From preschool through college, our nation’s education system plays a central role in integrating immigrants and their children. It provides children with the resources to learn English, learn about US history and culture and to prepare for the future. It also provides parents with the opportunity to become active participants in their children’s education. We must recognize the educational needs of immigrant families as their children have become a growing presence in our school systems.

• From 1970 to 2000, children of immigrants increased from 6 percent to 19 percent of all school-age children, constituting 11 million of 58 million total U.S. children.
• By 2000, 16 percent of all students in pre-kindergarten were children of immigrants. In the upper grades (6 to 12), children of immigrants were 19 percent of the total student population.

Teaching these children is essential for immigrant families and for our nation’s economic and social progress. Elected officials must therefore provide immigrants and their children with a high-quality education. This can be achieved by implementing policies that create educational opportunities from the earliest stages. Some examples include:

• Early Childhood Education
• Dual Language Pilot Programs
• DREAM Act

Policy Ideas:
• Ban immigration status inquiries by public schools.
• Provide in-state college tuition to all graduates of high schools in the state, or at least those graduates who attended high school in the state for at least three years. (Similar policies can also be enacted for certain city and county community college systems offering preferential rate to residents.)
• Ensure access to state or locally funded financial aid/scholarships, regardless of immigration status, to those who attended high school and graduated in the state; and create alternative funding vehicles for students excluded from federal financial aid (especially merit-based aid).