Federal law seems pretty clear on the matter right now, no matter what you may think of it.
“All children in the United States are entitled to a basic public elementary and secondary education,” a United States Department of Education document states, “regardless of their race, color, national origin, citizenship [or] immigration status of their parents/guardians.”
Further, Tennessee law says that “public schools are free to all persons residing within the state who are above five years of age.”
We assume all means all, so we don’t see how a proposed new law (SB0836/HB0793) by a Hixson state senator that says public schools can exclude “a student who is unlawfully present” can have legs.
But apparently that’s the idea — that the supermajority Republican legislature would pass a bill denying illegal immigrant children a public education, which immediately would be challenged in court, with the eventual hoped-for result being a U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down the 1982 Plyler v Doe decision that guaranteed that right.