01-04-2025
TN bill may not make schools check students' legal status
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) — Tennessee school systems would no longer be required to check all enrolling students' citizenship or legal immigrant status if an amendment to a Senate bill stays in place — and at least one area system would opt out.
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'No,' Johnson City School Board Chairman Jonathan Kinnick told News Channel 11 when asked Monday whether the system would begin requiring students to prove citizenship or legal residency. 'I can't imagine any system that would do that. I know for sure Johnson City will not. If the students are here, we're going to teach them.'
Until a week ago, Senate Bill 0836 and its House companion bill, House Bill 0793, had language requiring all school systems to set up such systems. Sen. Bo Watson (R-Hixson) has amended his version, though it still allows schools to check students' status and then deny undocumented students enrollment if they don't pay tuition.
That leaves the bill, whose House version currently maintains the requirement for all systems to check student legal status, almost certainly on track to land in court if it becomes law. The 1982 Supreme Court's Plyler v Doe' decision established, in a narrow 5-4 vote, that all children in the U.S., regardless of legal status, have a right to free public education.
'This issue will quite likely create a lawsuit, which Tennessee does not shy away from,' State Rep. David Hawk (R-Greeneville) told News Channel 11 Monday.
'Tennessee has been part of some Supreme Court decisions here recently where we have challenged what might be the status quo,' Hawk said. 'This is, I feel the time and place to go into this issue and see if the Supreme Court still feels the same way they did back in the 80s.'
Hawk recently added his name as a House co-sponsor and said he did so after seeing Watson's amendment.
'I'm not about forcing local government to do anything,' Hawk said. 'If it's deemed to be an issue within their communities, then I feel they need a right to do that. But nothing will force a school district to participate in this program.'
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That will be true only if the Senate version's opt-out makes it into a final bill that then passes both chambers of the General Assembly. If that does happen, Hawk said he believes it will represent the will of many of his constituents.
'Empirical data that says illegal immigration is a top three issue with the economy and education,' Hawk said, pointing to local polling. 'Illegal immigration always sits somewhere near the top three or four in terms of issues that my constituents want me to look into.'
That doesn't mean Hawk expects any school districts in Northeast Tennessee to opt into any new law that results.
'Northeast Tennessee, our communities may or may not want this tool in the toolbox, as the old cliche goes, but some communities across Tennessee are asking for that,' he said.
Watson and Rep. William Lamberth, the House sponsor, both have claimed that English Language Learner classes have been putting a heavy strain on some school systems' budgets. But Kinnick said that hasn't been the case in one of the more demographically diverse systems in Northeast Tennessee.
'I lost count of the number of languages, but I think 60 or 70 different languages,' Kinnick said. 'But they're here. We're going to teach them.'
He said the legal advice his board has received is to follow the current law of the land.
'We want to teach them,' Kinnick said. 'Our take from our attorney is that we're going to honor the Supreme Court decision with Plyler versus Doe and it doesn't matter what the immigration status is.'
Local immigration attorney McKenna Cox — who said she believes the amendment was added to 'potentially pacify people who were very up in arms about it from all political sides' — isn't surprised at Kinnick's approach.
'In my experience, most schools aren't particularly excited about having additional requirements added to them and/or about not being able to educate as many children as they can,' Cox said.
And while Cox vehemently opposes the bill in any form, she agrees with Hawk that it's likely to have much broader implications if it becomes law.
'I think that's really what this will become, is kind of a microcosm of a nationwide conflict funded by many different groups on both sides, to try to set this aside or make it the law of the land.'
That would require at least one school system to opt in, which wouldn't surprise her.
'It gets to the very heart of established precedent and law in this country,' she said. 'It gets to the very heart of the political moment that we are in, which is, we're seeing all kinds of anti-immigrant legislation across the country.
''Can we discriminate' becomes a major question right now. The Supreme Court in the past has said, 'no, you can't,' and we're going to have to see if that changes.'
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Hawk said he believes the financial pressures on some school systems justify the effort.
'If a local government is seeing a financial burden with illegal immigration in their educational system, then this is a good way for them to take action,' Hawk said. 'You may see five to 10 that may participate in that because … they are such fast-growing school districts that it may be a financial burden to them, more so than other school districts.'
The bill is on Tuesday's Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee calendar – where it's already been deferred twice.
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