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1982 Plyler v. Doe
1media/Plyler-Blog-image-1280x640_thumb.jpeg2022-03-01T21:21:19+00:00Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a4912This Supreme Court case ruled that public school districts cannot constitutionally refuse admission to unauthorized immigrant children because the harmful effects to the public outweighed the cost savings. Every child deserves a fair chance to learn and thrive. That might seem an obvious statement today, but it took years of legal battles fought by MALDEF to ensure that “every” child did not exclude any child – particularly, immigrant children. After nearly five years of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that all children, regardless of immigration status, have a constitutional right to a free public education from kindergarten to 12th grade. The landmark case, Plyler v. Doe, grew out of a 1977 attempt by the Tyler Independent School District in Texas to oust the children of undocumented workers – farmhands, for the most part – from the school system by imposing tuition of as much as $1,000 per student to attend what were for everyone else free public schools.plain2022-03-01T21:22:00+00:001982Gina Leonf0ac362b4453e23ee8a94b1a49fbeeafde2a0a49