After more than 40 years, the federal right to free education for immigrant students finds itself in the crosshairs of conservatives

Tara Sonenshine, Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice in Public Diplomacy, Tufts University

Texas once had a law that allowed public schools to charge tuition for undocumented immigrant families to send their children to school. The rationale was that taxpayer dollars should not be spent educating children whose families were not in the U.S. legally.

When the Supreme Court struck down the law  in 1982, it held that young people have a constitutional right to access education. In its 5-4 decision in Plyler v. Doe, the court stated that any resources that might be saved by excluding undocumented children from public school would be outweighed by the societal harms – increased unemployment, welfare and crime – of denying a young person an education.

The Supreme Court also recognized that education is the primary vehicle for “transmitting the values on which our society rests.”

All children, regardless of immigrant status, have enjoyed the right to a free public education ever since.

But with the growing number of those foreign born without permanent legal status or entering the United States, some politicians are raising concerns about how their children will affect school resources.

Conservative politicians and policy groups are formulating plans to upend the 1982 Supreme Court case in order to address the rising costs of public school education. They want to charge foreign-born students to attend K-12 schools, which they believe will provoke a lawsuit that could enable the Supreme Court to revisit its decision granting access to education for all.

In May 2024, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said the federal government should cover the cost of educating undocumented children if states are required to let them attend public schools.

While providing an education to immigrants is constitutionally required, economically advantageous and, I believe, morally correct, there are challenges. To educate these children effectively requires looking at class size, school resources and the unique and sometimes traumatic experiences that the growing number of immigrant children may present.

Growth and costs

While it can be difficult to get a reliable count on the number of immigrant children in the U.S. – and the costs associated with their education – there are some ballpark estimates and general trends.

The size of the student immigrant population has been steadily growing. The Census Bureau estimated in 2021 that 649,000 immigrant children ages 5 to 17 — representing 30% of all foreign-born children, including both authorized and undocumented entrants – had been in the United States for three years or less.

The growing number of immigrant students increases the costs to school districts, but by exactly how much per school is not known. The conservative Heritage Foundation claims the cost is about US$2 billion per year, but it didn’t break down the cost by the legality of immigration status.

While critics of public education for all focus on cost, the benefits of immigration cannot be ignored. Undocumented immigrants contribute an estimated $13 billion to Social Security – contributions they make through payroll taxes when they use a fake Social Security number or someone else’s to get a job.

Social and emotional needs

Immigrant students often arrive with emotional stresses from trauma, separation anxiety, fear of fitting in, and language barriers. The struggle to acquire basic skills is compounded by the daily fear of being deported. Schools may need education experts and extra counseling services to serve these students.

Despite the various issues and challenges that immigrant students face, a 2023 report found no negative consequences to U.S.-born students from sharing a classroom with immigrant peers. The immigrant students in the study were highly motivated and well-behaved, and they brought cultural awareness.

Next steps

From my standpoint as a college educator and former State Department official, I see three broad areas that merit attention.

Information: Before states set up a constitutional challenge by charging immigrant students a tuition they can’t afford, accurate data should be compiled about the costs, benefits and trade-offs of providing education to all children, regardless of migrant status. Antiquated systems for collecting school data must be updated; public schools should receive grants as an incentive for providing accurate information about immigrant students.

Success stories: To help improve teaching of immigrant students – and of all students – districts can learn from the success of public schools that have adopted interventions to lessen fear, improve language skills and break down cultural barriers.

At Eagleton Elementary School in Denver, for example, educators started a “New Arrivals” class to accommodate newcomers from Venezuela.

In West Springfield, Massachusetts, parents and teachers work together to provide shelter, transportation from hotel to school and mental health supports to the area’s many newcomers who face homelessness.

Resources: Schools need additional resources to help newly arriving families with school registration, legal assistance and language skills. The Department of Education has proposed $940 million in 2025 to support multilingual learners to provide additional services, such as food banks, shelter and medical assistance – a $50 million boost from the latest fiscal year. The federal government has also reminded states that leftover pandemic aid can support immigrant students before a funding deadline this fall.

At the end of the day, educating children – regardless of their immigration status – has been a bedrock value of America, embedded in law. That is now a source of debate.