Public Education Systems For Illegal Immigrants

Maria Dominguez was only nine years old when she was brought to the US from Mexico by her recently widowed mother, who poured her blood, sweat, and tears to provide Maria with a proper education. However, upon entering fourth grade, Maria was bullied and isolated at school before she was told to never come back by the public education system. In society today, youths without legal status have been denied public school enrollment, causing an unhealthy and biased learning environment while depriving them the opportunity to learn and thrive under US rulings.

The image of the Medrano siblings being dragged away crying on their first of school by the district superintendent, who discovered the illegal status of their parents, or the image of the 19-year-old high school student from New York being handcuffed and taken into custody due to his questionable legal status ingrains a biased view of a group who poses no threat to anything or anyone.

And those who insist they pose a harm to society are severely mistaken.

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Federal records show that more than half of immigrant children arrested had no family criminal records or even miniscule traffic offenses (Garcia). These increased enforcement actions not only fuel the stigma revolving immigrant children but foster an unhealthy learning environment questioning the right to education every child deserves under Supreme Court law. The social, emotional, and physical impact of blocking public education is palpable and is trickling down into American classrooms. As a country, we are stronger when we welcome to our classrooms our future researchers and leaders and scientists and teachers no matter where they come from.

Depriving children of illegal immigrants the opportunity to integrate into society through education forecloses any realistic possibility of them providing beneficial contributions or achieving their dreams.

And echoing the words of lawyers, the law is crystal clear; Supreme Court case Plyler v Doe proclaims states cannot constitutionally deny K-12 students a free public education on account of their immigration status. Even though the law was passed almost 40 years ago and even though many states have begun the chip away at the surface level, we have an obligation to all children, an obligation to provide them with a proper education and safe env. Educators and lawmakers around the country need to pass integration programs, helping integrate children into public education while local districts process the necessary residency and guardianship paperwork. This ensures that public schools will have no excuse to deny education to children of illegal immigrants as upon completion of paperwork, the children will be ready to transition into public education systems. Instituting these programs might be costly, but this is a cost we need to be willing to pay, as the cost of not educating at present time will raise the prices in the future. We cannot afford to make another mistake and turn our back on the next Maria Dominguez, who after countless struggles, is now a bilingual teacher in the city of Austin; we need to open our hearts while embracing the precedent set 40 years ago; we must implement change starting now.