Calls Grow For Red States To Challenge SCOTUS Ruling On Schooling For Illegal Aliens

By: Shawn Fleetwood | The Federalist

The culmination of a disastrous 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision granting illegal aliens access to American public schools has seemingly taken center stage in Charlotte, North Carolina, this week.

After the Department of Homeland Security revealed Saturday that U.S. immigration officials would be conducting enforcement operations throughout the city, local media began reporting that an unusually high number of students were marked absent from school. According to data in these reports, roughly 30,000 students did not attend Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools on Monday. (“Officials initially reported that 20,935 students were absent on Monday,” but updated this number, according to WBTV.) The “unofficial” 30,000 figure, if “finalized by the state,” would reportedly be more than double the number of daily absences recorded throughout the previous week.

The vast majority of these reported absences (28,136 out of 30,399) “were listed as unexcused,” according to Queen City News. Further data reported on Wednesday indicates that 25,697 students were also absent from CMS on Tuesday, Nov. 18 — another “unusually high” number, of which 23,770 were unexcused, according to the outlet.

While officials have yet to identify a direct correlation between the absences and ongoing immigration operations, it’s worth noting that a similar dynamic was reported last month in Chicago’s schools after ICE agents launched a sweep of the city. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools also boasts a significant number of Hispanic-identifying students (more than 44,000), with 2023 Census Bureau data reportedly showing that 11 percent of North Carolina’s K-12 students have at least one “undocumented” parent.

But regardless of how many of the CMS absences were of an illegal alien or “anchor baby,” the likelihood that a significant portion of the reported figure includes either of those groups reaffirms the damning aftereffects resulting from the Supreme Court’s ill-fated Plyler v. Doe decision. Issued in 1982, the ruling effectively forced open America’s school doors to illegal aliens and their children.

Since the court’s decision, American taxpayers have had to subsidize the education of these individuals. Schools have also had to expend additional resources to grapple with the issue, such as working to accommodate those students who don’t speak English as a primary language.

But there is a bright side to this ongoing problem.

The composition of today’s Supreme Court is very different from the one that decided Plyler. And if Republican state lawmakers play their cards right, they could potentially topple this terrible precedent and return America’s schools to America’s children.

Plyler v. Doe

The case of Plyler v. Doe first came to fruition in the mid-to-late 1970s when Texas enacted a revised law “prohibit[ing] the use of state funds for the education of children who had not been legally admitted to the U.S.,” and permitting districts to “deny enrollment” to such children. The key question before the Supreme Court was whether the statute violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.

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