I can count on one hand the number of times there’s been a truly close vote in the Tennessee Senate since I took office. When it comes to the ‘slate-of-hate’ legislation generated by the controlling party, there’s rarely a legitimate reason to hope that it might fail on the floor. Yesterday was one of those days that we thought we might have a chance of killing legislation that requires LEA’s (local education agencies) to verify citizenship for ALL Tennessee students and allows them to deny enrollment to undocumented children.
It would be hard to over-state the depravity of this effort. Denying an education to children on the basis of their skin color (and let’s just be honest- this is what it’s all about) is ruthless and wrong. It’s even more insidious when we consider the true purpose is to pass test-case-legislation to challenge the SCOTUS ruling in Plyer v. Doe, a 1982 holding that stipulates that
A state cannot prevent children of undocumented immigrants from attending public school unless a substantial state interest is involved.
The ultimate goal is to challenge the fourteenth amendment altogether.
Needless to say, it passed.
Now we must hope that it won’t pass in the House.
The scope of the assault on education in Tennessee is astonishing. Since I was first elected in 2020 we have passed significant life-altering legislation;
to completely reformat our funding (from the BEP (Basic Education Plan) -which was notoriously byzantine- to TISA (TN Investment in Student Achievement), so that we are funding individual children instead of programs and schools- unitizing our kids so that we can move them around for the benefit of investors
to control educational programming by mandating a shift away from promoting critical thinking and towards ‘traditional family values,’ by disallowing DEI (whitewashing history to disinclude references to slavery, racism, sexism, and prejudice), attacking trans kids, and undermining vaccination policies and reproductive healthcare for girls
to create a voucher-program with the goal of destroying public education and replacing it with privatized evangelical schooling
to vilify immigrant and trans children
Now that the Trump administration has launched a full-out assault on higher education, science, healthcare, and the environment the future is looking bleak for Tennessee families.
I regularly recall the Twain quote,
“No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.”
And of course this takes on a new dimension altogether with the extreme and unconstitutional deluge of executive orders- I’ll update it to say
“No person’s life, liberty, property, or future is safe while this President is in office.”
Yesterday the Tennessee Department of Education released the list of private schools intending to participate in the voucher scam rollout. To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with schools participating- the schools are not complicit in the scam. The problem with vouchers (and believe me- voucher proponents are well aware of this) is that they are marketed as a Mecca of ‘choice’ for public school kids, when we know that over 80% of those using the vouchers will be families who already send their kids to private school- so it’s effectively draining public school funds, and inevitably will lead to our already beleaguered and under-funded school system failing completely (that’s the goal). If you’re interested in learning more about the genesis and rollout of this policy I highly recommend reading The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers by my friend Josh Cowen.
It’s almost funny that the first school listed for Davidson County is The Academy for G.O.D, alleged to be a cult by many disenfranchised former members. They don’t publish tuition rates, but it’s estimated to be ~$15K per year. None of the schools listed have tuition rates that would be covered by the allotted $7K from our state coffers. Moreover, most of the desirable private schools in Davidson County are not participating.
As with most issues in Tennessee, we are a leading indicator for where P2025 and the MAGA agenda are headed when it comes to education. It’s a mess.It really is. My colleagues who worship at the feet of their orange God are determined to make Nashville the first Christian Nationalist big city, and that is why they file terrible legislation like the bill that passed yesterday- because they want to be the first to please Trump- to curry his favor. We have an Attorney General who is focused almost solely on promoting the Trump agenda.
But please believe me when I say this- I am not trying to create false hope or put a positive spin on a horrible situation- I really mean it when I tell you that this is also one of the most important places for winning our country back- we are on the front lines. And the people working for you up at the legislature have experience and character that has been forged in the fires of the burgeoning Magasphere since the southern strategy flipped Tennessee. You have some AMAZING representatives up at the legislature- John Ray Clemmons, Bob Freeman, Charlane Oliver, Jeff Yarbro, Bo Mitchell, Aftyn Behn, Harold Love, Vincent Dixie, Caleb Hemmer, Shaundelle Brooks and Justin Jones are all working hard for you- there is so much talent in this group of people.
And the brave people who show up day after day to fight against bad bills and fight for good bills are an inspiration, and sometimes we succeed. SB0836 will be heard in the House Finance Committee on Monday, and will likely be heard on the House floor next week. I encourage you to contact legislators (don’t worry about Democrats) and to encourage them to vote against this horrible bill. I wasn’t able to present my complete floor comments yesterday, but I’ll include them here. Have a great weekend.
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Thank you, Senator.