Auditors estimated the cost for educating undocumented high school students at $20.7 million to $32.1 million. The estimated cost for educating kindergartners through eighth-graders was $34.2 million to $53.3 million. The audit doesn't include U.S. citizen children of undocumented immigrants.

The totals were based on an estimated per-pupil expenditure of $5,140 for students in five school districts who require low-income and English Language Learner services, regardless of immigration status.

The audit's estimated per-pupil cost was $5,500 for high school students, compared to $5,000 for a student who doesn't require those services.

The cost was estimated at $4,900 for elementary school students, compared to $4,800 for students who don't need the services.

The five districts — Granite, Ogden, Provo, Salt Lake and Tooele — represent 80 percent of all "highly impacted school money," which is in part based on the number of low-income and English Language Learner students.

The estimates are lower than the Office of Education's statewide average of $5,322 per student for 2006. Auditors said their methodology was likely different from the state's and may not have taken into account all of the costs in the statewide estimate.

During the legislative session, Latino community leaders had called on the state to conduct a broader audit and suggested as a model one done in Texas, which showed undocumented immigrants produced $1.58 billion in state revenues, but that "local governments bore the burden of $1.44 billion in uncompensated health-care costs and local law enforcement costs not paid for by the state."

During Tuesday's meeting, House Minority Leader Ralph Becker, D-Salt Lake, repeated that call, saying, "We're really only getting half of the equation."

Afterward, Rep. Christopher Herrod, R-Provo, agreed. Herrod, who sponsored legislation in this year's session to curtail benefits to illegal immigrants, said, "We do need a comprehensive study. Without numbers we can't make sound policy."

He said the educational audit by itself was useful because "it lets people see there is a cost to illegal immigration."

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com