Education officials plan to probe impact of illegal immigration on Oklahoma public schools

OKLAHOMA CITY – The State Department of Education will roll out guidelines that require school districts to provide the agency with information about how many undocumented immigrants they serve, Oklahoma’s top public school official announced this week.

Superintendent Ryan Walters said he also wants districts to calculate the financial impact those students have on districts.

“What we will be doing in the upcoming weeks is issuing guidance to districts where they will be helping us to find accurate and effective accounting about the cost and burden that illegal immigration has not only on their schools, but the taxpayers of the state of Oklahoma,” Walters said.

Walters did not say what the information would be used for, nor did he provide any further information about the guidelines during a brief press conference after the monthly State Board of Education meeting where he first unveiled the plan.

Sen. Mary Boren, D-Norman, said she doesn’t know why the board is interested in the information.

“I think it’s reasonable to be fearful that the reason… why an administration, why Ryan Walters, would want to gather this, is to target people and make them feel insecure in our state,” Boren said.

She compared the board’s actions to that of a “fascist regime” that takes a census and then treats a group of people unfairly.

“They continue to try to exploit an issue that they don’t want to solve in order to stir up political strife,” Boren said.

Rep. Annie Menz, D-Norman, a member of the Legislative Latino Caucus, said Walters “might be jumping the gun” with his guidelines because Gov. Kevin Stitt’s Oklahoma State Work Permits and Visas Task Force has not concluded its work.

The task force, which was announced in April, is exploring how to issue work visas to undocumented immigrants, who “have long filled gaps in Oklahoma’s workforce,” and how to address employment needs in Oklahoma’s economy.

“When we look at making guidelines and laws, we need to do that in a way that takes into account all the facts,” Menz said. “We need to make fact-based decisions, and I just don’t see how the state superintendent is doing that without having all of the information.”

Menz said the guidelines don’t sit right with her.

“Public schools are for the public,” Menz said.

A recent report released by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that Oklahoma’s undocumented immigrants paid $227.5 million in state and local taxes in 2022.

The Washington D.C.-based group found that an estimated 89,000 undocumented immigrants paid taxes. The figures do not include what they paid into Social Security and Medicare.

The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank that focuses on improving immigration policies, estimates there are 6,000 undocumented immigrants under the age of 16 living in Oklahoma.

However, Walters said there is a “rush of illegal immigrants across the border,” which is putting strain on Oklahoma’s public schools.

“The federal government has failed to secure our borders, our schools are suffering over this, and where the federal government has failed to act, Oklahoma will step up,” Walters said. “So we will step in, we will make sure that we understand the cost to taxpayers so that our kids can get the best education possible.”

The issue of illegal immigration and efforts to secure the country’s southern border have become a galvanizing issue for Republican lawmakers.

Earlier this year, the Oklahoma Legislature passed House Bill 4156, which established “impermissible occupation” as a crime.

The law makes it illegal to willfully enter the state without authorization to be in the country. Those found guilty could face imprisonment, fines or expulsion from the state. A judge has put enforcement on hold pending the outcome of a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality. Stitt created his task force in response to the law.

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