A Tennessee Republican leading the effort to exclude some immigrant children from public schools has refused to rule out the possibility his bill could also force educators to report students to U.S. immigration authorities.
Sen. Bo Watson, a Republican from Hixson, is cosponsoring the legislation to require immigration status checks of every student at each one of Tennessee’s more than 1700 K-12 public and charter schools.
School districts would then have the option to deny children without legal status access to an education or charge their families tuition.
The bill’s language contains no requirement that schools report students without legal status to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but Watson told lawmakers Tuesday that was “something to be considered in the rules and regulations” the state Department of Education would develop should the bill become law.
The prospect drew immediate pushback from Sen. London Lamar, a Memphis Democrat.
“I think that sets a dangerous precedent for our schools, where folks go to schools to be protected, and now children are going to be subjected to be wrangled up by ICE officials if they can’t provide the appropriate documents,” said Lamar, one of two Democrats on the 11-member Senate Finance committee.
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“I think that sets a dangerous precedent for our schools,” said Sen. London Lamar, a Memphis Democrat. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Sen. Bo Watson, a Hixson Republican, and sponsor of the bill, would not rule out the prospect of school-age children being turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday voted to advance a bill that would challenge a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that all children, regardless of immigration status, are entitled to an education. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Lynne McFarland, 80, of Nashville, is carried down the stairs in the Cordell Hull Legislative Building after she refused to leave a Senate committee room. (John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
A Tennessee state trooper calls Metro Nashville Police to arrest Lynne McFarland, who is held by a state trooper after she was carried out of the Cordell Hull Legislative Building. McFarland was released on bond Tuesday afternoon. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Lawmakers on the committee voted 7-4 to approve the measure, with two Republicans joining Democrats to vote “no.” Tuesday’s vote was the bill’s last stop in the Senate before it heads for a full vote on the floor.
The bill has yet to be reconciled with its House counterpart, which gives school districts the option – rather than the mandate – to check student immigration status, exclude children or charge tuition.
A statement by the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition called the bill’s advancement a “troubling step towards exclusionary policies undermining our public education system’s foundational principles of equality and access.”
A test case
If enacted, Tennessee would likely become the only state in the nation to deny students without legal status the right to a public school education.
Texas, Indiana, Idaho and Ohio are weighing similar school exclusion policies, but Tennessee is the only state in which a bill is actively moving through its legislature, according to the National Immigration Law Center.
The bill has drawn large and often loud protests as it winds its way through the legislative process, but Tuesday’s meeting drew a smaller and more muted turnout.
One protester, 80-year-old Lynne McFarland, was carried out of the Capitol by state troopers after she refused to leave voluntarily.
Tennessee GOP bills target public school education for immigrant children without legal status
Republican backers of the bill have said they hope it serves as a test case to overturn Plyler v. Doe, the 1982 Supreme Court case that established that all children have a constitutionally-protected right to a public school education regardless of immigration status.
Watson on Tuesday said that the legislation was necessary to address the rising costs of illegal immigration for Tennessee taxpayers, including a steep increase in state expenditures for English-Language Learner (ELL) instruction since 2016.
“The proposition is that we continue to increase exponentially the funding we are providing for ELL education, and I have long felt we need to have a conversation imposed upon the citizens in funding ELL,” Watson said.
“While ELL incorporates both documented and undocumented students, it is difficult or impossible to tease out the difference between the two, and I use ELL funding as at least a correlation of what may be occurring within the undocumented community,” he said.
Sen. Jeff Yarbro, a Democrat, said that in his Nashville district 80% of English language learners are U.S. citizens or legal residents. Yarbro argued the exclusion of children without legal status would do little to reduce ELL costs.
What’s the long term-cost of having a group of people who are, at the state’s direction, illiterate and just creating a long term underclass in society. That tends not to work well.
– Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville
Tennessee schools would also continue to receive consistent funding even if immigrant children are disenrolled. Gov. Bill Lee’s school voucher bill, enacted earlier this year, guarantees steady funding to schools experiencing enrollment drops.
Instead, Yarbro said, the state may incur greater costs by preventing children from attending school.
“What’s the long term-cost of having a group of people who are, at the state’s direction, illiterate and just creating a long term underclass in society,” he said. “That tends not to work well.”
A fiscal analysis of the bill noted it may also jeopardize over $1 billion in federal education funding to the state for violating federal civil rights law.
‘People, humans, only get to be 6 or 7 once’
Yarbro questioned why Republican lawmakers weren’t focused on enacting legislation that punishes employers who rely on immigrant workers if the aim of the bill is to reduce illegal immigration.
“Instead, we are in this legislation punishing kids. Children. For conduct that, regardless of what you think here, certainly isn’t the 6-year-old or 7-year-old’s fault,” he said. “People, humans, only get to be 6 or 7 once.”
GOP bill allowing Tennessee schools to deny an education to immigrant children advances
Yarbro also questioned the financial cost of requiring school officials to verify immigration documents of every student, noting the complexity of immigration law could prove challenging to local schools.
“If you talk to districts and think about what it means to convert all 1800 public schools into institutions that review the citizenship status of every student every year, that is going to be massively expensive,” he said.
Watson, however, noted that school districts already require parents and guardians to produce documents as a requirement for enrollment.
“I believe they’re already asking for this information and I believe the costs would be insignificant,” he said.
The House version of the bill, sponsored by Leader William Lamberth, a Portland Republican, is scheduled to be heard in the House Government Operations Committee. No date for the House hearing nor a Senate floor vote has yet been set.
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