Article on English Language Classes and Who Pays the Bill

This past week saw the Morning News of Rogers put up a front page story about the possible expansion of an English Language Adult Education Program. The Northwest Technical Institute is a vo-tech school. The expansion would be to teach people to speak English.

I like the idea of people learning to speak English. What I do like is being sent the bill. If the immigrants are legal, they should learn English- at their expense, not mine.

The article notes that classes are "free", but then specifies that the institute is supported with a combination of federal and state funds. That's not "free", its only "free" to those taking the classes.

My gut tells me that there are no safeguards in place to ensure that these public benefits are used only by US Citizens or legal aliens in this country. I don't want to borrow any more money from China to teach an illegal alien English. If the course at the Institute are "free" then maybe there should be some tuition assistance for legal aliens and US citizens, but something tells me if I want to take a welding class there I would have to pay some from my own pocket. Wouldn't it be a shame if the only fully taxpayer funded classes were those largely teaching illegal aliens English?