Tag: Tennessee General Assembly

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Memphis Schools “Takeover” Bill Dead Until Next Year

Rep. Mark White, a Shelby County Republican, said he will pursue a measure enabling the state to take over administration of Memphis-Shelby County Schools in 2026. (Photo: John Partipilo)

The sponsor of legislation criticized as a “takeover” of Memphis Shelby County Schools confirmed Tuesday the bill is on hold until 2026.

Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis), chairman of the House Finance Committee, said House and Senate versions approved earlier in the day were too far apart for passage.

The Tennessee Legislature adjourned for the year Tuesday evening without taking further action on the bills.

One of the key sticking points was that the Senate bill was amended to enable an advisory board to select replacements for elected Memphis board members removed by the state, a provision considered unconstitutional. It differed from the House version.

White said he wants a “strong oversight board” and that a compromise would weaken the measure. He declined to have competing House and Senate measures sent to a conference committee to work out a compromise.

Tennessee lawmakers file Memphis Shelby Schools “hostile takeover” at last minute

“We prefer we keep the bill alive,” White said, adding he would work on the legislation through the summer and bring it back next year for consideration.

The House and Senate passed separate bills Tuesday creating a management group to oversee Memphis Shelby County Schools despite complaints that setting up a “takeover” board could prove to be unconstitutional.

White’s decision came as the legislature moved toward adjournment for the year.

Earlier, White told colleagues the change is needed after decades of poor performance by the school district and board, including a billion dollars in deferred maintenance and under-used buildings despite a $1.8 billion budget.

The advisory board, which would be funded locally instead of by the state, would supersede the elected board on budgets, contracts exceeding $50,000 and some policy. Under one plan, it would be responsible for reviewing the entire system and making an improvement plan.

Separately, the legislature approved $6 million for a forensic audit of the school district. But Republicans, who hold supermajorities in the House and Senate, refused requests to complete the audit before embarking on the new format.

Later, White said waiting a year would enable the audit to move forward before an advisory board is created.

Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Memphis), who carried the Senate version of the bill, laid most of the blame for poor performance on school board members, saying students are “hanging in there like a crackhead’s last tooth.”

White and Taylor denied the plan is a “takeover,” with Taylor instead describing it as “a list of cascading interventions” 

Votes in both chambers didn’t come without opposition from Memphis lawmakers who said the state should allow voters to select new school board members, instead of giving the state’s education commissioner authority to remove board members and the district director. 

Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) was among numerous Shelby County lawmakers who spoke out against the measure. In response to Taylor, she said, “Memphis is not the last tooth in a crack addict’s mouth.”

Lamar and other Shelby lawmakers compared the plan to the state’s Achievement School District, which is being phased out after a decade and more than a billion dollars spent. They also accused the state of usurping local voters.

“It’s not our job to take the power away from the local school board,” Lamar said.

Lamar later called the outcome a “victory for local control.”

Rep. Antonio Parkinson (D-Memphis), a consistent critic of the Achievement School District for five-plus years, said the bill’s provision allowing the state to turn schools over to charter operators shows that the plan is designed to benefit hedge funds and corporations.

Shelby County school systems have gone through several stages in the last decade, including dissolution of Memphis City Schools and creation of suburban districts such as Collierville and Arlington, all of which left Memphis Shelby County Schools with a large concentration of low-income students.

Sen. London Lamar, a Memphis Democrat, called the halt of a bill to take over Memphis Shelby County Schools a “victory for local control.” (Photo: John Partipilo)

The Memphis Shelby County School Board also removed its director recently, creating more conflict within the district and giving lawmakers ammunition to single out the school system, even though the bills applied to schools statewide.

Rep. Kevin Vaughan (R-Collierville) told colleagues he had shifted views after initially thinking lawmakers should wait until the audit is complete before taking action.

“We’ve got to turn the ship around in southwest Tennessee,” Vaughan said. “We’re doing a disservice to children who are not getting a fair shake.”

The legislation also lifted income caps on the Education Savings Account program in Shelby to enable more families to qualify for funds to enroll children in private schools. Recipients can use about $9,500 in state funds to go toward tuition.

Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) predicted such a move would cause confusion and lead to a lawsuit.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.

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Politics Politics Feature

Field Trip

Masters of the House: (l to r) caucus chair Jeremy Faison, Speaker Cameron Sexton, Majority Leader Lamberth (Photo: Jackson Baker)

NASHVILLE — For many years I would make a point of going to the state Capitol during the spring months to look in on the General Assembly. There were times when I was there almost from the opening gavel to the legislative session’s close.

This was especially true during the years of the Income Tax Wars on Capitol Hill, roughly 1999 to 2001. This was a time of protracted conflict arising from Republican Governor Don Sundquist’s heroic if doomed efforts — in tandem, more or less, with elements of the assembly’s Democratic leadership — to modernize Tennessee’s archaic tax structure in a season of severe revenue shortage.

The climax would be Tennessee’s version of what happened in D.C. on January 6, 2021 — a riot in which the state Capitol was invaded by masses of protesters who broke windows, pounded on the heavy oaken doors of the locked legislative chambers, and thoroughly intimidated the trapped lawmakers who had been on the verge of enacting a state income tax.

The assault came about through the efforts of then-state Senator Marsha Blackburn, who notified her allies among right-wing broadcasters who in turn summoned the crowds.

That occasion, during which I was barricaded in the Senate chamber along with the cowed solons themselves, was one of many memorable moments of my annual drop-ins on Capitol Hill.

I was there again last Thursday to spend time with my daughter Julia, who now covers state politics for the Tennessee Journal, a newsletter I used to serve as contributing editor.

We started out in the media box of the state Senate. Things had barely gotten started when, in the wake of a floor appearance by cosplayers wearing Revolutionary War outfits, state Senator Brent Taylor of Shelby County rose to identify me to his fellow senators as someone who “covered the American Revolution.” 

He went on to mention a staff-written MEMernet item in the previous week’s Flyer which took him to task for what he called “spicy remarks.” Mistakenly assuming I was the author, he swore he would “not apologize” for them.

Somehow, in the ad hoc role of introduced visitor, I got a round of applause out of all that.

Later I joined Julia on the House side, where the well-remembered “Tennessee Three” of a 2023 gun-safety debate — Democratic representatives Justin Jones of Nashville, Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, and Justin Pearson of Memphis — were preparing to take on HB222, a GOP bill formally entitled (not making this up) the “Dismantle DEI Act,” an apt description of the bill’s intent to disallow government efforts to “increase diversity, equity, or inclusion in the workplace.” 

Justin Jones: “This bill is about undoing the progress made in the civil rights movement. … This bill is racist; it’s sexist; it’s ableist; it’s religious discrimination as well. … [We should] rename this bill for what it is — the Dismantle Civil Rights Act.”

Gloria Johnson wanted to rename the bill “the White Fragility Act.”

Justin Pearson never even made it to the well. He ended up pounding a rolled-up sheet of paper in his hand in frustration when the supermajority Republicans called the question, and by a vote of 73-24 abruptly passed the bill and terminated debate.

In a press availability after the session, the body’s GOP leaders defended the outcome.

Said Majority Leader William Lamberth: “If DEI stood for diversity, excellence, and inclusion, it’d be perfectly fine, but it stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion, which is a communist, socialist principle that is racist at its very core.”

The clincher was provided by Republican caucus chair Jeremy Faison who said straight-facedly: “Dr. King said it the best when he said that he wants people to judge us on the content of our character. The content of your character would be the equity portion.”

And with that the penultimate week of the 2025 legislative session was over. 

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Wetlands Development Legislation Headed to Governor’s Desk

Around 50,000 trees were planted in this forested and protected wetlands in northern Shelby County to help preserve and restore a natural space, Shelby County in West Tennessee, March 11, 2025. (© Karen Pulfer Focht)

A bill slashing regulations for an estimated 80 percent of Tennessee’s non-federally protected wetlands is headed to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk next Monday after receiving approval from the General Assembly.

The bill’s West Tennessee Republican sponsors — Rep. Kevin Vaughan (R-Memphis) and Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) — said the legislation removes onerous and seemingly subjective mitigation requirements for landowners and developers. 

Environmental advocates and scientists said the legislation paves the way for the destruction of Tennessee’s natural resources.

The bill passed 71-21 with one abstention in the House, and 25-6 in the Senate.

Since the 1970s, wetland regulations in Tennessee have required developers and landowners to seek permission from the state before draining or altering wetlands. The swampy areas can host diverse species, soak up rain water, and filter it as it seeps into groundwater tables, recharging aquifers. Alterations to wetlands required developers to pay for mitigation — efforts to preserve or restore other wetlands nearby.

(Flooding) is a constant that we are dealing with, and these two things are related … and what (Sen. Brent Taylor) belittles as ‘damp dirt’ is actually the stuff that matters.

– Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville

Vaughan and Taylor’s legislation scraps automatic mitigation requirements for most of Tennessee’s isolated wetlands, which lack surface connections to navigable rivers and lakes. Federal law requires mitigation for those larger water bodies, but a 2023 Supreme Court ruling removed isolated wetlands from federal control, leaving their regulation entirely to the states.

Sen. Page Walley (R-Savannah) a West Tennessee Republican who helped shape the legislation, said his district includes swampland. 

“That land over in that very agriculturally rich area is flat, it does flood, and it is replete with a variety of wonderful wetlands, but things change … and the state was given the authority to begin to monitor that,” Walley said Monday.

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) estimates the legislation will axe development regulations for up to 80 percent of Tennessee’s isolated wetlands.

Recent modeling commissioned by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) indicates most of the state’s isolated wetlands are located in West Tennessee, a region expected to see intense development around Ford’s new Blue Oval City manufacturing campus in Haywood County. 

More than 30,000 acres of isolated wetlands fall in the northwest corner of the state, which remains inundated with historic levels of water after severe storms caused generational flooding earlier this month.

Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) grew up in Dyersburg, one of several West Tennessee towns that flooded. 

“(Flooding) is a constant that we are dealing with, and these two things are related … and what (Sen. Taylor) belittles as ‘damp dirt’ is actually the stuff that matters,” Yarbro said. “The research is pretty clear that it’s these smaller wetlands that … actually reduce the peak flooding levels in communities.”

The Senate rejected Sen. Heidi Campbell’s (D-Nashville) attempt to add a 2-year sunset provision to the law and an amendment that would have brought the law in line with the recommendations presented by TDEC in 2024.

New wetlands regulations

The sponsors initially planned to eliminate all state regulation of isolated wetlands to match federal law, citing other states’ decisions to do the same.

Wetlands protections built an industry for mitigation banking. Rollbacks could erode it.

Instead, the legislation defines four types of isolated wetlands and sets regulatory thresholds for each of them.

Artificial wetlands, a new category, are wetlands created purposefully or inadvertently by the alterations of humans or beavers. Developers are allowed to drain and fill this type of wetland with no regulatory oversight.

No permits or mitigation are required for alterations to low-quality isolated wetlands up to 1 acre, or moderate-quality wetlands up to one-quarter acre.

These wetlands have minimal or moderate roles in ecosystems, natural water cycles, and chemical cycles, according to the legislation. Exact definitions for wetland quality will be created through a rule-making process that includes public input opportunities.

General permits and 1-1 mitigation are required for low-quality isolated wetlands from 1 to 2 acres in size. Changes to moderate-quality isolated wetlands from one-quarter acre to 2 acres require a general permit with mitigation capped at a 1-1 ratio (which raises to 2-1 on the second acre). 

Alterations to high-quality isolated wetlands will continue to require more specialized Aquatic Resource Alteration Permits from the state and mitigation, as will changes to low- and moderate-quality isolated wetlands larger than 2 acres.

Southern Environmental Law Center Tennessee Director George Nolan attended several committee meetings to testify against the passage of a bill reducing the state’s wetlands regulations. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout © 2025)Photographs by John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout © 2025)

About 80 percent of Tennessee’s isolated wetlands are smaller than one acre, according to SELC Tennessee Director George Nolan. Around 94 percent of isolated wetlands are smaller than 2 acres.

​​The legislation also prevents TDEC from considering isolated wetlands of any quality when determining a project’s cumulative impact, even if the project encompasses other federally regulated wetlands.

The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Home Builders of Tennessee supported the legislation, as did the Pacific Legal Foundation, a national firm that fought for deregulation of American wetlands at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023. They said the changes will support property rights and bring down costs for developers.

Several environmental groups, scientists, and businesses that restore wetlands and sell mitigation credits to developers opposed the legislation, warning that the clause ignoring cumulative impact could super-charge wetlands destruction and hinder an industry that has invested more than $1 billion in restoration and conservation projects in Tennessee.

Vaughan said he sees mitigation requirements as “trampling people’s private property rights.”

“I may own a piece of property and because someone else says that there is something on my property that has resource value that I’m going to have to pay a third party to be able to use my own property. That does not compute,” Vaughan said Monday.

Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) voted against the bill. 

“If these changes are being made to improve our environment, are being made to improve the quality of life of people in Tennessee, that’s one thing,” Pearson said. “But if we are changing the protections of our natural resources on behalf of corporate entities to be able to make more profit, I have a significant problem with that.”

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.

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CannaBeat: TN Senate Bans THCA

Credit: Budding on Unsplash

Smokeable cannabis products, especially the THC they create when lit, took another — possibly lethal —  blow Thursday as the Tennessee Senate followed the House in passing a law that bans products containing THCA.

House members passed an amendment last Thursday removing THCA from legal cannabis products in the state. THCA was already banned in the Senate version of the bill traveling through the committee process. 

That bill passed Thursday after a lengthy floor debate ending in a vote of 23 to ban the substance and only nine against it. The only legislative glimmer of hope for cannabis companies across the state now is a veto from Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee. 

Sen. Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville) sponsored the Senate bill. He argued the bill protects consumers, taxes cannabis products fairly, and does not harm Tennessee hemp farmers. He said much of the products on shelves here are grown out of state. But the bill was about a lot more than all of those, he said. 

“We’re really gonna be voting here on whether to have recreational marijuana or not,” Briggs said, noting that many products on shelves here now will get consumers high. “If we vote no on this bill, we’ll have unregulated recreational marijuana.”

Briggs described an anything-goes market in Tennessee with a variety of products to smoke, vape, eat, and drink. Also, the product sold today, he said, is “not your grandfather’s marijuana” that “they confiscated at Woodstock.”

“The average strength of marijuana in 1995 was 4 percent,” he said, without confirming his source information. “You can walk 20 minutes down the street here and buy…gummy bears that are 10 times that.” 

On Thursday, as he’s done for years when talking publicly about cannabis products, Briggs pronounced “gummy bears” as “goomy bears.”  

Sen. Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) agreed with many of Briggs’ points. But she said she could not vote for the bill out of fear that state-by-state regulation on cannabis products has increased “black market activity.”

“We all know that people are going to other states and getting the products and coming back,” Campbell said. “When we attempt to put regulations [on these products] we actually drive people to other markets and drive a market here that is less predictable and less controllable…because people are going to be selling tickets on the black market.”

Sen. Kerry Roberts (R-Springfield) pushed back on the bill because he said it would make it illegal to manufacture, cultivate, produce, and sell these products. But Tennessee criminal law now does not make it illegal to possess these products, he said. 

“I could drive to Kentucky,” Roberts said. “I could drive to North Carolina. I could drive to all these surrounding states and I could load up my car with as much as I want, and I can bring it home. I can do what I want to do with it all day long. I’m not going to be prosecuted by any (District Attorney) in Tennessee for violating law because I will not have violated a law.”

Sen. Page Walley (R-Savannah) said he’d recently watched the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. Dylan’s song, “The Times They Are A-Changin'” was an anthem for those in the Civil Rights Movements, Walley said. He said “times are changing right now.” 

He explained that most were comfortable with most of the bill, but uncomfortable with 5 percent-10 percent. Though he never spoke in specifics, Walley seemed uncomfortable with the THCA provisions. 

“We’ve really decided to change the rules and move the goalposts in this conversation after the game is in progress,” Walley said. “We told our farmers, we told our retailers, we told small business people who are honest, that are paying rents on facilities, that these were the rules.” 

Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) agreed, saying “we’re pulling the rug out from under” Tennessee’s cannabis businesses. He the state is moving in a “prohibitionist direction” on cannabis issues while others move forward.

“We are too much, in this instance, like The Simpsons‘ character yelling at the clouds,” Yarbro said. “This is time for us to get serious, to get real, and actually help Tennessee consumers, to actually help Tennessee farmers, to actually help Tennessee businesses. And I don’t think this bill is the right way.” 

The bill will become law upon Gov. Lee’s signature. Barring that, THCA protections are under review now in a lawsuit from the Tennessee Growers Coalition. That suit is to be heard this summer in Nashville. 

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Opinion The Last Word

A Bad Deal for Memphis

Allen Fossil Plant (Photo: TVA Web Team | Creative Commons | via Wikimedia Commons)

The people of Memphis deserve clean air, affordable power bills, and a reliable energy system that doesn’t come at the cost of their health or future. Instead, TVA is pushing to expand the Allen gas plant in Southwest Memphis with six new methane gas-burning turbines. That means more pollution, higher bills, and more risk for the communities that have already been asked to carry too much. Let’s be clear: This is a bad deal. Memphis deserves better. 

If these gas turbines are built, they will produce large amounts of air pollution that will cause and worsen serious health problems for nearby residents. Southwest Memphis residents already experience high rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses, and adding more pollution to the air from burning methane gas will only deepen public health impacts and worsen the climate crisis. 

This project is deeply unfair for communities in Southwest Memphis, where residents already carry heavy environmental burdens from the decades of pollution from fossil fuel infrastructure: the Allen coal plant, Valero refinery, Allen gas plant, Southaven gas plant, xAI, and now TVA’s Allen plant gas expansion plan. This is what the continuation of environmental injustice looks like.

TVA claims the gas expansion is necessary to meet electricity demand, but they’ve done a poor job of seriously evaluating other options. They haven’t conducted even basic analysis of how clean alternatives could meet power needs in a way that’s less risky and less harmful. TVA has tried to frame this as a binary choice: either build the new methane gas turbines, or do nothing and risk not meeting demand. But that’s a false choice. In reality, TVA could meet energy needs through a mix of proven, affordable solutions — like solar, wind, battery storage, energy efficiency, and demand reduction programs — that don’t come with decades of pollution and health consequences of burning methane gas. 

But TVA is still pouring money into fossil fuel infrastructure that would lock Memphis into another generation of pollution, higher bills, and increased climate risk. At this point, it feels like TVA would rather keep polluting communities than do the work of building a cleaner, more just energy future. This is the same tired playbook: rush the process, sideline the public, and pretend there are no alternatives. That’s not leadership. That’s business as usual — and people are done with it. 

It’s not just about pollution — though that alone should be reason enough to stop this. It’s about the massive opportunities that TVA is choosing to ignore. TVA has a long history of underinvesting in energy efficiency — simple, low-cost solutions like sealing air leaks and adding insulation that could make homes across Memphis healthier, safer, and more affordable to live in. These upgrades are especially important for low-income residents, many of whom want to improve their homes but can’t afford to do it on their own. TVA’s programs are often too limited, too complicated, or just not designed to reach the people who need them most. And while TVA has started to show some progress, it’s unacceptable for them to ignore the lowest cost, most immediate way to reduce energy demand while trying to justify building more gas infrastructure. Instead, TVA should be expanding programs that cut energy use and ease strain on the grid because that’s how you lower bills, improve reliability, and reduce pollution without making vulnerable communities pay the price. 

Memphis has thousands of megawatts of rooftop solar potential, many times over what TVA says it needs from this gas expansion. That’s power from the sun, right here in the city, with no emissions and no added health risks. Shelby County also has tremendous capacity for utility-scale solar. MLGW’s own studies point to local solar as the smartest and most cost-effective choice for meeting power needs. And wind is already being harnessed just across the state line in Tunica County. Battery energy storage makes renewable energy available around the clock, improves the reliability of the grid, and can help bring the grid back online from a power outage. The tools are here. The technology is proven. The moment is now.

As someone working alongside partners in Memphis who are organizing around this issue, I’m proud to support their leadership. The voices coming out of Southwest Memphis are powerful — and they are calling for what every community deserves: transparency, accountability, and a future built on clean energy, not more pollution.

TVA was created to serve the people of the Tennessee Valley — not corporations, not industry. Its mission was public service. But somewhere along the way, that mission got lost. Now is the time to get back to it.

TVA should invest in the communities that have powered this region for generations — not sideline them. It should make real investments in proven, available clean energy that reduces bills, creates long-term, good-paying local jobs, and keeps the lights on without poisoning the air. Southwest Memphis doesn’t need more pollution. Memphis doesn’t need more excuses. And the people of the Tennessee Valley don’t need another generation locked into dirty energy and economic inequality.

TVA can still choose to lead. If they won’t, they’ll be remembered as the ones who stood in the way. Because the future is clean. The future is just. And the future will be powered by the people.

TVA is accepting public comments on this project until April 28th. Now is the time to speak up. Tell TVA to stop the methane gas expansion at the Allen Plant and invest in a clean energy future built on energy efficiency, solar, wind, battery storage, and demand reduction. Tell TVA to do better because Memphis deserves better — and the Tennessee Valley does, too. 

As the decarbonization advocacy coordinator for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), Tracy O’Neill is a passionate advocate for clean energy and community empowerment.

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Lawmakers Plan $6M Audit of Memphis-Shelby County Schools

Tennessee lawmakers are proposing a $6 million audit of Memphis-Shelby County Schools. (Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht for Tennessee Lookout)

Tennessee lawmakers could spend $6 million to audit Memphis-Shelby County Schools as a potential forerunner to a state “takeover” of the district.

Senate finance committee Chairman Bo Watson (R-Hixson) confirmed Monday another $3 million for a forensic audit was placed in the Senate’s $59.6 billion budget plan to go with $3 million in Governor Bill Lee’s supplemental budget amendment.

Senators also placed $4.5 million in the budget plan to expand Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s special litigation unit, which previously was tasked with opposing former President Joe Biden’s policies.

When the 2025 session started, Republican lawmakers started discussing appointment of a state management board that would supersede the elected Memphis Shelby County School Board. Memphis residents testified against the bill.

Rep. Mark White, a Memphis Democrat, said Memphis schools have “a decades-old issue of underperformance.” (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Representative Mark White, a Memphis Republican, said Memphis schools have “a decades-old issue of underperformance.” (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

The proposal hasn’t gained a foothold yet, but lawmakers appear bent on auditing the school district even though the Comptroller’s Office conducts school system audits.

Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) said Monday the audit is needed to start a deeper look at the school district.

“That kind of money spent on that kind of audit, that’s the kind of audit that somebody goes to the pokey over, and this is something that’s been building for decades, and it’s time we finally take the bull by the horns,” Taylor said. He didn’t pinpoint any wrongdoing on the part of Memphis-Shelby County Schools officials.

Taylor, who is sponsoring the bill to make major changes in the district, said lawmakers shied away from a takeover because of problems with the Achievement School District, which is being abolished because it failed to make major improvements over a decade in spite of a billion dollars in expenses. The bill’s wording remains in talks, though, and an advisory board could be placed in the measure, he said.

Senator Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) a member of the finance committee, called the pending expenditure “ridiculous.”

“The purpose of our school funding is to educate children, not to create ammunition for some garbage political fights,” Yarbro said.

Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) has been pushing for change this session to deal with what he calls “a decades-old issue of underperformance.”

The purpose of our school funding is to educate children, not to create ammunition for some garbage political fights.

– Senator Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville

His bill contains a provision to put a nine-member management group appointed by the state in charge of operating the school district, giving it authority over the locally-elected school board and administrators. 

Taylor’s version isn’t quite as restrictive but puts the state in charge by allowing Tennessee’s education commissioner, with approval from the Department of Education, to remove the schools director or school board members and allow the county commission to replace them. If a school district goes through three district directors in three years, a county mayor could appoint a new director for a four-year term.

The Senate bill also would lift income caps on the Education Savings Account in effect in Shelby County, the governor’s initial private-school voucher program, and change the process for a public school to become a charter school.

Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.

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“Madness,” “Unconstitutional,” “A New Low” — Reactions to the Senate’s Undocumented Student Bill

Credit: CDC via Unsplash
via Tennessee Senate Democrats

Backlash to the Tennessee Senate’s passage of a bill to allow school districts to ban undocumented students from schools began as the vote was recorded Thursday — and was from sources as varied as clergy, small business, and, of course, state Democrats. One group called it “madness.”

Bills for the move were filed in early February by Tennessee House Majority Leader Rep. William Lamberth (R-Portland) and state Sen. Bo Watson (R-Hixson). 

The bill would challenge the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court Plyler v. Doe decision, which entitled all children to public education despite immigration status. That’s exactly what the bill’s sponsors said they want to do, citing the cost of public education. 

“The flood of illegal immigrants in our country has put an enormous drain on American tax dollars and resources. Our schools are the first to feel the impact,” Lamberth said in a statement to the Nashville Banner in February. “Tennessee communities should not have to suffer or pay when the federal government fails to secure our borders. Our obligation is to ensure a high-quality education for legal residents first.”

The Tennessee Small Business Alliance issued a statement Thursday condemning the bill, saying the group has “opposed the bill since its introduction” and called it “madness.” 

“This bill is bad for Tennessee’s economy, and we have warned the state legislature repeatedly that this bill is bad for business,” the group said in a statement. “If this bill becomes law, we’re going to immediately lose workers, and we’re shooting ourselves in the foot when it comes to workforce development. The sponsors of this bill, Sen. Bo Watson and Rep. William Lamberth, are playing with people’s livelihoods and threatening children.”

Faith leaders associated with the Southern Christian Coalition said the bill violates the teaching of Jesus. Group member Ellen R. Sandidge Gentry, a member of the same church Watson attends had taught words for the legislation 

‘As a conservative, and member of First Presbyterian Church, I’m unhappy that Sen. Bo Watson’s bill is associated with our church, Sandridge Gentry said in a statement. “My message for my fellow parishioner and state senator, Bo Watson is this: Coming after children who’ve done nothing wrong is a betrayal of Jesus’ teachings.

“Taking millions in sales and property taxes from undocumented families, then denying their children an education by claiming it’s “not paid for,” isn’t just bad policy — it’s unethical and unchristian.”

A group called Education for All Tennessee was created to work against the bill. It pointed to the bill’s narrow passage (19-13) as a sign that there is “weakening support for this cruel attack on children’s education.” 

“With razor-thin vote margins and growing bipartisan opposition, this bill can still be stopped,” the group said Thursday. “Tennessee families deserve better than a bill that targets kids and divides communities. 

“Every child deserves an education — no matter where they were born.”

State Democrats issued plenty of tough talk and even some tears in a news conference following the vote Thursday.  

Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) said the GOP are using children targeted by the bill as “political pawns.” She called the bill a “new low” for state Republicans, saying, “They didn’t send us up here to bully kids.” 

“Did you forget Jesus was an immigrant? Did you forget?” she asked. “Jesus stood with the least of these and it’s up to him to decide who is righteous and who’s not. But it on us to love everybody. It’s not for us to pick and choose who we love and who we support.” 

Sen. Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis) said she asked Watson in committee if he’d heard from any school districts that requested the legislation. 

“He said, ‘We’ve all had those conversations — maybe not on the record — with folks from our school districts,” Akbari said. “My response was that I represent the largest school district and I have not ever heard that request.”

A House committee is set to pick up the bill on Monday. A reporter asked Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville) what he thought about the bill’s chances to pass on the House side.  

“All I can guarantee you in the House is we’re gonna fight like hell to protect the children of Tennessee,” Clemmons said. “People of every faith believe this is a bad idea. Everybody knows this is unconstitutional. 

“We’re going to fight like hell to protect every child, to provide an education in compliance with the state Constitution, as well as the interpretation of the Constitution by the Supreme Court of the United States.” 

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Tennessee House Approves THCA Ban

Photo: Add Weed on Unsplash

Smokeable cannabis flower, especially the THC it creates when lit, took a critical step toward a ban in Tennessee after a long debate in Nashville Thursday that showed a rare divide among Republican lawmakers. 

Tennessee House members passed an amendment Thursday that would remove THCA from legal cannabis products in the state. THCA is also banned in a Senate version of the bill now traveling through the committee process. That bill, of course, could change before it passes, leaving a glimmer of hope for cannabis companies across the state that have said THCA products are among their most popular. 

The GOP divide on the issue emerged on the House floor Thursday morning. One group just didn’t like the product — the green, leafy bud now displayed on store shelves — nor the intoxicating effects it can produce. The other group of GOP lawmakers said removing the products will harm Tennessee businesses and won’t keep other intoxicating hemp products from shelves. 

Members of the non-THCA group said they felt duped by hemp advocates in Tennessee. 

“Six years ago I carried the bill that allowed us to grow hemp in this state and have many of these products,” said Representative Chris Todd (R-Madison County). “But I will tell you at that time, the [Tennessee Growers Coalition], well, I will say there were folks that deceived me and deceived our leaders and many others in this body.” 

He said the amended legislation brings the total THC level back down to .3 percent as planned originally. The amount is the federal limit, he said. As for those cannabis companies in Tennessee, “they gambled on a product that is federally illegal.”   

House Majority Leader Representative William Lamberth (R-Portland) has worked on cannabis issues in Tennessee for years. He agreed with Todd saying, “I wish we could go back in time and not have all these substances out there, but that’s not an option at this point.”

 “We were all told when we voted for hemp that it’s the nonintoxicating cousin to marijuana,” Lamberth said. “You don’t have to worry about anybody getting high. Well, that horse has left the barn. 

“What this bill does is ban THCA, that when you light it, it turns into marijuana. But that’s one product. There’s hundreds of other products out there [that will get people high].” 

The ban does put at risk Tennessee cannabis companies that have said that smokeable flower sales can sometimes total 60 percent of their total revenue. Representative Kevin Vaughan (R-Memphis) spoke loudest among the GOP to keep THCA legal in Tennessee. 

“ I have a hard time that this body has told [businesses] that this is a new commercial venture in our state, and then, two years later, we’re going to turn the lights off,” Vaughn said. “Understand that even if we take [THCA out], these stores will still be in the business of selling intoxicants.”

Representative Sabi Kumar (R-Springfield) argued that the legislature gets “carried away by the commercial advantages” of cannabis in Tennessee. He argued lives are torn apart by marijuana addiction and that was part of the reason he voted to ban THCA.

“Marijuana is playing havoc on our society,” Kumar said. “We talk about anxiety. We talk about mental health. We talk about schizophrenia and various psychological maladies. 

“Yes, we blame the internet for it, but, my friends, I submit to you that marijuana and its prevalent use is playing a role in this malady that is affecting our society for that reason.” 

The fiscal note, an expert review of the economic impact of proposed legislation, estimated the size of Tennessee’s overall cannabis market is about $120.4 million. The figure is based on a U.S. market for hemp-derived cannabis products projected at $5 billion in 2026. 

Tennessee tax collections on those products would have been $13.6 million, assuming that THCA were included. Those taxes would have been collected on what state financial experts expected to be cannabis product sales of $226.7 million over the next year. All of those numbers will change if THCA remains illegal.

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GOP Wants to Teach Students High School, Job, Marriage, and Kids Will Keep Them Out of Poverty

Photo by Trust "Tru" Katsande on Unsplash
Photo by Trust "Tru" Katsande on Unsplash

Graduate high school.

Get a job. Or, graduate college or a technical school. (Then, get a job.)

Get married. 

Have babies. 

This is a poverty-fighting equation Tennessee GOP lawmakers want to be taught to every single Tennessee student. 

The equation is called the “Success Sequence” and it’s nothing new. A version of this sequence has probably been taught to kids for decades. But the idea took formal form in a 2009 book by Brookings Institution researchers called “Creating An Opportunity Society.” Those researchers aimed to ”improve the prospects for our less-advantaged families and fellow citizens” and help bridge gaps in income and wealth.

Two Tennessee Republicans — Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) and Sen. Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma) — sponsor legislation before state lawmakers now that would require ”family life curriculum [to] include age-appropriate instruction and evidence regarding the positive personal and societal outcomes associated with the method.” 

“ ​Data shows that students who follow the sequence are more likely to excel in school and generally earn higher grade point averages than students who do not,” Bowling said when she introduced her legislation in a committee last week. “This program prepares students for a healthy, productive life.”

In very practical terms, if this bill is passed, it might mean that public school kids in Tennessee would hear this theory that following these steps will either lead you out of poverty or help keep you out of it. Also, in practical terms, a version of this bill died in committee in February before the Mississippi Legislature. 

So, how big of a deal is this idea of teaching the “Success Sequence,” really? Well, a strata of academics, think tanks, and policy advocacy groups think it’s a big one. 

Some will argue data say if you follow the sequence your chances of ending up in poverty are around 3 percent. Others have taken that further (answering critics) to say the equation works almost equally well for African Americans and Hispanics, even with the uphill climbs they may face in racist systems. 

”With the completion of each step of the success sequence, the racial gap narrows rapidly,” Melissa Byers Melissa, the Chief Marketing Officer at National Fatherhood Initiative, wrote in 2022. “For Millennials who followed all three steps, only 4 percent of [B]lacks and 3 percent of Hispanics are poor by their mid-30s. Stunningly, the racial gaps in poverty are almost closed.”

Maybe the biggest naysayer of the Success Sequence is Matt Bruenig, who studies and writes about class, labor, poverty, and welfare for the People’s Policy Project. He’s written posts headlined, “The Success Sequence Is About Cultural Beefs, Not Poverty,” and “The Success Sequence Continues To Be Complete Nonsense.” 

Bruenig argues, broadly, that full-time work alone will keep people out of poverty. The rest of the sequence, he said, is about pushing cultural agendas. Marriage, for example, won’t keep anyone out of poverty unless they marry another full-time worker, he said. Marriage could lead to poverty if someone marries someone with a disability or work limitation, he said. 

”Success Sequence writers, realizing that full-time workers are rarely in poverty, end up advocating that ‘full-time work plus their cultural preferences’ will get you out of poverty,” he wrote. “This is technically true, but only because full-time work plus anything will get you out of poverty.” 

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State Suggests More Transparency for Shelby County Criminal Justice System

Shelby County Jail (Photo: Shelby County Sheriff's Department)

The criminal justice system in Shelby County is murky, a new report says. 

How many days does it take for a case to be taken care of? How many days are people incarcerated (if they can’t make bail) before their cases are taken care of? How often do people stay clean while they’re out on bail? How often are they re-arrested while out on bail? How often are people booked? How often do they ask for a trial? 

Some answers came to these questions in a report issued Wednesday by a division of the Tennessee State Comptroller’s Office. That report was requested in February 2024 by Lt. Gov. Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) who wanted those answers (and more) about “issues in Shelby County,” specifically.   

For the request, the comptroller’s Office of Research and Education Accountability (OREA) sent agents to Memphis. Over the past year, those agents interviewed about 70 people and spent about 100 hours at the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center. They conducted research, watched court proceedings, and analyzed datasets from at least 22 state and local entities. 

From August to September, the agents gathered data on about 1,033 cases as they made their ways through the criminal justice process here. They watched 417 cases in General Sessions Court and 616 cases in Criminal Court. For the sake of equal comparison, they included 145 sample cases for the report that had similar data. 

“The more than 1,030 cases observed represent a fraction of the cases heard in these courtrooms on any given day,” reads the report. “Across all eight General Sessions courtrooms that hear felony cases, more than 480 cases are heard daily. In the nine Criminal Court courtrooms, this number rises to over 500 cases heard daily.” 

Here’s some of what they found in Criminal Court:

• Half of cases were completely through court (or disposed) in two months.

• A quarter of cases were disposed in 37 days or fewer.

• Nearly all the cases were disposed within 266 days, or nine months.

• Shelby County had the highest number of open felony charges (2,335) at the time, double the Nashville count of 1,024.

• Of the 95 defendants OREA watched, only seven re-offended while on pretrial release (bail or free release). 

• A majority (60 percent) of felony charges did not change at the end of a case from 2018 to 2023. The remaining charges either decreased (about 20 percent) or increased (about 21 percent). 

Here’s some of what they found in General Sessions Court: 

• Over half of the cases were dismissed.

• A quarter of cases were disposed with a guilty plea.

• About 10 percent of cases were bound over to a grand jury.

However, no one in Shelby County is collecting this information. These observations are from a small sample size from a small group of OREA agents. 

Without aggregate data, it’s impossible to judge the efficiency, throughput capacity, or overall health of the Shelby County Justice system. The OREA group thinks someone here should be responsible for gathering that data and sharing it with the public. 

“The result is that the public cannot assess overall, aggregate trends and patterns; the public cannot see the big picture,” reads the report. 

The group offered a list of detailed recommendations to improve the situation here, but it is unknown what next step may come in the situation. 

Read the full report below:

ShelbyCoExecSummaryDownload