KATY, TX (Covering Katy News)—In a surprising revelation at Monday's school board meeting, the Katy School District admitted to a significant budget blind spot—the district does not know the cost of educating undocumented students.
During a budget discussion, Trustee Morgan Calhoun asked if the district knew the cost of educating undocumented students.
"I don't know the answer," chief financial officer Chris Smith said.
Smith said the district knows the cost of other student demographics, such as the number of free and reduced lunch students, dyslexia students, special needs students, etc.
The reason the district does not know the cost of education undocumented students is because it is unlawful to ask, according to Superintendent Ken Gregorski
Calhoun told Covering Katy she wanted to know if there were metrics that would allow the district to estimate the cost of educating undocumented students so that Katy ISD could ask legislators to reimburse some of those costs.
"When we go (to Austin). When we talk to our legislators about public funding, that also has to be on our minds as we go forward," Calhoun told administrators.
The questions come as the school board is attempting to close a multi-million dollar deficit.
"Katy ISD is facing a nearly $8 million deficit. I aim to ensure that our school district has the funds needed to cover education costs for every student, regardless of immigration status," Calhoun said. "To accomplish this goal, we must know the student population demographics to obtain the proper funding from the state. At Monday's meeting, I asked for a method of estimating that cost while complying with Texas law, which does not allow any student to be questioned about immigration status."
Governor Gregg Abbott voiced a similar concern during a visit to Houston in 2022, but Abbott wanted the Federal government to pay for educating undocumented students. He said the cost for school districts continues to grow with people from more nations coming over the border illegally.
"The only language barrier initially was Spanish. Now we have people coming from more than 105 different countries across the globe," he told the Texas Tribune. "Who has that level of expertise where we can find the teachers who know all these multitude of different languages to where we would be able to educate kids and think how much that would cost?"
Two Houston media reports have accused Calhoun of wanting the state to track undocumented immigrants. Calhoun said those reports are incorrect.
"I suggested that we push our legislators to help fund some of the added cost of educating the undocumented children who are in our district," Calhoun said.