Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A bill giving Tennessee public schools the right to refuse enrollment to children without legal immigration status is dead for the year. The bill, introduced by Republicans, was meant to challenge the constitutional right for children to attend public schools regardless of their immigration status. Instead, lawmakers are asking U.S. officials for guidance on whether the bill would jeopardize federal education funding.

The bill, sponsored in the House by House Majority Leader William Lambert and in the Senate by Sen. Bo Watson, took aim at the protection established by the landmark 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision, which struck down a Texas law that sought to deny enrollment to any student not “legally admitted” into the country.

The Republican-controlled Tennessee Senate had already passed a version of the bill, which would require proof of legal residence to enroll in K-12 public schools and would give school districts the option — but not the requirement — of turning away students who fail to provide proper documentation or to charge them tuition. The House version, which remains idle in a subcommittee, differed by letting public schools check immigration status, rather than require it.

Whether or not you agree or disagree with the bill, immigrant children are not responsible for the actions of their parents, and keeping immigrant families away from education and economic opportunities ultimately costs the state more than just providing an equal education. Many of these families work on Tennessee farms, some here in East Tennessee.

The bill goes after children, who have done nothing wrong. One Tennessee lawmaker in defense of the bill said, “I believe we are punishing children for the wrongdoing of their parents. I don’t think that’s the proper way to do it. We need to address the issue itself, rather than using the children as a pawn in this.”

This brings up the question of what has happened to Americans who are so radically opposed to people whose nationality is not American, whose skin is not white, and who do not live in our neighborhoods. We have become such a prejudiced nation. Children are children; they don’t see black and white, Republican and Democrat, nor the national blood of other children. If only adults could have that innocence, what a kinder and friendlier world we would have.

Every child in this country deserves the chance to thrive and experience a future without limits. It would only make us a better nation. Our schools are not only institutions of learning — they are the heart of our neighborhoods, and they reflect our shared values of inclusion, dignity and opportunity for all. Denying this right not only contradicts our professional ethics and moral responsibilities, but also violates legal precedent grounded in the U.S. Constitution.

Washington County director of schools in his remarks about the bill had the right idea when he said, “Our moral mission is to serve children, and so we don’t say we serve some children. We serve all children that are in our community.”

Sen. Charlane Oliver, a Democrat from Nashville, said: “They (immigrant children) didn’t ask to come over the border. They didn’t ask to be brought here. Let’s not pick and choose which children are worthy of our protection.”

Don’t forget what the Scriptures say about children: “Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’”

It’s not an endorsement for or against the anti-education bill; it’s a vote for the children who Jesus said, “do not hinder.”

Hopefully, this bill will stay dead, not to be revived.