Rutherford County School Board Discusses Drastic Increase In Non-English Speaking Students

Image Credit: RCTV / YouTube

The Tennessee Conservative [By Olivia Lupia] –

A video uploaded to Rumble and X by Patriot Punk Network of the September 30^th Rutherford County Board of Education work session shows a clip of the board discussing a surge of English as a Second Language (ESL) students over the past few years. 

The approximately 30 second video conversation consists of a back-and-forth between a couple of the board members who give specific numbers regarding the increase in enrollment of ESL students the school district has experienced over the past decade and specifically the past two.

One member asks, “A large percentage of our growth last year was ESL. Do you know what the percentage is?”

Another responds, “The last 10 years, our growth, we’ve grown 11,600 students, 5,800 are ESL students, so 50% of our growth the last 10 years has been English learners.”

The next question, “Has there been a sharper increase in the last couple years?”

And a final confirmation, “Yes. The last two to three years.”

View the complete section of the school board meeting here (starting at timestamp 31:23) –

Another one of Patriot Punk Network’s posts on X, containing what appear to be photocopies of board materials, shows two separate pie charts breaking down which of four countries the newcomers to the schools are from and the number that have enrolled from each country since 8/7/24.

In the last two years, no country, including Venezuela, Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, had less than 240 newcomers, with Venezuela and Mexico ranking highest at 638 and 411, respectively.

Since just August 7^th of this year, less than 60 days, Venezuela and Mexico continue to rank highest with 110 new enrollments each and Guatemala and Honduras both hovering around 50, for a total of 327 new students requiring classes to learn English. 

While the board makes no direct mention of the border crisis or migrants, there is an implication that these numbers are directly tied to the illegal immigrant surge being experienced in Tennessee and nationwide. 

The Tennessee Conservative has previously reported on the expense to taxpayers of educating children of illegal immigrants, relaying there are approximately 50 thousand children of illegal aliens attending local schools in Tennessee alone.

The True Cost To Educate Children Of Illegal Immigrants In Tennessee

As the federal government mandates these children be educated, school budgets and resources are drained as these children are often with limited English proficiency (LEP) and require additional attention and special courses. Yet none of these families pay taxes, meaning there is no offset for the schools’ increased expenses.

There is a solution for Tennessee citizens seeking to stop the gross misuse of taxpayer dollars, which is to stop the funding of illegal alien education, pillar number one in The Tennessee Conservative’s 4 Pillars to Stopping Illegal Immigration in Tennessee.

While this is a broad statement, and certainly easier said than done, its principle should inspire Tennesseans across the state to take an active role in their local and state governing processes and bodies and contact their legislators, encouraging them to create or support legislation on the topic.

Olivia Lupia is a political refugee from Colorado who now calls Tennessee home. A proud follower of Christ, she views all political happenings through a Biblical lens and aims to utilize her knowledge and experience to educate and equip others. Olivia is an outspoken conservative who has run for local office, managed campaigns, and been highly involved with state & local GOPs, state legislatures, and other grassroots organizations and movements. Olivia can be reached at olivia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.