Proposed legislation authored by State Rep. Ben Bumgarner would require the federal government to pay Texas for educating illegal aliens, removing the burden from the state’s taxpayers.
House Bill 371, authored by the Republican lawmaker from Flower Mound, amends the educational code to require that students who are not U.S. citizens or lawfully present aliens can only attend a government-run school if the federal government pays for their education.
These students would also only be eligible for benefits from the Foundation School Program—Texas’ primary means of funding public schools—under the same stipulations.
The measure necessitates that schools track expenses accrued from illegal aliens’ education to be submitted to the Public Education Information Management System, which will then reimburse the districts.
Additionally, the measure requires documentation of a student’s U.S. citizenship status at enrollment.
While campaigning in 2022, Gov. Greg Abbott discussed potential legislation requiring the federal government to pay for the education of illegal aliens.
The Texas Legislature had passed a revision to the education code to allow school districts to exclude illegal aliens from enrolling in public schools in 1972. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that the revision to the school code violated the 14th Amendment.
Abbott argued that the Plyler ruling is a 40-year-old decision that was made when the state of immigration in Texas was totally different from what it is today.
“So the real crux of the challenge would be to say, ‘Listen, we are dealing with billions more a year just in educational expenses … and it’s your responsibility to pay for that,’” stated Abbott.
“But there is another complication to this,” Abbott added. “When the Plyler decision came out, the immigration that we were seeing into the state of Texas was primarily from Mexico, and the only language barrier and issue was Spanish. Now we have people coming from more than 105 different countries across the globe.”
Bill filing is well underway, having begun November 12, and will close March 15. The first day of the upcoming legislative session is January 14, 2025.
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