Charlotte School Absences Expose the Ongoing Disaster of Plyler v. Doe

The facts are staring us directly in the face. When the Department of Homeland Security announced Saturday that immigration enforcement operations would be conducted throughout Charlotte, North Carolina, something remarkable happened. On Monday, approximately 30,000 students failed to show up for class in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Let that number sink in for a moment.

Officials initially reported 20,935 absences but later updated the figure. If finalized by the state, this would represent more than double the daily absences recorded during the previous week. Of the 30,399 total absences, a staggering 28,136 were unexcused. The pattern continued Tuesday, with 25,697 students absent, of which 23,770 were unexcused.

Now, school officials have been careful not to draw a direct line between these absences and the immigration enforcement operations. But let us apply basic logic here. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools serves more than 44,000 Hispanic students. Census Bureau data from 2023 indicates that 11 percent of North Carolina’s K-12 students have at least one undocumented parent. A similar pattern emerged last month in Chicago after ICE launched operations there.

The correlation is obvious to anyone willing to acknowledge reality.

This situation perfectly illustrates the ongoing disaster created by the Supreme Court’s 1982 decision in Plyler v. Doe. That ruling effectively forced American public schools to accept illegal aliens and their children, transforming a state prerogative into a federal mandate. The decision has cost American taxpayers billions of dollars over the past four decades.

The case originated in the late 1970s when Texas enacted legislation prohibiting the use of state funds for educating children who had not been legally admitted to the United States. The law also permitted school districts to deny enrollment to such children. Texas lawmakers recognized a fundamental truth: states have limited resources, and those resources should be directed toward citizens and legal residents.

The Supreme Court disagreed, ruling that denying public education to illegal alien children violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision was wrongly decided then, and it remains wrongly decided now.

Since Plyler, American schools have been forced to expend additional resources accommodating students who do not speak English as a primary language. They have stretched budgets to breaking points trying to serve populations they were never designed to serve. Meanwhile, American children often receive less attention and fewer resources as schools scramble to meet the needs of illegal alien students.

The Charlotte situation demonstrates the scope of this problem. When immigration enforcement operations occur, tens of thousands of students simply vanish from schools. This is not normal. This is not sustainable. And this is certainly not what the Founders envisioned when they established our constitutional republic.

Here is the silver lining: the composition of today’s Supreme Court differs dramatically from the court that decided Plyler. If Republican state lawmakers demonstrate strategic thinking and courage, they could challenge this precedent and return American schools to American children.

The path forward requires a state to enact legislation similar to Texas’s original law, defend it through the courts, and present the Supreme Court with an opportunity to reconsider Plyler. Given the current court’s originalist leanings and willingness to overturn erroneous precedents, the chances of success are higher than at any point in the past four decades.

The Charlotte absences should serve as a wake-up call. American taxpayers should not be subsidizing the education of individuals who have no legal right to be in this country. American schools should prioritize American children. This is not controversial. This is common sense.

The question is whether Republican lawmakers possess the fortitude to act on it.