BOISE, Idaho — A newly introduced piece of legislation in the Idaho House Education Committee would track the immigration status of students in Idaho, including public schools, charter schools, and higher education institutions.
During the meeting, committee members acknowledged that the data is already collected. However, Rep. Steve Tanner, who introduced the legislation, says the intention is for the data to be aggregated and reported to the legislature to determine how much it costs the state to educate students without legal status.
The state legislature could not block students from an education because of a 1982 Supreme Court ruling, Plyler V. Doe, that found all students are entitled to free, public education under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
"The intent of this bill is merely to have schools in the state board of education aggregate data, data that is already collected according to Idaho Code 33133, and reported to the state superintendent of schools, who will report it once a year to the legislature, so that the legislature can estimate what are the costs to educate children of foreign aliens," said Rep. Tanner.
A similar piece of legislation passed the House floor during the last legislative session, but was held in the Senate due to the end of the session.
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When questioned whether the proposed bill would target a vulnerable immigrant population, Rep. Tanner disagreed, saying this bill is about costs. "We want to see where we are bearing costs and why," he said.
Ultimately, the House Education Committee eliminated one phrase from the legislation regarding a "recent surge of undocumented immigrants." They then voted to print the bill.
After being reprinted, the legislation will be formally introduced in committee.
