Senate Republicans pass bill to bar children without legal status from Tennessee public schools

Protesters react to the to the Senate passage of a bill challenging a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that children who are in the country without permanent legal status have the right to a public education. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

The Tennessee Senate voted 19-13 in favor of legislation that requires immigration or citizenship documentation from the more than 900,000 students attending the state’s public schools. 

Senate bill 836 by Sen. Bo Watson, a Hixson  Republican, would also give Tennessee public charter and K-12 schools the option of barring admission to students unable to provide proof they are legal residents — or charging them tuition.

If ultimately enacted, Tennessee would become the only state in the nation to deny students without legal status the right to a public school education, triggering a certain legal challenge. 

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 center issued a statement after the Senate vote calling the action a “shameful attempt to take away Tennessee children’s freedom.” The public interest law firm is “prepared to defend the right to education for all alongside our partners in court,” the statement said.

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The bill, among the most controversial in the Legislature this year, has drawn strong — but not unanimous — support from Tennessee’s Republican supermajority, pushback from Democrats and public protests that have disrupted legislative hearings. 

Thursday’s debate drew emotional invocations of Christian faith by both Democrats and Republicans opposed to the bill. Ultimately seven Republicans joined Senate Democrats in casting “no” votes.

Senate Speaker Pro Tem Ferrell Haile, a Gallatin Republican, quoted the Biblical prophet Ezekial: “The child will not share the guilt of the parent nor the parent share the guilt of the child.”

“I believe that we are punishing children for the wrongdoing of their parents. I don’t think that’s the proper way to do (this),” Haile said in explaining his decision to vote against the bill.

“We need to address the issue itself rather than using children as a pawn in this,” he said. 

Haile suggested the state instead ascertain how many children without legal immigration status attend Tennessee public schools and then use that data to file a lawsuit against the federal government seeking reimbursement for the cost of their education.

Sen. Charlane Oliver, a Nashville Democrat, told lawmakers she spoke in opposition to the bill with a “heavy heart,” asking Watson what he thought would become of children denied the right to attend school.

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Immigrant children barred from Tennessee public schools have other options, he said.

“The bill does not prohibit private school. It does not prohibit home schooling,” Watson said, noting that families were also free to pay tuition to attend public school if their child was excluded because of immigration status.

Watson also suggested that nonprofit organizations would step forward to help pay students’ tuition, which would be set at roughly the equivalent school districts charge students attending a public school outside their county of residence. 

Watson in a previous legislative hearing did not rule out that the legislation could also lead to the state Department of Education creating rules and regulations to mandate schools to report what they learn about students’ immigration status to federal immigration enforcement authorities.

The bill has yet to be reconciled with its House counterpart, which gives public school districts and public charter schools the option — rather than the mandate — to check student immigration status, exclude children or charge tuition.

The House bill from Majority Leader William Lamberth, a Republican from Portland,  will be heard again in a legislative committee next week before it can move to a floor vote. 

Both Lamberth and Watson have cited the rising costs of English-language instruction in the state’s public schools as driving the policy proposal. 

There is no currently no available data about how many children receiving the instruction have legal immigration status and how many do not. 

Republican backers of the legislation have said they hope it will be challenged in court and ultimately reach the Supreme Court in order to revisit its 1982 Plyler v. Doe decision, which established all children have a right to a public school education in the United States, regardless of immigration status.