LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Michigan’s K-12 public schools received $10.3 million this past year to help students learn English as a second language, some of whom are immigrants.
The U.S. Department of Education has given out $890 million to K-12 schools across the county in grant funding called Title III, Part A to help with English Second Language students, referred to as ESL. These are students whose understanding of the English language presents a barrier to their education. States like Texas ($140 million) and California ($157 million) received far more of that federal money than Michigan.
While the state doesn’t provide a breakdown of how much money goes to English Learners in its funding document and how much goes to immigrants, some school districts break it down. For example, in budget documents, Livonia’s public school district said it budgeted $82,547 of that federal grant money for “English Learners” and $19,816 for “Immigrants” in 2024-25.
Overall, how much money is spent on illegal immigrants would be very difficult to track because school districts make a point not to collect that information. For example, Traverse City public school district has a policy where district employees are not to ask students or families about their citizenship status, including when they are enrolling in the district. Saline’s public school district stated that citizenship status is not considered by the district when a student enrolls and that information is not collected upon enrollment.