Marissa Castañón-Hernandez: Denying undocumented children a free public education is unconscionable

(Castañón-Hernandez teaches theatre at Wayside Sci-Tech Middle School in Austin. She is a Teach Plus Senior Writing Fellow.) “Who would like to share?” I asked my 6th-graders, who spoke of vacations and family gatherings. Antonio said, “In Honduras, soldados came and shot at everyone. Two people died.” He looked at me with his big, brown eyes. He continued, “That’s why I am afraid of men in trucks.” I have a moral and professional obligation to teach all of my students, regardless of their immigration status. What's more, the law mandates that I do. In 1982, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas statute that prohibited undocumented children from receiving a free public education. The statute violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in programs receiving federal financial assistance. Governor Greg Abbott recently said he intends to challenge the ruling because educating undocumented children is too expensive for Texas and too burdensome for teachers. Should the Supreme Court overturn their previous decision, children like Antonio could be banned from attending school.

As a teacher, I believe that denying undocumented chidren access to a free public education is unfair, unwise, and unconscionable. Undocumented immigrants, who make up 8% of our state workforce, contribute much to our economic growth and way of life. We rely on their labor to create affordable goods, products and services. Undocumented immigrants also pay federal taxes; an estimated $18.9 billion nationwide. Their contributions help sustain Social Security and Medicare, benefits that are unavailable to them. Undocumented immigrants pay their fair share of state and local taxes, an estimated $1,560,896,000 annually in Texas. This amount is almost double the $850 million the Attorney General Ken Paxton says is spent to provide for all of their needs. Without the contributions of undocumented immigrants, there would be less funding for just about everything, including schools. The state also allocates thousands of dollars to schools for the education of each child, documented or not. Fewer students in schools would mean less funding for curriculum, books, supplies and other resources that benefit all children.