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An anti-immigrant group says in a new report that Texas spends $1.03 billion a year educating school-age children who are illegally in the country, but the Texas Education Agency said it has no way to determine those costs.

The report issued by Federation for American Immigration Reform on Wednesday said the country spent $7.4 billion a year educating school-age illegal immigrant children. Dan Stein, the executive director of Federation for Immigration Reform, said the money could instead be used to address education needs of citizen and legal immigrant children.

"This report shows the victims are our own kids who are in overcrowded classrooms in severely stressed financial conditions," he said.
Suzanne Middlebrook, a TEA spokeswoman, said the state agency doesn't collect information on illegal immigrant children because school districts cannot require children to submit information showing they are legally in the country.

Officials at the Ysleta Independent School District in El Paso aren't allowed to ask about immigration status, said district spokesman Larry Trejo.

"We don't feel it's a significant impact on us," Trejo said. "It's our responsibility to educate any child who lives in our district. As long as they show proof that they reside here, we will provide them with the best education we possibly can."

FAIR used an Immigration and Naturalization state-by-state breakdown of the overall illegal immigrant population and assumed the undocumented child population was similarly distributed.

"That assumption really isn't examined" in the report, said Walter Ewing, research associate with the Immigration Policy Center of American Immigration Law Foundation in Washington.

Additionally, he said the report suffers from a "very bad case of tunnel vision."

"They are trying to tie undocumented children to the state budget crises ... Does that mean we can credit immigrant children for the budget surpluses of 2000, if now they are to blame for the budget crisis of 2003?"

Stein said his group did the report because momentum is growing to re-examine U.S. law that guarantees education to all children regardless of their citizenship status. "In our view, the issue is very quickly assuming the trajectory it asserted in 1994-95," Stein said, referring to California's Proposition 187 movement. The California proposition, ultimately ruled unconstitutional, denied benefits to illegal immigrants.

But Steve Camarota, research director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that supports immigration limits, agrees that educating illegal immigrant schoolchildren is costing billions. But he disagreed that barring them from public education is the solution.
"Administratively, it requires school districts to identify those kids and that's a huge challenge. It also would require, politically, a willingness to kick these kids out of school or tell their parents you've got to pay. Children are a sympathetic population, so it's not going to happen," Camarota said.

Frank Sharry, National Immigration Forum executive director, agreed that the political climate has changed.

He cited the Arizona 2004 ballot initiative to cut off services to immigrants. Last month, eight Arizona Republicans in Congress issued a statement opposing the measure.
"The fact is these kids are here," Sharry said. "Is it better that they go to school or they be on street corners? The answer is obvious."

Question: Outline the argument on both sides of the issue: do legal taxpayers have a social responsibility to fund education for children of illegal immigrants? On the other hand, what responsibilities does a school district have to educate all children? (philosophy Question, Please write 1 and 1/2 page)