Massive Immigration Wave Strains Public Schools And English Language Classes

The Wall Street Journal has reported that the “massive immigration wave” in recent years is straining public schools across the USA and also is impacting English language classes.

According to the Journal, public schools where immigrant children are resettling have been hit with financial and staffing burdens that they have not experienced before. The Journal specifically chronicled the situation in the school district in Stoughton, MA, a Boston suburb, where more than 500 immigrant public school students are enrolled in English as a Second Language (ESL) programs – a number that is twice as many students compared to just 3 years prior.

For Stoughton, a town with fewer than 30,000 residents, the mass immigration to their community has caused the school district to spend an additional $500,000 in educational and English language training costs.

Researchers with the Center for Immigration Studies analyzed the impact of mass immigration based on 2021 statistics, found that 1 in 4 public school students in the USA were from immigrant households, a number which was more than double the share in 1990 and over triple from 1980.

The states where public school students from immigration households have increased in share the most include Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington, Massachusetts, New York, Georgia, Virginia, Texas, Florida, and Minnesota.

Regarding the issue of English language teaching to immigrant students in public schools, ProEnglish always has favored English immersion classes over bilingual education, so as not to confine immigrant students to a linguistic ghetto that could severely limit their educational, collegiate, and professional opportunities in the future.