(The Center Square) – The sponsor of a bill that would require schools to collect immigration data from Tennessee students delayed a Senate vote on the bill again on Thursday.
House Bill 793 was amended from its Senate version, which would have allowed school districts to charge tuition to students not legally in the country. It now only requires that schools check students’ immigration status.
The amended version of the bill passed the Tennessee House 70-25 on Monday and was sent back to the Senate. Three House Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the bill.
The Center Square was unsuccessful prior to publication getting an explanation for the vote postponement from Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, the bill’s Senate sponsor.
The bill has opposition from some Republicans, Democrats, educators and the Tennessee Small Business Alliance.
House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, said the bill is about “data” that can be used for policy decisions.
“And then we can take whatever action down the road that this body would choose to take,” Lamberth told the House Finance Ways and Means Subcommittee on March 5.
The bill could have put the state’s $1.1 billion federal allocation from the Senate at risk if it were found to violate a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision establishing the right to education for all students, regardless of immigration status, according to the bill’s fiscal note.
Lamberth said the threat of losing the federal funding is why he amended the bill.
