//www.vote-smart.org/issues/Immigration/chap2/imm2itx.html. McCarthy, Martha M. Immigrants in Public Schools good Issues. Educational Horizons 71 (1993) 128-30.