Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S.Most Iowa school districts have quietly agreed to exclude undocumented high school students from certain federally funded career and technical education programming, according to records obtained by Chalkbeat. The move follows the Trump administration’s controversial interpretation of a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Plyler v. Doe, guaranteeing children a free K-12 education regardless of immigration status. Trump officials argue that the ruling protects only a “basic public education,” but not “postsecondary” education. That distinction affects high school students as dual enrollment and career training programs have become increasingly common.The Iowa records reveal how Trump has made notable headway limiting the educational rights of immigrants without legal permission to be in the country and in chipping away at Plyler. Iowa is at least the second state under Republican control to adopt such a policy — Virginia did so but then changed course after electing a new Democratic governor.“There is a very strong argument that Plyler as written forbids what Iowa is doing,” said Aaron Tang, a law professor at the University of California, Davis. Yet, he said, there’s a plausible counterargument, and the conservative Supreme Court might well agree with this novel interpretation, if the issue were to reach the high court.Tang said that if the Trump administration’s interpretation wins out it will be difficult to determine what constitutes a “basic public education.” Does calculus class? What about precalculus? It’s not clear how many, if any, students in Iowa or elsewhere have been affected by this provision. Schools don’t typically ask students about their immigration status so there’s no simple way to know who to exclude.Trump pushes limits on undocumented students’ educational rightsLast year, the Trump administration announced a sweeping new legal interpretation of a federal law on unauthorized immigrants’ access to public benefits. States were not immediately required to follow this interpretation, but the Education Department could take action to enforce it. The Iowa Department of Education soon said that under the new rules undocumented students should be kept out of federally funded early college experiences and community college classes “even if the course occurs at the high school.”The state soon began requiring school systems and community colleges to agree to these new terms in order to access federal funding for career and technical education.The vast majority of Iowa school districts have done so, either directly or through a CTE consortium that they are a part of, according to the records obtained by Chalkbeat. A handful of systems have not submitted reimbursement requests recently, so they have not agreed to those terms, the records indicate. Heather Doe, a spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Education, said the state has not denied any schools funding over the issue.Among other things, Iowa schools have used CTE dollars, known as Perkins funding, to help students attain industry-recognized credentials in a variety of fields. It is not clear how school systems could enforce these new restrictions on undocumented students or if they have any intention of doing so. “The Iowa Department of Education does not require the reporting of immigration status but rather confirms the institution’s awareness of federal funding restrictions,” Doe said.Spokespeople for a number of Iowa-based immigration and Latino advocacy groups did not respond to inquiries about whether any student has been denied programming under this new rule. None of several large school districts in the state responded to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Iowa superintendents’ association said it has not heard concerns or questions from members about the new rule.A federal judge has halted enforcement of the federal legal interpretation in a number of states where Democratic officials have challenged its legality. Iowa is not one of them.A U.S. Department of Education spokesperson downplayed the likelihood of taking action against states or schools that didn’t comply, saying the agency was focused on “litigation developments rather than on patchwork enforcement” of the guidance. Still, confusion remains about the policy. On a recent call hosted by the Trump administration for state CTE and adult education officials, at least two people asked for clarification about the current status of the immigration rule, according to an excerpt of the chat obtained by Chalkbeat. Officials on the call did not respond to those questions, according to a transcript of the conversation.The Trump administration’s actions here are a small part of a massive campaign to deport unauthorized immigrants and restrict the public benefits available to those who remain. For instance, Trump and a number of Republican governors have prevented undocumented students from receiving in-state tuition at public universities in a number of states. At the same time, conservatives have been strategizing about how to undermine and reverse the Plyler ruling. Earlier this year, state legislators in Tennessee seriously considered a law meant to challenge the ruling, but the legislation ultimately died.Matt Barnum is Chalkbeat’s ideas editor. Reach him at mbarnum@chalkbeat.org.
