State Republicans have been operating mask-off for a while now, being transparent in their contempt for immigrants, trans folks and people of color. The latest effort in that campaign comes courtesy of Rep. Bruce Griffey, who introduced a bill to defund education for undocumented immigrants in public schools, challenging a 1982 Supreme Court ruling.
Griffey’s proposed legislation would bar districts from receiving state funding for undocumented immigrants and from counting them in requests for funding. The districts would also have the option to not enroll students.
The Paris, Tenn., representative, who is still calling for the decertification of the 2020 presidential election, also introduces some numbers likely intended to rile up his base.
“More than a quarter of Tennessee’s budget — over $4.8 billion a year — is allocated to funding K-12 education,” Griffey says in a statement. “According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, in 2017, $383 million of the state’s education budget went to funding education for illegals.”
But the numbers aren't really all that alarming. Some quick math shows that the funding in question accounts for just 8 percent of the total education budget. What’s more alarming is that $4.8 billion figure. No wonder so many people argued for “a bigger pie” at a recent town hall on education — not only that, it’s not clear what the future of Tennessee’s public education funding mechanisms will be.
The idea that undocumented immigrants are a burden on public systems is an old trope for Republicans, and one that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Per the New American Economy, undocumented immigrants in Tennessee paid an estimated $96.1 million in state and local taxes and $158.6 million in federal taxes in 2019. Further, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients (who tend to be school-age and young professionals) and DACA-eligible individuals paid an estimated $16.3 million in state and local taxes that year.
1982's Plyler v. Doe determined that public schools couldn’t deny education to any children, including undocumented immigrants. Griffey’s proposal would likely be challenged in the courts, but maybe that’s the point. His attempted attack on the ruling is similar to the assaults on Roe v. Wade that are threatening abortion access across the county. It also comes across as an attack on districts that have higher populations of undocumented immigrants — if they can’t get funding for those students, they’ll have to pay more from their own coffers.
Sure enough, Griffey’s xenophobia is plain: “I want to curtail the ability of illegals to obtain jobs or benefits in Tennessee. I want to make Tennessee the very last place that illegals want to come.”
This particular aspect of Griffey’s noxious crusade against undocumented immigrants is out of touch. Support for young undocumented immigrants is high among voters in both parties. Griffey’s spiteful legislation may well peter out like his 2019 slate of xenophobic bills, which didn't get significant support from his fellow Republicans.
With the public comment period on education still open, residents from across the state can weigh in by emailing tnedu.funding@tn.gov
