My brilliant colleague Athena Thorne wrote about the Big Left's big tears over lower public school enrollment numbers; if you haven't read it, you should check it out. Everyone in the education space knows that public funding is tied to butts in seats and, with President Trump's administration enforcing laws regarding immigration, illegal alien students are dropping out or not attending school. Additionally, thanks to the border finally being closed, the waves of illegal immigrants coming into America are plummeting.
These simple acts of closing the borders and deporting folks who tried to jump the line are having a direct impact on public schools. Numbers are down and teachers unions are throwing tantrums disguised as "but what about the children!" when it's really "but what about my pension!" Pet projects, niche staff positions, and all of the work they've done to sugar-coat teenagers not being able to read at grade level are all for naught thanks to President Donald J. Trump.
But anyone who is not financially tied to Big Education—taxpayers, parents, students, even most school employees—should be thanking the president for pulling the curtain back on how damaging rolling out the red carpet for illegal immigrants has been to our schools. American children are bearing the brunt of the consequences.
The left won't read this, but, if they did, I would be in the company of Caligula, Genghis Khan, and, of course, Hitler. The fact they will not acknowledge is that I was a teacher in a publicly funded school, and I have seen directly what schools do to accommodate the mantra: Whatever it takes — get butts in seats!
Here is a look at the direct impacts the Trump Administration is delivering to schools thanks to closing the borders and enforcing the laws:
Academic Benefits
How long have we lamented the ever-increasing class sizes of American public schools? A long time. In high school, I recall having 18 at most in my individual classes, and we all agreed that was large enough. The biggest class I ever taught was 34, and my room was built to accommodate 22. We had students on the floor, others sitting on desks instead of chairs, and students with chairs and no desks.
Smaller enrollment numbers mean a return to reasonable class sizes. Did anyone ever stop to think that the birth rate in the United States has declined, but public school enrollment numbers increased exponentially? Immigration, yes, but mostly of the illegal sort.
Smaller classes mean students have more access to their teachers and teachers have more quality time with their students. This is critical. Most complicated concepts can be taught over three days of classroom instruction with one day to review and one day of formal assessment. With classroom sizes in excess of 20 students, teachers cannot possibly and effectively help each child with the finer points of the topic.
To complicate matters even further, public schools are crazy about IEPs, or Individual Education Plans. These plans require different things for different students. If a child is diagnosed with dyslexia, he will be given special instruction and tools to accommodate his learning style and needs; it's all detailed in a legal document called an IEP. If a student does not speak English, she will be given an IEP that includes different instruction, tools, and resources to accommodate her learning style and needs. Do you see where this is going?
What began as classes labeled ESL, English as a Second Language, exploded into special education opportunities. New pots of funding are available for special education. Administrators saw the prospect of more money and did away with the language class and shoved non-English speakers in the company of kids with autism, dyslexia, dysgraphia, and other authentic challenges.
In my class of 34 students, 12 of them had IEPs. I was creating 13 lessons for one class period because I had to prove in legal paperwork that I was accommodating the IEPs and meeting the curriculum standards for the grade level. As a teacher, my time was spent with the IEP students and not the other 22. Is it any wonder teachers are retiring or shifting careers in alarming numbers? Is it fair to the student who does his homework, studies for tests, and does extra credit to be saddled with "helping" his neighbor who does not speak English? He's already doing more than most, and he's being asked to do even more at the expense of his own advancement.
The typical cadence of three days of instruction, one day of review, and one day of assessment suddenly stretches to two weeks instead of one. As a result, we have seen students fall a grade level behind in first or second grade; the drag compounds year over year, and now we have high schoolers graduating who can barely read at a 6th grade level. Educating children in the most fundamental lessons has been inefficient for a generation.
President Trump is Making America Great Again by making classrooms work again and educating children again.
As for enrichment classes that the left sobs over being cut (music, art, theater, and so on), fewer students means more access to art supplies, music stands, and instruments. Things like textbooks, pencils, highlighters, paper, and other items necessary for curriculum engagement suddenly go further because they only have 18 students to cover instead of 24.
They will tell you that every student brings supplies at the beginning of the year, and that is usually true. There are kids who don't bring anything, not because they are rude but because they don't know any better. Parents are supposed to do this, but some of them don't for one reason or another. These supplies are then pooled in the classroom and distributed as needed over the year. When those supplies run out around Christmas, teachers dip into their own finances to replace them. Some schools require teachers to supply their own reams of paper for printing, so it's not just pencils and glue sticks.
Physical Benefits
No one wants a child to go hungry because her parents can't afford food. We know children are better behaved and more receptive to education when their bellies are full. The free and reduced lunch programs are a beautiful testament to American generosity. An overload of the system, however, means schools have to purchase more with the same amount of money. The result: empty calorie foods stacked with artificial flavors and dyes, sugar, and fillers.
Schools are required to serve fruit with their lunches. Applesauce cups are a solution; it's a half-cup serving size and easy to distribute. "Razberry" Applesauce cups, a favorite at one school where I taught, were pumped with FD&C Blue #1 and nineteen (19) grams of sugar. That is five teaspoons. Add that to a carton of chocolate milk with another 18 grams of sugar and the sugar high and subsequent crash were catastrophic. But it's just fruit and milk! Wrong.
Why not serve fresh and whole fruits? Because the school can't do anything with them once they are "past their prime." Special permits and sanitation requirements are required to turn soft apples into applesauce and over-ripe bananas into muffins. It's not as easy (or as cheap) as we would like it to be.
Thankfully, Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is Making America Healthy Again, and the fake stuff is on its way out. With a reduced number of students requiring meal service, those dollars can go further.
Another physical benefit of fewer students enrolled in public schools is the actual safety of students, staff, and property. This is not to imply that children of illegal aliens are violent or thieves. While there are concerns about youth gang violence in schools, those are less about Crips and Bloods and more about Tren de Aragua and Sinaloa varieties. Central and South American drug cartels smuggle families over in return for monetary payment. When that price exceeds what a family can afford (as they almost always do), we start talking about debts paid in drug running, gang allegiance, and even sex trafficking.
Students organically separate into factions during free time, such as lunch and recess: English speakers and non-English speakers; further into Puerto Ricans, Venezuelans, Mexicans, and Colombians; and beyond that, into the innocents and the complicit.
A mother of two boys walked from Venezuela to Florida. She was truly seeking protection but did not know how to claim asylum, so she kept moving her kids every few weeks. One child had a staph infection on his foot because he lost his shoes somewhere around Nicaragua. He came to school that first day anyway.
Lice, measles, staph, and other plagues preyed on these children, who were only doing what the grown-ups said to do: walk at night, go to school, ask this person for money. It's bad enough these children have to endure such torment, but our own children are at risk now, too.
Did I mention pointing out this truth puts me in the same company as the Big Bad Wolf and Evil Queen? If you ask the Big Left, I might as well just run the fiery underworld.
Emotional Benefits
That mother I mentioned earlier from Venezuela moved her kids from our school after a couple of months. The classmates of the older brother who was in my class became distraught after he'd been absent for a week and a half. Their classmate did not give any indication he was leaving, so they assumed he was sick. Teachers assumed the mother and her boys might have been trafficked. The whole school was in a state of grief and concern.
Students of illegal immigrants frequently enroll late and leave randomly. Not wanting to be caught by ICE or a social worker, they do what they need to do but are not hesitant to leave when the time comes. Making too many friends, having too steady of a job, being too much of a presence in a community for too long leads to questions they do not want to answer.
The left tells us these anecdotes about families being in this country "for decades" and "being part of the community" and "paying taxes," but what they do not say out loud is the price they pay to remain in the shadows. This is not healthy for anyone — citizens or alien, adult or child.
As a teacher, I can tell you I carried an inordinate amount of stress because I was concerned both for the well-being of these children, whom I knew to be in the country illegally, and for the rule of law I champion in my personal convictions. Calling one agency meant calling another, juggling secrecy to protect my job and physical safety. Just as I was one classroom in the above section, I’m still just one teacher in one school—and there are many more, more than you’d think, just like me.
Teachers do not need to bear the burden of keeping someone else's secrets in order to keep their jobs. Administrators should not have to look the other way when they see something wrong because they have quotas to make. Children should not be faced with questions about criminal behavior before they are able to multiply by 9s.
We want children to be safe, but we want our children to be safe. We want people to have a better life, but we want our country's laws to be obeyed. There is nothing wrong with that! I want the kids in my neighborhood to be safe, but my children's safety is my priority. I want my kids' friends to have a great childhood, but my job is to worry about my kids' childhoods. We don't feel selfish or wrong for taking care of our own families, so why do we let the left make us feel that way on a larger scale?
It's easy to feel very small in a massive problem, which is why President Trump's work to solve the immigration process is so important. He is not only restoring law and order, but he's empowering American citizens to stand up and say we've had enough of being the world's doormat.
Making American Great Again means Putting America First, and that is exactly what our 47th president is doing. He is prioritizing American students, American taxpayers, American teachers, and American education. We are happy to help those in need, but we cannot afford to continue at the expense of our own children.
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