Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs A dozen school districts in Oklahoma said they will not check students’ immigration status if asked by the state’s education department, in the latest sign of growing resistance to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters.Walters announced last week at the monthly State Board of Education meeting that he planned to ask school administrators to assist his office by calculating “the cost and burden” of illegal immigration on their districts. “The federal government has failed to secure our border. Our schools are suffering over this,” he said. He did not elaborate on what districts will be asked to do but said the Oklahoma State Department of Education will issue guidance in the coming weeks.“Oklahoma parents have demanded action to stop woke indoctrination in the classroom and I will continue to fight to get Oklahoma schools on a path to success,” Walters said in a statement to NBC News. “Districts refusing to comply will be held accountable.”The immigration announcement is the latest in a series of controversial steps taken by Walters, a Republican who has spent his first year and a half in office focused on culture war issues — including issuing a June demand that public schools incorporate the Bible into their lessons.School teachers and administrators had been slow to publicly challenge Walters, but the backlash is mounting.“The focus has changed from public school students to self-centered political aspirations,” said Susan Wray, an elementary school principal in Edmond and a former state education department official. “None of what’s happening right now is about our kids, and that’s what’s hurting teachers.”Supreme Court precedent dictates that public schools must enroll children living within their districts regardless of their immigration status or ability to speak and understand English. School districts also cannot ask students about their immigration status if it may be used to deny them access to a free public education, according to U.S. Department of Education guidance.“I will have to go with the U.S. Supreme Court over a state elected official,” said Rob Miller, superintendent of Bixby Public Schools, one of the districts that will not check student immigration status if asked. “Part of my job as superintendent, and for other superintendents around our state, is to follow the laws of the land.”The Migration Policy Institute, an immigration-focused think tank, has estimated there are 90,000 undocumented migrants in Oklahoma, as of 2022, including 6,000 school-age children. Two-thirds of them are believed to be living in the counties where Oklahoma City and Tulsa are located, the state’s largest, according to the institute’s analysis.Representing immigrants as a burden is misleading, according to the Oklahoma Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group. “Our immigrant neighbors contribute to our communities, including paying taxes,” the group wrote in a July 31 statement, citing a recent national study on the issue. Oklahoma City Public Schools said in a statement it “does not and will not collect the immigration status of our students or their families.” Tulsa Public Schools did not address whether it would do so, but said it is committed to providing an education for “every young person who comes through our doors.” Four of the other eight largest districts — Broken Arrow, Moore, Norman and Union — said they would not check students’ immigration status. To do so, said Chris Payne, spokesman for Union Public Schools, would “create a chilling effect and discourage students and families from enrolling in school.”There’s a similar sentiment among smaller districts. The Deer Creek, Pryor, Millwood, Owasso and Jenks school districts told NBC News that they do not currently, nor do they plan to, ask students about their status.Jeremy Hogan, superintendent of Collinsville Public Schools, said because the district would not ask for immigration documentation, “we would not be able to provide ‘cost’ data to the state.”Right-wing organizations in the state and nationally have praised Walters for the positions he’s taken and the battles he has waged in office. Kevin Roberts, head of Project 2025, thanked Walters for his “heroic work” in an April interview.Walters pressured a district to fire a principal because he performed as a drag queen outside of school; the principal resigned. He threatened to take over Tulsa Public Schools after the district leadership told a board member she could not lead prayers on the microphone at a graduation ceremony. The State Board of Education, which Walters chairs, has spent more than a year attempting to revoke the license of a teacher who shared a link to the Brooklyn Public Library’s online lending catalog in 2022.Walters has responded to criticism by labeling teachers unions “terrorist organizations,” and after many districts said they will not follow orders to teach the Bible, he called for administrators who do not adhere to his directive to move to California.
