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Number of ESOL students drops
The number of Prince William public school students speaking English as a second language (ESOL students) has dropped in the last year. However, school officials had expected the number to drop more than it did."It's higher than projected, but it's a decline from one year to the next," school division spokesman Ken Blackstone said on Monday.
Last year, the school division had 13,409 ESOL students in September. This year, officials had planned on 12,600 but instead, they got 13,130.
Both sides of the immigration issue were quick to jump on the numbers.
"It was a major screwup," Alanna Almeda, creator of the anti-BVBL blog, said Monday of the ensuing budget shortfall. "I think the [immigration crackdown] resolution had unintended effects and this is one of those things that they didn't quite count on and now we're short."
But Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart (R), the champion of the immigration crackdown, sees it differently.
"The numbers have dropped," he said. "They haven't dropped as much as the school system hoped, but they've dropped."
Even more significant, Stewart said, is that the county has "eliminated the rapid increases we'd been seeing" in the number of ESOL students.
However, according to Blackstone, politics doesn't really come into play at all.
"It's a function of the budgeting process," he said. "Adjustments like this are not unexpected; in fact, we plan for them."
Blackstone said growth in the school system has slowed overall and he added that the decrease in the ESOL population can't be attributed to any single factor.
Last year, Prince William schools had a total of 72,654 students. This year, officials planned on 73,321 but got 336 more than that.
It's not unusual, Blackstone said, because a school budget, like a corporation budget, has to be created with an eye on the future. Planners come up with the best forecasts possible but they understand that adjustments will be made as the situation evolves.
"There has to be that flexibility built in," he said.
The average cost of educating a Prince William student is more than $11,000. The figure is lower for elementary and middle school students and higher for high school students and those with special needs.
ESOL students cost an average of $2,841 more, Blackstone said, but pointed out that the figure is also an average.
The ESOL cost depends greatly on each student's grade level, level of English proficiency and other needs. Some students labeled ESOL have no additional cost because they are advanced enough that they do not require special language services, he said.
There is no way of knowing whether a student is in the country legally or not so the decrease does not necessarily mean illegal immigrants are moving out of Prince William.The bottom line, Blackstone said, is that the adjustment to the enrollment projection is a normal part of the budgeting process and will not cause a great deal of difficulty for the school system.
"Every year, there are always adjustments that are made," he said.
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