The price of denial: State lawmakers’ efforts to undermine Plyler v. Doe and the fiscal fallacy of exclusion

Source: Niskanen Center
by Cassandra Zimmer

“For the first time in over four decades, the constitutional protections guaranteeing undocumented immigrant children the right to attend public school are facing a coordinated and credible threat. Since early 2025, lawmakers in six states have introduced legislation aimed at restricting or denying public education to undocumented immigrant children — measures that, if enacted, would almost certainly trigger legal challenges with the potential to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. These efforts are not happening in isolation: They are part of a broader strategy explicitly outlined by the Heritage Foundation to provoke a judicial reconsideration of Plyler v. Doe, the landmark Supreme Court case that found undocumented children have a Fourteenth Amendment right to be educated.” 906/18/25)

https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-price-of-denial-state-lawmakers-efforts-to-undermine-plyler-v-doe-and-the-fiscal-fallacy-of-exclusion/