Chicago – May 01, 2025
After weeks of protests and heated debate, Tennessee’s Republican supermajority decided to pause a bill that would have allowed public K-12 schools to deny enrollment to children lacking legal immigration status. However, the lawmakers backing the bill indicated they were not finished with the effort.
Republicans nationwide had aimed to provoke a legal challenge to the law, hoping it would reach the U.S. Supreme Court, similar to how a Mississippi law led to the Court overturning federal abortion rights in 2022.
The Supreme Court had guaranteed the right to an education for all students, regardless of immigration status, in the 1982 Plyler v. Doe decision. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank behind the Trump administration’s Project 2025 policy blueprint, had encouraged states in 2023 to pass laws that would challenge the Plyler ruling.
In a 2024 brief, the Heritage Foundation claimed that unregulated immigration over the previous three years might have cost the public education system billions of dollars, and argued that large numbers of non-English-speaking students negatively affected classroom dynamics.
Similar concerns about the financial burden of education emerged in legislative discussions across various states. Although no official data existed on how many students without legal status were in public schools, Republicans highlighted the growing population of English learners. However, data from the advocacy group EdTrust suggested that most of these students were U.S. citizens.
Despite the coordinated efforts in several states, all attempts to challenge Plyler in 2024 failed. Bills in Texas, Indiana, and New Jersey stalled. In Oklahoma, the Republican state superintendent introduced a similar proposal, but Republican Governor Kevin Stitt promised to block it.
Tennessee’s bill advanced the furthest. In April, it narrowly passed the state Senate. Republican Senator Bo Watson, a co-sponsor of the bill, argued during the Senate debate that the measure aimed to address financial concerns.
