Southern Progressives

Tennessee Republicans are advancing legislation that gives school boards the power to deny public education to undocumented immigrant children — a decisive, calculated step toward overturning one of the most important civil rights decisions in modern American history.

For months, the excuse was that the Senate and House versions of the bill didn’t match. Now, they do — and this bill is moving fast. The language is aligned. The votes are likely there. And unless Tennesseans speak out now, this bill will pass.

HB 793 / SB 836 doesn’t mandate school boards to exclude children. It says they may. But that word — “may” — is a political sleight of hand. It offers cover to Republicans who want to avoid the appearance of cruelty while voting for a bill that gives their local school boards permission to target children. And make no mistake: someone, somewhere, will use it.

This bill is not about education. It’s not about protecting budgets. And it’s certainly not about helping taxpayers.

This bill is about building a test case — a coordinated plan by hardline conservatives to band together, sue the federal government, and take this issue to the Supreme Court. But what’s goal? Overturn Plyler v. Doe, the 1982 decision that affirmed undocumented children have the same right to a public education as anyone else in this country.

And here’s the cruelty buried in the strategy: immigrant families — already facing threats and harassment — may now choose to keep their children home rather than risk exposure or punishment. In doing so, they’re left to navigate a system that’s been rigged against them, and their children are left alone, unsupervised, during the school day.

We already know what happens when kids aren’t in school. Law enforcement has tracked for decades that youth crime spikes during the summer months, when students are out of the classroom. What happens when Tennessee school districts start forcing a permanent summer on a class of children we’ve marked as “other”?

We create a second class of citizens. We create more vulnerability, more instability, and more danger — for everyone.

And we do it not for Tennesseans, but for an extremist legal experiment cooked up by politicians who see kids as pawns in a game of judicial activism.

Republicans who justify this by pointing to the word may are either being dishonest — or they lack the courage to stand up for what’s right. Either way, they are paving the path to a lawsuit that will cost taxpayers, divide communities, and do permanent harm to children who had no say in the circumstances they were born into.

This is happening. Now. Quietly. Intentionally. Strategically.

And when the lawsuits begin, and when children are harmed, the people responsible will shrug and say they didn’t mean for it to go this far.

But it always goes this far. That’s the point.

This bill is a direct attack on the promise of Plyler v. Doe — a decision that recognized education as a cornerstone of our democracy and warned what it would mean to deny that right:

“By denying these children a basic education, we deny them the ability to live within the structure of our civic institutions… and foreclose any realistic possibility that they will contribute in even the smallest way to the progress of our Nation.”

That’s what’s on the line. And Tennessee is choosing to walk away from it.

The McMinn County Living Heritage Museum is gearing up for its annual Trash & Treasure Sale in 2025, featuring a wide variety of items across two locations. Donation drop-offs are welcome April 16–19 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Furniture donations should be delivered to the museum's lower level.

A special Premiere Night will be held Wednesday, April 23, from 5 to 8 p.m. with a $10 admission fee. Tickets are available at the museum and at the door.

The Public Sale runs:

 Thursday, April 24: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

 Friday, April 25: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

 Saturday, April 26: 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Admission to the public sale is free.

Sale Locations:

Museum Lower Level (522 West Madison Ave) – Furniture, lamps, jewelry

Museum Annex (408 Washington Ave) – All other goods Cash or check only.

The event is hosted by the McMinn County Living Heritage Museum Guild and sponsored by the Hugh M. Willson Family Foundation.