Education for All: Reflections on the Impact of Plyler v. Doe on Arizona's Public Schoolsby Amanda ShaugerJudge Linda Reyna Yañez of the 13th District Court of Appeals in Edinburg, Texas discussed the chipping away of Plyler v. Doe- a 1982 Supreme Court decision which says that all children, regardless of immigration status, are eligible for public education. She spoke about her life from working in the fields, to teaching the children of migrant workers, to becoming a teacher, a lawyer who helped litigate Plyler v. Doe, and ultimately a judge.
In 1982, the US Supreme court ruled that the State of Texas had unlawfully withheld state funds for educating children who had not been legally admitted to the United States, thus preventing those children from enrolling. A 5 to 4 Majority of the Supreme Court found in Plyler v. Doe that this policy was in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment as illegal immigrant children are people "in any ordinary sense of the term" and are therefore entitled not to suffer discrimination with regard to school enrollment.
