In the short term, the report says, immigrants generally receive more in services than they pay in taxes because their households tend to have more school-age children than natives do, they tend to be poorer, and they are likely to make less money and have less property. Therefore, they pay less in taxes. But when looked at over the course of a lifetime, the picture shifts. But as immigrants leave school and become productive workers, they repay most or all of the cost of those services in the form of taxes. However, that payoff does not always go to the same state or town that paid to educate them.
Education is a critical factor in how productive immigrants become as taxpaying adults.
But I'm not prepared to say that education is the factor that produces the biggest return because we just don't know. The study examined two states, New Jersey and California, and concluded that immigrants pose a greater burden on states with larger immigrant populations. The report makes no policy recommendations. It looks at all immigrants and does not distinguish between those who are legal or illegal. The general consensus among educators is that children need to be educated.