While New York City’s own student residents continue to struggle plenty on their own, city officials are meanwhile busy worrying about the fate of all the illegal alien children being welcomed into the Big Apple.
A big part of the problem is a lack of bilingual teachers.
“We’re overwhelmed. We’ve all got migrant students in our classrooms. The teachers don’t speak Spanish. There’s no resources helping us out right now — it’s a very challenging situation,” one frustrated teacher told the New York Post on Tuesday.
This has left illegal alien children in quite a pickle.
“They’re only in English. I don’t understand it. It’s hard and scary for me. I don’t talk to not one friend. I stay quiet. I don’t [know] how they talk English,” one first-grade illegal alien student, Fernanda, told the Post.
Fernanda’s mother, Lida Téllez, added that speaking with the school has been “difficult and complicated” because only a few teachers speak Spanish.
“I haven’t had the chance to figure out what’s going on or talk to anyone at the school because her professor doesn’t speak Spanish and my daughter doesn’t understand what’s happening,” she explained.
“There is one lady at the school that we go to for help sometimes but she’s just one person and can’t help us all the time. It’s frustrating but we can’t really complain,” she added.
New York City Department of Education chancellor David Banks reportedly admitted during a speech Thursday that the lack of bilingual teachers is a “real problem” that has yet to be resolved.
“We’re still working on it, We don’t have enough to spread them around to meet the need of what’s actually going on right now. We’ve got thousands of students who come in, most of whom don’t speak any English,” he said.
Some critics wonder how many bilingual teachers the city lost because of its draconian COVID vaccine mandate:
NEW YORK (PIX11) — “There is a teacher shortage in NYC, there’s a desperate need for bilingual educators to support students.” How many bilingual teachers left over the vaccine mandate? @NYCMayor let me guess @NYCDCAS doesn’t have that info https://t.co/WV34QqJMZo
— John D. Macari Jr. 🇺🇸🗽 (@JohnDMacari) September 16, 2022
All this points to a tough situation, for sure, but critics say it distracts from the problems being faced by American students.
Chalkbeat, an education-focused nonprofit, reported over the summer that, despite leading the country in public school spending, New York doesn’t lead the country in educational performance.
“Based on these spending levels, the researchers predict that most New York districts would perform well above average on national fourth and eighth grade math and reading exams, while New York City would be above average for a large city,” according to Chalkbeat.
“In fact, students in the state as a whole performed at roughly the national average on federal exams taken in 2019. Students in New York City, the best-funded large district in the country, also scored at about the average for a large American city and below the overall national average,” the nonprofit notes.
New York sees disconnect between school spending, test scores https://t.co/lqLwCDAsZG pic.twitter.com/6xbJcMGEXu
— Chalkbeat New York (@ChalkbeatNY) August 28, 2022
Their performance is low enough that some families are reportedly fleeing NYC’s public education system.
“Gotham’s regular public schools are now on track to lose another 30,000 kids by year’s end. That extends a decade-long trend that’s seen thousands fleeing every year, including a mind-blowing 120,000 kids these past five years alone,” the Post reported in July.
“Total K-12 enrollment in Department of Education schools back in 2000-2001 topped 1.1 million, versus just 919,000 in 2021-22, a 17% drop (at a time when the city’s population was growing). By next year, the loss may top 20%.”
“We have a massive hemorrhaging of students — massive hemorrhaging. We’re in a very dangerous place in the number of students that we are dropping,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams reportedly said over the summer.
Some parents are relocating their children to private charter schools solely because of the influx of illegal aliens.
Parents like Maria, a 29-year-old fashion designer, who told the Post that because of the illegal aliens, her daughter isn’t being challenged in school anymore.
“She’s in the third grade. Her teacher is giving her lower-level work due to the immigrants. They’re making the curriculum easier. The work is too easy for my daughter. There’s first-grade, second-grade and third-grade levels in her class. It’s ridiculous,” she said.
Maria added that she’s “been looking at a private school on 42nd Street” to relocate her daughter to.
Another parent, Cooper, also said he’s “trying to change schools” for his 7-year-old son, who’s reportedly in second grade.
During a press conference last Friday — the same one in which he declared a state of emergency — Adams revealed that the city has enrolled “over 5,500 [illegal alien] children in public schools” in the past few weeks.
‘You promised a Sanctuary City!’ Mayor Adams declares state-of-emergency in NYC and breaks the internet https://t.co/fUhWGVxKyH pic.twitter.com/mhJMae2HlT
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) October 7, 2022
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.