Tennessee school district calls for expedited closure of southern border

While school boards may not be able to secure the U.S. southern border, they may certainly urge the federal government to do it.

The Rutherford County Tennessee school board passed a resolution 5-1 last month urging Tennessee officials to “expedite the closure of the nation’s borders,” WKRN reports.

The resolution comes as the county, which is located near Nashville, has seen a 140% increase in its English Second Learner (ESL) population in the past decade.

Two years ago, RCS schools had 6,214 ESL students; it now has 8,373, an increase of nearly 35%. This means 16% of the district’s 51,000 students are English language learners, or about 1 in every 6 students.

The growth has financially impacted the district, causing it to create 25 new positions, including 19 ESL teachers. 

The resolution notes the situation has put “considerable financial strain” on local revenue sourced from county taxpayers. 

The board also wants more federal funding to pay for ESL services. 

“The pressure of increasing numbers of ESL students is creating exceptional financial pressures on school systems to provide the services which school systems are legally required to provide; and additional Title III funds are needed to meet the legal requirements imposed on school systems so that the costs of the same is not overwhelmingly borne by local property taxes, local funded taxes, and state funds,” the resolution says. 

Educating ESL students costs an extra $3,500 per student compared to non-ESL students, the report said. 

But Tammy Sharp, the lone board member to oppose the resolution, said it sent a bad message to children. 

“We don’t have anything to do with this, this is a federal-level issue. We should not be doing this,” the Republican told WKRN. “Our federal reps should be talking to our federal liaisons at the D.C. level. This is going to send a message to our children, and not a good one.” 

Rutherford County has about 367,000 residents. Its biggest city is Murfreesboro, home to about 165,000 people. 

Since taking office, President Donald Trump’s administration has taken various actions to secure the southern border.  

Such actions include sending troops to the southern border, resuming border wall construction and conducting Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids to remove criminals from the country. The administration even got Mexico to send 10,000 troops to its side of the border to help enforce American immigration law.