NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Some Tennessee lawmakers are doubling down on a bill that would let school districts opt out of enrolling undocumented students, saying it’s a direct challenge to the 1982 Supreme Court case that ruled states cannot deny public education to undocumented children.
House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) told reporters Thursday he “absolutely” anticipates litigation if the bill passes.
“I don’t see anything wrong with it,” Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) added. “Let’s see what happens— if it changes in the court, or if the court still upholds that decision and feels like that’s the best way to go. I feel comfortable that we’ll find out in court.”
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The bill comes after many Tennessee school districts have experienced a surge in undocumented students, which Leader Lamberth and Speaker Sexton said has stretched school districts’ resources thin.
In Rutherford County, the school board recently passed a resolution urging Tennessee leaders to “expedite the closure of the nation’s borders” after the district’s English Learner (EL) student population grew by more than 2,000 students from May 2023 until now. As a result, the school district has had to create 25 additional positions and 19 more growth positions for EL teachers, causing a “considerable financial strain” on local revenue.
“When you have a high population of English as a second language [students], some of them could be legal here, most of them are probably not legal here, but when it comes time for the growing season, they just pick up and they leave school. They don’t come back, so that’s detrimental to the school system and detrimental to everything we’re trying to achieve in the school system,” Speaker Sexton said.
Speaker Sexton elaborated that when undocumented students stopped showing up to school, it led to chronic absenteeism and worsening test scores, negatively impacting districts overall.
When asked where the undocumented students would go if the bill to allow districts to bar them from public schools passes and is upheld, Leader Lamberth said they could move to a sanctuary state or return to their home countries.
“Under the last four years, you’ve had an absolute flood of illegal immigrants coming into this country,” Leader Lamberth said. “Those illegal immigrants are not going to be able to benefit from the services that have been reserved for legal immigrants or U.S. citizens, period. If they don’t like that, they can go to another state that’s a sanctuary state, but we’re not going to take money away from the educational system that’s there for legal residents and U.S. citizens and educate children who are illegal immigrants.”
Republican lawmakers told reporters a lot has changed since the 1982 Supreme Court case that made it unconstitutional for school districts to deny undocumented students a public education, and they would welcome the opportunity to revisit the issue.
“Forty years ago when this decision was sent down by the U.S. Supreme Court, you had a very, very small number of individuals that had come to this country illegally,” Leader Lamberth said. “I get it, the court was split 5-4 on that issue, and now we’re revisiting it at a time when the entire world has changed, in large part because of four years of a completely porous border and complete ineptitude on behalf of that president [Biden] to protect our borders and keep illegal immigrants from streaming into this country.”
According to a 2019 analysis of U.S. Census data, there were an estimated 128,000 illegal immigrants in Tennessee. Around 10,000 were estimated to be school-aged children enrolled in Tennessee public schools.
