New Illinois law promises public education to illegal immigrants

Illinois has passed a law guaranteeing illegal immigrants access to public education, which could cost taxpayers up to $1 billion annually.

“Schools must take steps to protect the integrity of school learning environments for all children, so that no parent is discouraged from sending and no child is discouraged from attending school, including from the threat of immigration enforcement,” reads HB 3247, also known as the “Safe Schools for All Act.”

The bill, signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Aug. 15, forbids schools from requesting or collecting information about a student’s or their parents’ immigration status or from disclosing any information about immigration status to law enforcement.

The law cites Plyler v. Doe, a controversial Supreme Court ruling from 1982 where the court ruled 5-4 that illegal immigrants are granted the protections of the Fourteenth Amendment and could not be denied public education.

However, the recent surge of illegal immigrants has put strain on a variety of public and welfare services – including public schools.

In 2023, New York City reported an additional 30,000 students attending public school because of the rise in illegal immigration.

And in 2024, the director of the Research Center for Immigration Studies told the House Judiciary Committee he estimated the children of illegal immigrants to cost public schools nearly $70 billion annually.

Students who aren’t native English speakers are especially expensive to educate. An estimate from Georgia found ESL students could cost thousands of dollars extra – from $1,200 more for a kindergartener to $6,000 more for a high schooler.

For Illinois, this means millions – perhaps billions – of extra tax dollars pouring into public schools.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, an average of 4,000 undocumented students graduate every year from an Illinois public school.

Last year, WirePoints estimated the annual costs reaching as high as $410 million. Assuming roughly 4,000 students in every grade, multiplied by the average per-pupil funding in Illinois ($21,800), means Illinois taxpayers potentially spend over $1.1 billion every year on the education of illegal immigrants.

Despite Illinois’ $11 billion K-12 education budget, many students can’t read or do math at grade level.

Barely 40% of students read proficiently and only a quarter are proficient in math, according to recent data.

In contrast to the newly passed bill guaranteeing public education for illegal immigrants, the state axed a popular private school choice program for low-income Americans.