Oklahoma schools superintendent bills Kamala Harris $474 million for education costs, citing illegal immigration

Oklahoma’s top elected education official sent a “demand letter” to Vice President Kamala Harris that essentially served as a bill for how much the state’s illegal immigration crisis cost Sooner State schools during her tenure as a foreign watchdog.

“As the statewide elected Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Oklahoma and Executive Director of the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE), it is my responsibility to ensure that the resources allocated to our public schools are accounted for and used in the most effective manner for the benefit of the education of Oklahoma students,” he wrote. Ryan Walters to Harris.

In August, Walters directed the department to work with school districts to calculate the financial impact taxpayers have on undocumented immigrant minors.

That analysis resulted in an estimate of $474.9 million, which he demanded from Harris in the letter.

“This demand amount is necessarily an estimate because only your administration knows the true number of illegal immigrants crossing this country’s borders and the actual costs of illegal immigration,” he said, calling on Harris to provide a potentially more accurate accounting of the costs incurred by Oklahoma schools.

“Under your leadership, education costs due to illegal immigration have increased astronomically. Your failed oversight and efforts are the direct cause of the current crisis Oklahoma and other states are now facing. Oklahoma taxpayers, schools, teachers and parents should not bear the burden of your failures. They deserve better,” Walters said.

In an interview Tuesday, Walters said the border crisis is “crippling” Oklahoma schools and that paying for the education of these minors is “the largest unfunded mandate in the country.”

He said Oklahoma became the first state to count education costs as a result of the border crisis and effectively billed the Biden-Harris administration for financial inequality.

In August, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order directing hospitals to collect cost information in a similar manner for patients “not lawfully present in the United States.”

“Because she was a frontier czar, she failed our country,” Walters said. “Open borders have impacted every aspect of society, but they have overrun our schools, destroyed our families. And it’s time to hold them accountable for it.”

Walters said he encourages other states to follow suit and calculate the true costs of illegal immigration to show the true impact of the crisis on the country.

Harris’ office did not respond to a request for comment.

Asked whether he expected a response or money transfers, Walters said the administration has a long history of “failing to respond to the needs of all Americans.”

“I know they magically pretended to care here in the last 60 days of their campaign. But the reality is you saw story after story, data after data, and they ignored it,” he said.