Chamber rivalry defeats charter school authorizer, judicial redistricting

The House GOP caucus met Friday morning to complain about judicial redistricting. Photo credit Blake Farmer/WPLN

There was a tit for tat as the state legislature finished business for the year. As a result priorities of speakers in both chambers went down to defeat.

The so-called state charter school authorizer was unceremoniously scrapped this afternoon.

“It’s really disappointing,” said Matt Throckmorton of the Tennessee Charter Schools Association. “We’ll just keep working on it.”

Charter school advocates had been pushing for a way to give the state authority to open charter schools, even if the local school board opposes them.

House Speaker Beth Harwell was pushing the change, but her chamber voted down the top item on Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey’s agenda – judicial redistricting.

That bill would have made some district attorneys run against each other in the next election, which House members say was “crammed down our throats.”

“My friends, we are the people’s chamber,” Rep. Bill Sanderson of northwest Tennessee said on the floor of the House. “They are the upper chamber.”

After adjourning, the General Assembly isn’t scheduled to return until January 14th.

Speaker Ramsey concedes that the killing of the charter school authorizer is related to the demise of judicial redistricting.

“It’s not fun to fight with friends,” he said. “But in the end we’re all in here to govern the state of Tennessee and we’ll all be friends…soon.”