Nearly One-Quarter of U.S. Public School Enrollment Could Be Anchor Babies

A few simple calculations indicate that as much as one-quarter of U.S. public school enrollment could be anchor babies, meaning children with at least one parent illegally present in the United States. This alone amounts to at least $145.6 billion in public resources diverted from U.S. citizens every year.

Here’s the math. In April, the Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that 17 percent of school-age children, or nine million kids, in the United States are children of at least one illegal alien. The New York Times has reported on the estimate. Some of these children are also foreign citizens, while some were born in the United States. Under a longstanding court misinterpretation, being born in the United States currently confers U.S. citizenship. Almost no other developed countries confer citizenship solely by birth location.

That’s already one in six kids in the United States who are legally subject to deportation to continue living with their parents. If you also assume that all of this population attends public schools, the percentage is more than 17. That’s because only 80 percent of U.S. kids attend a traditional public school, according to 2024 figures from EdChoice.

There were 50 million school-age kids in the United States in 2024, according to ChildStats.gov (adding in the five-year-olds to match the anchor baby age range and assuming there were 4 million of them, an equal age distribution among the 0-5 figure). Eighty percent of 50 is 40, so 40 million of the total 50 million U.S. kids went to public schools in 2024. Nine million anchor babies out of that total 40 million public-school attendees suggests 22.5 percent of U.S. public school enrollment could be anchor babies.

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Yes, these are estimates, and some very broad math. If anything, however, official estimates tend underestimate illegal migration, given its, well, illegal and illicit nature. So it’s absolutely within a reasonable range to assume somewhere around a quarter of U.S, public school enrollment is anchor babies.

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Now for some more math related to the taxpayer costs just of educating these nine million kids who would not be in the United States without lawbreaking. Federal statistics estimate U.S. taxpayers spent an average of $16,280 per student in school year 2020-21, the latest data available.

Nine million anchor babies times $16,280 each is $145.6 billion. Per year. Again, this is probably a lowball figure, for several reasons. First, taxpayer spending per pupil is higher today than in 2020, given the vast “Covid” money shoveled out and the resulting inflation pressuring legislatures to raise education spending for “teachers’ salaries” since then.

Second, the illegal immigrant population disproportionately hides in higher-spending blue states such as California, Illinois, and New York. {snip}

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