There are 10.4 million students from immigrant households in public schools, accounting for one in five public school students. Of these students, 78 percent speak a language other than English at home. Overall, one in four public school students now speaks a language other than English at home.
What is truly sad is many of the immigrant children (especially the children of those here illegally) are illiterate in their own language as well as English. A major issue schools have now is trying to teach a child to speak, read, and write in English when they cannot read and or write in their native language. Parents of most of these children are illiterate so there is little to no support from them to help the children learn. Many place no value on education so it becomes hopeless.