Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) said he hopes a bill making its way through the Tennessee General Assembly regarding illegal immigrant children who attend taxpayer-funded schools in the Volunteer State will be the test case for the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit the 1982 Plyler v. Doe decision.
Earlier this month, the Tennessee Senate voted to pass a bill, SB0836, that would require school districts to verify students’ citizenship or legal residence status and provide for the option of charging tuition for those in the country illegally to attend taxpayer-funded schools and denying enrollment if such tuition is not paid.
The bill, if it were to become law in Tennessee, would be in direct conflict with the 1982 Plyler v. Doe decision by the Supreme Court in which the court ruled that it was unconstitutional to deny enrollment based on legal status in the country.
Johnson said he believes it is time for the Supreme Court to “revisit” the 1982 decision, noting how the number of illegal immigrants has grown drastically from the time in which the court issued the ruling.
“There were 3 million illegals in the entire country in 1982. Fast forward to today, and every state…is a border state, every town’s a border town because of the failed policies of the federal government,” Johnson explained on Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Johnson further acknowledged that the bill would be immediately challenged in court if it were to become law and likely be enjoined as it moves through the court system.
“We sometimes joke that before the ink is dry on the governor’s signature, someone will be at the federal district court…Based on stare decisis, a federal district judge will probably have no choice but to enjoin it because of that 1982 case precedent, but then it can start by getting its way through the court system,” Johnson said.
With regard to the justifications behind the need for such law in Tennessee, Johnson explained how local education agencies have endured substantial costs as a result of enrolling and educating illegal migrant students over the years, which the majority leader said has been approximately $350 million per year.
“We have somewhere around 90,000 children who are in the country illegally who are in public schools in Tennessee. Through careful analysis, it’s been determined that an English Language Learner student costs an additional $3,500 per year…It costs more to teach a child if they don’t know how to speak English,” Johnson explained.
“If you do the math, the number of students that we estimate…is well over $300 million, approaching $350 million per year that Tennessee taxpayers are paying in additional cost to educate these kids,” Johnson added. “So it’s perfectly reasonable that we would empower our districts to assess tuition.”
Johnson further argued that the measure is a 10th Amendment issue, emphasizing state rights in public education.
“It’s a very important 10th Amendment state sovereignty issue here. It’s very consistent with President Trump’s efforts to abolish the federal Department of Education. The federal government has no constitutional authority to play any role in public education – that is left to the states. Show me in the United States Constitution where there is an articulated power delegated to the federal government in that regard. And here we have a 5-4 decision from the Supreme Court that is dictating how we educate kids,” Johnson said.
Tune in now to the Tennessee Bonus Hour of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show – your AMERICA FIRST news talk with State Sen Speaker Jack Johnson @SenJohnson in-studio
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Jack Johnson” by Jack Johnson.
