Not wanting to be outdone by the anti-immigrant policies of the new regime, Oklahoma Superintendent of Schools Ryan Walters (Remember him? He’s the one who ordered that the Bible be “taught” in the state’s public schools—Gosh, did he ever read it?) has ordered that schools require proof or legal status when enrolling students.
In 1982 the Supreme Court ruled that undocumented children had the right to a free public education, which, by the way, is supported by the taxes their undocumented parents pay. Walters’ rule does not ban children from schools, but the requirement of proof of legal status, which will be shared with ICE, threatens the education of children.
Perhaps what should happen is that their parents who work in Oklahoma industries should leave that state so it can recognize how dependent it is on immigrant labor. Then when 41% of construction stops, and the state loses 12.5% of its business revenue, the natives can just wallow in its ignorance and loss of income.
Prayer for the Day
Protect us from the know-nothings we cry, O Lord,
Those who would destroy our social fabric;
Be with us in this time and place, O Lord,
As we try to be faithful to your Gospel of justice.
Return our Nation to its stated foundations,
Proclaiming liberty and justice for all.
In the name of the One who calls us to faithfulness,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
By denying these children a basic education, we deny them the ability to live within the structure of our civic institutions, and foreclose any realistic possibility that they will contribute in even the smallest way to the progress of our Nation.
Chief Justice Earl Warren, Plyer v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982)
A legislative classification that threatens the creation of an underclass of future citizens and residents cannot be reconciled with one of the fundamental purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Justice Lewis Powell, concurring in Plyer v. Doe
Have they no knowledge, those evildoers, who eat up my people as they eat bread,
And do not call upon God? Then they shall be in great terror,
As terror such as has not been. For God will scatter the bones of the ungodly;
They will be put to shame, for God has rejected them.
Psalm 53: 4-5