The 112th Tennessee General Assembly is wrapping up its sixth week. While lawmakers are voting on some bills, they’re kicking the proverbial can full of more contentious bills down the road — a legislative process called rolling.
Governor’s overdue education package on the way
Gov. Bill Lee hasn’t been able to stop talking about the massive overhaul of the K-12 education funding formula since the Department of Education began hosting meetings back in October. But the details of said plan haven’t come to fruition. At this point, it’s been a lot of talk and high expectations, but lawmakers in both the House and Senate are holding their breath to see what’s in it.
It was announced this week that the plan will be unveiled on Thursday, Feb. 24, giving lawmakers little time to vet it and get it across the finish line. The Senate Education Committee holds their last meeting mid-March, which would give lawmakers roughly a month to get the kinks ironed out.
House Minority Leader Vincent Dixie, D-Nashville, believes that’s too fast for something so important.
“It’s a lot of smoke and mirrors,” Dixie says of Lee’s promises. “[The governor says] ‘When you see this, you’re all going to be happy; it’s the next big thing that’s coming.’ But we never actually see it. I hope the governor would be a little bit more open, a little bit more transparent and not hold the cards so close to his vest when it comes to something so important as the education of our students in Tennessee.”
However, Republican leaders in both the House and Senate say they believe they have enough time to fully vet and pass the governor’s education package.
Legislation targeting school libraries moves forward
Next up is a bill straight from Gov. Bill Lee himself that would set up a process for books in public school libraries to be vetted for age appropriateness. On the surface, the bill would keep books that may contain profanity and references to sex or drugs out of kids’ hands. But with little guidance on what is and isn’t age appropriate, it leaves those decisions open to be interpreted differently county to county.
Senate sponsor Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, says this isn’t a book ban.
“This bill does not ban any book. It does not compel any board or any school to ban a book,” Johnson says. “This simply sets forth a framework to make sure that parents and stakeholders know what is in those libraries.”
But Sen. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, worries this could open a pathway for groups to get rid of books that have been staples in American literature and that provide necessary lessons for children.
“So, just walk me through the process. I’m a parent. I see a book in the library. I don’t like ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ I feel like it’s not appropriate. So, the school will have set a process in place for me to be able to register my complaint?” she asked.
Akbari’s example has happened in some schools across the country dealing with a movement to ban books. A McMinn County school recently made national news for banning Maus, a graphic novel about the Holocaust, along with books that include racist language and a plot that centers around rape. Akbari questions how the rule would work in K-8 schools that share libraries.
Lindsey Kimery of the Tennessee Association of School Librarians says schools already have a process to make sure children are reading age-appropriate books.
“For example, in my former libraries, as we had books that kind of dipped into the YA (young adult) world we put a YA sticker on the spine,” Kimery said. “Then, we created just a YA section, so you knew if you were standing in this section, these were the Young Adult books.”
Another bill championed by Gov. Lee would let parents review instructional material used in a student’s classroom.
Abortion and Truth in Sentencing bills rolled
While Florida, Texas and other states are tightening restrictions on abortions, Tennessee’s legislature has put its own legislation on the back burner. Two bills (S.B. 204/S.B. 494) that would’ve likely caused reaction across the nation were pushed back. One bill would stop doctors from performing an abortion if there was a detectable heartbeat coming from the fetus. Another would give biological fathers the right to prevent a pregnant person from having an abortion.
The other big bill rolled this week would eliminate parole for crimes, including aggravated assault, homicide and some cases of drug dealing. The argument from House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, is that people committing serious crimes should be required to serve 100% of their sentence.
“It’s embarrassing how quickly many of these folks are released from a sentence that they were ordered to serve by an elected judge, in many cases having been convicted by a jury of their peers in their communities,” Lamberth says. “It’s not fair to the defendant. It’s not fair to the victim. It’s not fair to anybody.”
Andrew Brashier of the criminal justice reform organization Prison Fellowship says the bill could backfire.
“Earned time credits promote prison environments where men and women are putting in work toward becoming good neighbors and responsible citizens,” Brashier said. “After all, 95% of prisoners are going to return some day to our communities, even if we require 100% of their sentence to be served.”
The bill is scheduled to come up again Feb. 23.
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