Tennessee lawmakers shelved the undocumented students bill for the year on April 22 over concerns of preexisting federal discrimination laws, which could cost over a billion dollars in state tax dollars.

The bill, HB793/SB836, would have required school districts in Tennessee to ask for proof of citizenship to enroll children into schools. Districts that denied undocumented students could offer the option of paying tuition through a local education agency or a public charter school. 

House Majority Leader and bill sponsor Rep. William Lamberth sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education on why the bill was rejected, or if state-federal funding would be seized under the legislation. The department has not answered.

“Will this endanger $1.1 billion or more of federal funding or not? Under the Trump administration, I anticipate that the answer is going to be that it will not endanger any funds,” Lamberth said.

The bill contradicts Plyler v. Doe, a 1982 landmark Supreme Court ruling that established undocumented K-12 students are protected under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and entitled to an equal public education. 

The legislation faced bipartisan opposition, with no democratic support, leaving many Republican elected officials and voters sceptical. Similar bipartisan opposition existed at MTSU.

“Saying nothing is alarming,” MTSU College Democrats president Jorge Avila said. “It’s not comforting, nor panic inducing just because they hadn’t affirmed his bill. They hadn’t denied his bill. They just gave nothing.”

Republican Sen. Bo Watson co-sponsored the bill with Lamberth. The bill passed the House on March 27 in an 11-7 vote and passed the Senate on April 10, in a 19-13 vote. Public backlash followed each decision through rallies, marches and hearing room protests.

Sen. Bo Watson said the Plyler decision spiked the number of students who learn English as a second language, or English Second Learner students. 

Watson said that the growing number of ESL students remains a problem for the state education system, but there is no evidence that the bill could save the state money. Tennessee has 83,000 ESL students across 144 districts as of 2024-25.

“I had never heard of Plyler v. Doe until I began exploring the exploding cost of educating undocumented illegal alien students in Tennessee,” Watson said. “As finance chair, I believe I have that responsibility and obligation.”

The Plyler decision left an exception for a “justified, substantial state interest,” according to the case.

Still, according to Lamberth, Watson and the bill, the fiscal timing or impact of the bill cannot be determined at this time.

Opposition to the bill motivated education advocacy groups to protest at the Capitol in Nashville, Tennessee. Protesters rode buses from Memphis and flew in from Florida to speak their minds.

The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition organized the Education for All March on April 14, with about 500 participants, transporting various protesters from all over the southeastern United States to Nashville. 

Osiris Pizen-Magana, an immigrant and educator, fronted a crowd of immigrant children, educators and human rights activists at the Education for All protest on April 14. He shared his passion for education, and he said education allowed him to pull himself out of poverty.

“Passing this bill would make it impossible for many kids to access the education they deserve, and it would be a betrayal of the values that our state and our country stand for,” Pizen said. “Every child deserves access to equality, education and the opportunities that come with it.”

Watson recommended that nonprofits help close the gap between undocumented children rejected from school programs and K-12 students on the Senate floor. Crystal Boehm, a self-described non-profit worker and educator, said it wasn’t a real solution.

Boehm spoke at the Education for All protest and shared her experiences juxtaposed with Watson and Lamberth’s arguments for their legislation.

“Our kids and our communities deserve a public education system that is well-resourced, fully funded and meets the needs of every kid,” Boehm said. “We deserve our tax dollars finding the programs that will make our community stronger.”

The legislation had a lack of concern regarding truancy exemptions and the long-term impact of children not enrolled in institutions, Sen. Charlane Oliver said. She said this could create an uneducated underclass in the state. 

“I am concerned [about] what the plan is for children who are being turned away and can’t afford the tuition we are pressing upon them,” Oliver said.

This legislation is inactive for now, but Lamberth said he will continue advocating for this bill in the 2026 legislative session.

“Maybe next year, this bill will be prepared,” Avila said. “It’ll have the necessary resources to be implemented, and there won’t be any threats to have their monetary funding pulled. [We] just gotta be ready… for when it comes back, to move in with greater resistance.”

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