The true cost of a free education

In 1982, the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Plyler v. Doe determined the constitutionality of denying students a free public education on account of their immigration status in hopes of settling the question once and for all. In 1975, Texas had passed a law prohibiting the allocation of state funds to educating students who were not “legally admitted” into the country, and school districts in the state used various methods to deny enrollment to these students: some began charging tuition while others simply expelled their students. The Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) led the charge in bringing a suit to the Supreme Court, arguing that the policy violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Court ultimately sided with MALDEF, striking down the law as unconstitutional, expanding the protection of the Constitution and free access to public education to all non-citizens in the country as well. Citing its decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Court wrote that laws like the one in Texas would “deny [these children] the ability to live within the structure of our civic institutions, and foreclose any realistic possibility they will contribute in even the smallest way to the progress of our Nation.” Education reformers rejoiced, as did undocumented communities. Today, the decision is celebrated as one of the most important milestones in education law and policy in United States history.

And yet, education is still not free. In the 37 years since the decision, various conceptions of the law have created new education roadblocks for undocumented students. In terms of formal measures, Proposition 187, passed in California in 1994, prohibited schools from admitting any undocumented students and required schools to report them to immigration authorities within 45 days. Though this policy was eventually challenged and struck down in federal court, similar policies have continued to spring up around the country. In Elmwood Park, Illinois, the local school district denied enrollment to a student who had overstayed his tourist visa in 2006, a decision that was eventually reversed when the Illinois State Board of Education threatened to withhold funding. In 2011, a law in Alabama required schools to record the immigration status of all new students and to submit the data to the state Board of Education each year, and it remained a law for two years before it was permanently blocked in 2013. Despite the fact that these laws were eventually repealed, the Plyler decision does not seem to have deterred states from continuing to make attempts to deny undocumented students an education.

Moreover, states have also implemented unofficial guidelines to circumvent the law in order to avoid challenges in the courts. For example, some schools require immigrant families to submit Social Security numbers or other citizen-specific documents when enrolling, and though the Department of Justice has issued guidance letters warning against this practice, they still persist. Other informal obstacles, including the slow processing of complicated paperwork, a lack of translation services, and misinterpretation of state residency laws on the part of school officials, are administrative deficiencies that could be ameliorated with the proper resources, underscoring the need for more funding than in the status quo.

Not all hope is lost, however. Cities across the country have gone the opposite route, fully embracing their undocumented students and adopting sanctuary policies in their schools. Amongst them are Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston, which require school district superintendents to approve any Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests to visit a school, and Minneapolis, Sacramento, and Des Moines, which require advance notice from ICE agents to enter a school.

Plyler v. Doe was supposed to settle the debate over free education for undocumented students, but what schools do not charge in the form of money comes in the form of other costs. The freedom to go to school means the freedom to enter a space without feeling unwanted or putting yourself at risk of being removed, freedoms that many students still do not have in this country. Three decades after Plyler, while some pockets of the country have complied with the ruling, others have found ways to skirt the law without any consequences. This disparity, and the politicization of the immigration debate that continues to drive it, show us that we have a long way to go before all students have an education that is truly free.