For more than 40 years, a has ensured that all children can access public education regardless of their immigration status. There are growing efforts to undo this protection, but University of Notre Dame migration scholar warns such a move would disrupt the U.S. workforce and undermine child welfare.
Hsin has contributed to a outlining the benefits of the 1982 Plyler v. Doe decision, drawing on her expertise as a sociologist and social demographer who has conducted extensive research on undocumented students. The report was published by , a policy organization that specializes in criminal justice and immigration policy solutions.
鈥淩esearch underscores the social and economic benefits of equal access to education,鈥� said Hsin, professor of migration at Notre Dame鈥檚 and an affiliate of the school鈥檚聽. 鈥淭here would be profoundly negative effects to individuals and to society as a whole if Plyler were reversed.鈥�
Education prepares the workforce
As a contributor to the report, Hsin provided perspective on how education primes new generations of workers to contribute to the workforce. She drew on research she conducted with Sofya Aptekar, a faculty member at City University of New York鈥檚 91视频 of Labor and Urban 91视频. The scholars are co-authors of an upcoming book that examines how undocumented New Yorkers navigate school, work and identity.
Hsin said this research showed that in addition to teaching specific skills, schools help prepare undocumented children to participate in the workforce by reinforcing a focus on achievement and self-efficacy.
鈥淚n the classroom, we found that children felt they were treated like human beings rather than a legal problem,鈥� Hsin said. 鈥�91视频s offer a predictable contract: work hard, learn and advance.鈥�
In addition, Hsin said, schools鈥� focus on achievement helps children form a sense of self-worth and gives them hope for a future in which they can contribute meaningfully.
That reality is reflected in U.S. workforce numbers. The FWD.us report estimates that access to universal education has enabled more than 350,000 people to work in jobs typically requiring some college education and another 1.3 million in occupations requiring a high school diploma.
The report also found that the educational foundation provided by this access has likely contributed to greater job stability, upward mobility and overall workforce diversification, benefiting the broader U.S. labor market. Workers who have benefited from the decision work in industries including education, the medical sector, banking, consulting, real estate and construction.
The broader benefits of education access
Hsin鈥檚 work helps frame the larger workforce, economic and public health benefits that universal education access provides. The report also found that this access has:
- Generated more than $633 billion in net state and local fiscal gains after accounting for educational costs.
- Increased beneficiaries鈥� incomes as well as U.S. gross domestic product by $171 billion between 1982 and 2022 with lifetime GDP contributions expected to total $2.71 trillion.
- Prevented 730,000 children who are U.S. citizens from falling into poverty.
- Improved nationwide public health outcomes, averting at least $28.9 billion in associated health costs by helping to reduce disability, depression, infant mortality and obesity.
Growing opposition to Plyler v. Doe
Although universal education access has delivered significant benefits, the policy has seen a resurgence of opposition at the federal and state levels in recent years.
In May 2022, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told a radio talk show host he thought Plyler should be challenged. In June 2024, a U.S. House of Representatives committee held a hearing on the impact of immigration on public schools.
Challenges continued in 2025. Oklahoma and Tennessee tried to pass legislation that would roll back universal access. Louisiana passed legislation requiring state agencies to track data on undocumented individuals receiving state services. Finally, Texas ended in-state college tuition for many undocumented high school graduates in response to a legal challenge from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Advocates of universal education access anticipate more challenges, Hsin said, adding that a state-level challenge could trigger a Supreme Court case that risks reversing the Plyler decision and wiping out the broader gains it made possible.
The dangers of policy reversal
Hsin said a policy reversal would hurt workforce training as well as rising generations of potential workers. In addition, she said, reduced school access would force parents to bring children into workplaces that aren鈥檛 safe or suitable for them, and child labor exploitation would worsen.
鈥淪ociety will ultimately bear the cost of raising children without hope, belonging or a sense of possibility,鈥� Hsin said. 鈥淒enying access to schools will formalize a pipeline into child labor and deepen vulnerability and exploitation.鈥�
The report was co-authored by Scott D. Levy, chief policy counsel at FWD.us, and Phillip Connor, a research fellow at Princeton University鈥檚 Center for Migration and Development. In addition to Hsin, contributors include Matthew Hall, professor and director of the Cornell Population Center at Cornell University; Joshua Miraglia, a Ph.D. candidate in economics at City University of New York Graduate Center; Francesc Ortega, formerly professor of economics at City University of New York, who joined the Keough 91视频 as a faculty member in January;聽 and Heeju Sohn, associate professor of sociology at Emory University.
Originally published by at on Jan. 20.
Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu