The Tennessee State Senate Committee on Education voted on Wednesday to advance legislation that would allow local school districts to charge tuition to the families of illegal immigrants, and if those living in the country illegally refuse to pay, to decline enrollment.
As originally submitted, Senate Bill (SB) 836 by State Senator Bo Watson (R-Hixson) (pictured above, right) would have given school districts the authority to decline enrollment to students who are in the country illegally, drawing concerns it would violate precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court, making it destined to be blocked by a federal court.
The version passed by the Senate Education Committee was amended radically, and now specifically references the 1982 Supreme Court case, Plyler vs. Doe, which established that school districts cannot deny access to public schools based on immigration status.
Lawmakers specifically note in the amended legislation that, over the intervening four decades, “the number of illegal aliens present in the United States has nearly quadrupled,” with federal agencies estimating about 11 million in the country in total.
They additionally note that of these, about 1.3 million have exhausted all legal opportunities to pursue legal residence or citizenship in the country, and ostensibly may now be either awaiting or evading removal by federal authorities.
With these facts considered, the amended legislation would allow school districts and charter schools to require students provide proof of citizenship, that they are seeking to obtain citizenship, or otherwise are in the country legally, in order to receive an education at taxpayers’ expense.
Should noncitizens be unable to provide any evidence of lawful residence, citizenship, or progress toward citizenship, and have been determined by the federal government to be in the country illegally, then a school district “may elect not to enroll the student without the student or the parent or guardian of the student paying tuition” in order to attend.
Districts and charter schools would also be tasked with establishing a standard rate for tuition, with the legislation mandating that it should not exceed the amount of funding spent per pupil at the school per year.
Aaron Gulbransen, the leader of the Tennessee Conservatives Coalition and former reporter for The Tennessee Star, recently suggested the bill was an attempt to begin the process of reversing the 1982 court decision.
“This bill is designed to pass the General Assembly and then be handed over to the greatest attorney general in the United States of America, Jonathan Skrmetti, to take it through the legal process, go to the U.S. Supreme Court, and get it overturned,” said Gulbransen last month.
After the Senate Education Committee passed the amended version of the legislation, Gulbransen said during a Thursday appearance on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show that the amendment was written to make the legislation more likely to accomplish this goal.
“In my understanding of this, this was done to give it a stronger case to overturn Plyler v. Doe,” Gulbransen told Michael Patrick Leahy, the Editor-in-Chief of The Star, on Thursday.
The Tennessee State House has assigned its version of the bill, House Bill 793 by Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) (pictured above, left), to the K-12 Subcommittee, which will consider it next Tuesday.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
They should be contacting ICE so they can remove them from the country
So just keep watering it down until it is meaningless. That is so typical of our spineless legislators. I have no children or even grandchildren in Tennessee public schools but I am already taxed to the hilt to pay for citizens’ and legal residents’ children. I can live with that but even that is getting overbearing. BUT I am strongly opposed to paying for illegals to get an education on my back. I am so done with those that called themselves conservatives legislators.