{"id":12944,"date":"2016-06-28T11:16:35","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T15:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=12944"},"modified":"2018-12-28T13:22:41","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T18:22:41","slug":"honors-student-in-okc-loses-scholarship-opportunity-district-slashes-school-budget-and-cuts-programs-but-advertises-for-ell-teachers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2016\/06\/28\/honors-student-in-okc-loses-scholarship-opportunity-district-slashes-school-budget-and-cuts-programs-but-advertises-for-ell-teachers\/","title":{"rendered":"Honors Student in OKC Loses Scholarship Opportunity: District Slashes School Budget and Cuts Programs But Advertises for ELL Teachers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"classroom_chairs_675x450_rotator\"Last month, more than 1,100 public school students in Oklahoma City walked out<\/a> of their high schools to protest looming budget cuts of $30 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had an opportunity with golf, you know, I could have maybe gotten a scholarship, who knows, and they cut golf so there went that opportunity,\u201d said protest organizer Cassidy Coffey<\/a>, a straight-A junior at U. S Grant High School. \u201cMy future\u2019s being affected, all of their futures are being affected, as well,\u201d she added, pointing to her fellow protestors. Getting rid of the tennis team also ruined another student\u2019s ability to potentially garner a scholarship.<\/p>\n

To help alleviate what officials refer to as a \u201ccatastrophic\u201d budget, U. S. Grant laid off 20 teachers. \u201cBy firing our teachers, it\u2019s making our class sizes larger and it\u2019s disrupting the learning environment,\u201d said Adriana Martinez, a junior at U. S. Grant.<\/p>\n

The school\u2019s principal, Greg Frederick, admits<\/a> that some classes are jammed with 40 bodies. In all, 208 teachers<\/a> and 92 administrators will receive pink slips in Oklahoma City this summer.<\/p>\n

Though teachers, arts programs and sports teams are being cut, the district still supports an expensive English Language Learner (ELL) program.<\/p>\n

It turns out that illegal immigration is a zero-sum game where one party gets the resources and the other is left with an empty bag. One out of every three students in the city\u2019s school district is enrolled in the English Language Learners (ELL) program, representing an annual cost of $125 million\u2014more than four times the current budget shortfall.<\/p>\n

As other programs cut teachers, the district is putting out the call for new ELL instructors<\/a>, though it has a hard time finding them. In fact, according to federal officials, the state will need 400 new ELL teachers by 2018 to adequately serve this growing population, which would cost $18 million. Oklahoma taxpayers already spend $395 million on failing ELL programs that serve almost 45,000 pupils.<\/p>\n

In the past two years, moreover, Oklahoma has received 786 Unaccompanied Alien Minors, who crossed the border illegally from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Their education will cost the state another $7 million a year.<\/p>\n

Indifferent to the impassioned pleas from students, just hours after the walkout, the acting schools superintendent called for $7 million in additional budget cuts.<\/p>\n

As illegal immigrants get a free ride, American citizens like Cassidy Coffey, who has the gumption to fight back, are suffering. \u201cWe\u2019re the future,\u201d she said, predicting a bleak outcome. \u201cHow are we going to thrive as, you know, humans in this society if we\u2019re not taught how to do so?\u201d