The Empire Strikes Back: Bill Lee Pushes School Vouchers Again

 

While sitting in the gray plastic pull-out bleachers in the gymnasium of the University of Tennessee, South campus in Pulaski, Tennessee, I feel myself becoming more anxious as the program is about to begin. I am visiting Pulaski for the first time in my life because I am attending a town hall session hosted by the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) regarding how public school money should be spent. 

As a teacher of 18 years and as a father of two girls who attend public schools, I am more than a little interested in the TODE's and Gov. Bill Lee's announcement that they plan on completely re-doing the thirty-year-old school funding formula known as the Basic Education Program (BEP). This is welcome news considering that two days ago, Tennessee received yet another F in school funding and considering that the state faces court battles next year from Memphis and Nashville because the current school funding formula, they correctly argue, is in violation of the state constitution because it is inadequate.

After a general introduction and a short speech from Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn, they open the floor to comments from the audience and my name is called first. I am anxious because, when I arrived, I learned that I would only be allowed to speak for two minutes. I had so much to say! I wanted to mention how atrocious it is that in 2021 teachers in this state are still limited on how many copies they can make for their classrooms. I wanted to go into how students' mental health is poor. That fights during school are on the rise because they don't know how to properly deal with their emotions and the need for school counselors, psychologists, and social workers is at a critical point. I wanted to mention my idea for attacking the substitute teacher crisis in Tennessee, which is to include substitute teacher pay as a component in the BEP. Rural systems like mine can not afford to pay them a decent wage (they can literally make more money at any fast food establishment), so if TDOE creates a baseline pay of $120 per day for non-licensed substitute teachers that is reimbursed to districts, then we will be much more likely to attract and keep quality substitute teachers. The $120 figure comes from paying them the equivalent of $15 an hour for the length of the school day. If the substitute is a certified teacher, then I believe that amount should equal $160 per day. I wanted to raise these points--and more--but the two minute time limit had me rethinking what I was going to say.

As a TDOE staffer brings the microphone to me, I have a moment of clarity. I am a high school ESL teacher. Focus on my students. I use my 120 seconds to thank them for the opportunity to address them and discuss this important topic. I push for the need to lower the student-teacher ratio for ESL teachers to a more manageable level. This is a special population of students that requires lots of individual attention if they're actually going to make substantial improvements. I push for the need to include translators as a part of the BEP formula because my students' parents are often left out of education decisions regarding their children due to the language barrier. Finally, I mention the need for increasing the amount of education funding in general because teachers are leaving the profession in droves.

After the comments session of the town hall was over, we moved on to the questions portion. Between the comment and question sessions, I learned that, at the time, the only person who was appointed to the Fiscal Responsibility subcommittee was Justin Owen, the President and CEO of Beacon Center for Tennessee. This lead me to ask Commissioner Schwinn the following question: "You are openly pushing for a student-centered approach to school funding. I have to ask why so many anti-public school voices are included in this process and why Justin Owen of the ultra-conservative Beacon Center is the only member of the Fiscal Responsibility Committee. My daughters deserve to attend schools that are adequately funded, and including these voices is detrimental to their education." She responded that there are, in fact, other members of this committee and the state's website with these committees has not been updated yet. Regarding including the Beacon Center in the school funding process, she relished the opportunity to emphasize that Gov. Lee is open to all voices in this process and that no one was going to be left out. 

Her response sent chills down my spine as it reminded me all too much of former President Trump's defense of white nationalists in Charlottesville, VA in 2017 when he said "There are very fine people on both sides." In the realm of public education, there are not fine people on both sides. Privatizers are eager to get their greedy palms into the large slice of pie of public education funding. There are companies and organizations out there who eagerly await the opportunity to make money from public education, thereby destroying it. They pump millions of dollars into school board races, county commission races, and, of course, state and federal races. They hope that they will get a return on their investment in the form of state vouchers. Indeed, if Gov. Lee and TDOE truly wished to re-do the BEP funding in a way that will improve outcomes, then these people would be left out of the discussion altogether. Instead, in Tennessee, when it comes to funding public education, all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. 

Tennessee is the only state in the southeast that does not have public school vouchers in some form. This is in large part thanks to the Tennessee Education Association (TEA) reminding politicians to vote their districts, where it has been demonstrated time and again that using taxpayer dollars for private school tuition is wildly unpopular. Tennessee's teachers and parents also tend to vote out politicians at a high rate who support vouchers. In fact, from 2014-2020, TEA endorsed candidates have won 87% of the time. This sets up 2022 to be the most consequential election year for public education in this state's history.

Not only will more than 400 of the 944 local school board seats be up for election across the state, but so will Gov. Lee, and he TDOE are going to put state legislators in a sticky spot because in January they plan on presenting their new BEP formula to the state legislature. 

Stop and reflect on that last sentence. If their timeline is to present their plan in January then it can only mean one thing--it's either already written or close to it. This means that TDOE's public town halls and their funding review committees are either entirely or mostly a farce. They're going through the motions of eliciting public feedback because to redo the BEP formula without attempting to do so would mean their suggestion in January would most assuredly be D.O.A.

So the question remains, why will state legislators be put in a difficult position when Gov. Lee and TDOE reveal their plan? Voting in favor of an allegedly improved education funding plan should be easy. The answer is in the details. 

The Lee administration has already passed an unconstitutional voucher law. It's important to note why that law was unconstitutional--it violates the "Home Rule" provision in the state constitution which says that the state legislature can not pass laws that apply to only one or two counties (like this law did); they can only pass laws that apply to the entire state. Gov. Lee learned a lesson from his failed attempt to privatize education: a voucher law must apply to the entire state. 

The problem, as I stated earlier, is that most state politicians will not support voucher legislation because it's unpopular and will quite possibly lead to them not getting re-elected. So what is a governor to do? Yep, you guessed it--revamp the entire BEP.

The tea leaves are not difficult to read here. The new BEP formula will include some form of vouchers (they, of course, won't be called that) and because the BEP funds public schools across the state, then it will not violate the "Home Rule" provision. State legislators will be put in a position to either vote in favor of the new BEP formula (which will undoubtedly include actual needed improvements that will be popular with their constituents) or reject it. It's a lose-lose situation for them. Either support the new BEP formula that will actually privatize public schools or be accused of being against public education. 

What makes me so sure that vouchers will be included in the new BEP? Look at the composition of the state's Fiscal Responsibility Subcommittee--the one that questioned Commissioner Schwinn about during the town hall in Pulaski. This committee is FULL of pro-voucher members. I have Googled each of them, and while a few have wisely kept a low profile online, here's what I discovered:

The chair of the committee is Justin Owen, President and CEO of Beacon Center of Tennessee. Not only did the Beacon Center openly support Gov. Lee's unconstitutional voucher legislation last year, but their own website states that "the state should fund children, not systems." This wording is identical to that found on TDOE's website that contains the list of the different subcommittees.

Katherine Hudgins is the founder of Rutherford County Heritage Sentinels. This is a sister organization of the Heritage Foundation which has successfully put pressure on states across the country to pass voucher legislation. They have published many pro-voucher articles online, including this one--"Give Vouchers a Chance."

Chris Littleton is the Co-Founder of Rutherford Students First. I'm sure you can already tell by the name of this organization where I'm going with this one. On their website, they advocate "secure parental control of education funding, so dollars follow students, not just school districts." This wording sounds so familiar, doesn't it?

Former State Rep. Harry Brooks of Knoxville sponsored voucher legislation in 2017 that would have violated the "Home Rule" provision because it was limited to Memphis. Unfortunately, its unconstitutionality is not why the bill died. Legislators disagreed on how private schools should be held accountable under the new law.

Michael Hendrix is the Director of State and Local Government for the Manhattan Institute. In addition to being the only organization in this group that is not based in Tennessee, they stand out because they make a different and unfounded argument for school vouchers--that they save taxpayers money. 

I was initially perplexed about the inclusion of Jim Ethier on this committee. He's the retired chairman of Bush Brothers & Company who make's Bush's Baked Beans. As it turns out, he's also on the board of directors for The Beacon Center.

David Perdue is listed on TDOE's website as the retired CEO of DS Partners Memphis, a now defunct domestic limited liability company that was only open for less than a year. The parent firm, DS Partners LLC also no longer exists and was based out of Georgia. David Perdue has an interesting history in that state as well. On March 21, 2014, while he was campaigning for a Georgia GOP Senate seat, his mislead parents about his father's role in desegregating Houston County Schools in Georgia. Long story short: His father was the superintendent of Houston County Schools when the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education ordered schools across the country to be desegregated. However, David Perdue Sr. dragged his feet on this issue and had to be court-ordered to desegregate schools thanks to a lawsuit from the NAACP. There's a while article about it here. In case there is any question where David Perdue Jr. stands on school vouchers, one only need to look at the website isidewith.com. He was asked the following question: "Should the government offer students a voucher that they can use to attend private schools?" to which he responded, "Yes."

Clearly, those who support vouchers have an unequal voice in Gov. Lee's attempt to redo the BEP formula while those who are against vouchers are greatly outnumbered. It is crucial for Tennessee voters in 2022 to ignore the noise of CRT, mask mandates, etc. and focus on how schools will be funded in the future. It has been 30 years since school funding has been redone to this extent, and it may very well be another 30+ years until it is done again. The last thing we need is for Gov. Lee and TDOE to sneak voucher legislation into it though the back door. There will be no coming back from that. It does not matter if a candidate is a Republican, a Democrat, or an Independent: we need to vote for candidates that put public education first. No. Matter. What.

P.S. To the English teachers (or English teachers at heart) out there, I apologize for my mixed metaphor between the title of this blog and my allusions to George Orwell's Animal Farm.

My 'Rona Scare

On Monday of this week, the muscles in my right shoulder began aching. It felt like someone was digging his sharp elbow into my shoulder blade. It was a minor irritant, at first, and one that I attributed to stress. After all, teaching during a pandemic and feeling like a first year teacher all over again has been quite stressful. Each day that I come to school, I feel like I am running in quicksand, and drowning quickly. The weight that I carry that I'm not doing enough for my students is, at times, overwhelming, and then I have to remind myself to give myself grace. I'm doing my best--even if it's not good enough. But I digress...

By the next day, the muscles in across my back and into my neck started to ache. I used my wife's shiatsu neck massager before heading into school. It felt great and relieved the aching for a few hours, but by lunch time, all of the aching was back in full force. I tried my best to ignore it and go about my day as if nothing was wrong.

Wednesday morning came along, and my muscles felt like they were on fire. They were extremely tender to the touch, and I couldn't use the neck and shoulder massager for very long. I took some Aleve because it normally does a pretty good job relieving muscle pain. It didn't even phase it. Deep inside, I felt that something was wrong with me--a feeling that I was desperate to push aside. "I'm not sick. I just need to de-stress or something" I'd tell myself to get through the day, while nearly constantly massaging my neck and shoulders during and between classes. Any teacher will tell you that it's more work being out sick than it is to show up, and despite my admin urging us during teacher in-service to not to come to school sick during this pandemic, sixteen years of classroom experience (and sixteen years of conditioning myself to ignore minor illnesses and keep trucking along) was impossible to overcome. 

My health worsened on Thursday. I had tightness in my chest. It didn't feel like bronchial tightness; it was my chest muscles themselves that were sore. My neck and shoulders were also hurting and, by this point, it hurt to turn my head to the left or right. Later in the day, I got diarrhea. Outwardly, I attempted to remain my normal cool, calm, and collected self; mentally, I was freaking out. I was rapidly developing symptoms of covid-19. I live in rural Tennessee, and it's difficult to completely avoid going into brick-and-mortar stores, but when I did I always wore a mask with a filter and was pretty diligent about using my bottle of hand sanitizer when I got back to my car. That being said, despite places like Wal-Mart "requiring" masks, plenty of people aren't wearing them. The exceptionalist, independent, and rebellious American spirit is on steroids here in rural Tennessee. 

On Thursday afternoon, I talked to my school nurse about my symptoms, and she gave me the news that I needed but didn't want to hear: I should to get myself tested for covid-19. I wanted to cry. I immediately notified my admin about my decision to get tested that afternoon, which meant that I was officially not allowed to return to school unless the test results came back negative. I rushed down to my county's health department before they closed at 3:30. Then, I made the decision to get a motel room for the next couple of nights. My wife is overweight and diabetic, and my mother-in-law, who lives with us, has a whole host of autoimmune diseases. I wasn't taking any chances.

Finally, after checking into my motel room, I broke down. I sobbed because I had been as careful as possible to avoid getting covid-19. My county passed a mask mandate for everyone who enters the building, and this mandate also made it the teacher's discretion whether we required masks in our own classrooms. We're on a hybrid learning model, which for us means that half the students are in the building at a time, and my classes are between 10-15 students. I still require them to wear a mask. I sobbed because I had possibly exposed my family to this virus. I sobbed because I was frustrated that a positive means that I'd be out of school for the next 2-3 weeks. The last time I missed that much school at one time was over a decade ago when I was diagnosed with kidney cancer and I missed almost an entire semester with two kidney surgeries. I sobbed because I was scared. I had already come face-to-face with my own mortality fighting kidney cancer, and here is something else that I am going to need to fight.

Thursday night was a rough night. In addition to the muscle aches in my neck, shoulders, and chest and the diarrhea, I felt extremely nauseous, and I started sweating profusely. My clothes were drenched and sweat was dripping down my face despite me not running a fever. In fact, my temperature went down, which was puzzling to me. I almost drove myself to the emergency room, which was less than a minute drive from the motel where I was staying. Instead, I decided to go to sleep. Good decision or not, I had been awake since 4:30 that morning and needed to rest.

Friday morning, I felt remarkably better. My neck and shoulder muscles were still extremely sore, but my chest soreness, diarrhea, and nausea all were gone. I made an appointment for 2:30 to get an instant covid-19 test done. I was told that the test from the health department would take 3-5 days, and the anxiety from not knowing was excruciating. In the meantime, I attended my English 4 PLC meeting and my school's faculty meeting via Google Meet sessions. I did a little bit of lesson planning for next week, and then I drove to get my instant test done.

By this point, I had already accepted the idea that I had covid-19 and was mentally preparing for how I was going to handle confirmation of that news. The test, which is 93% accurate, surprisingly came back negative. I teared up a little bit because a giant weight had been lifted from my still achy shoulders. I was happy that I had not, in fact, exposed my home or school families to covid-19. I was happy that I could return to school on Monday (unless the test from the health department came back as positive).

Meanwhile, I saw on Facebook that a parent of a student in my school system had officially filed an injunction to stop the county's mask mandate. In the comments section, I saw people saying things like "if people are scared of their children getting the virus, they should keep them at home, and those who want to go to school without a mask should be allowed to do so." That "Don't Tread On Me" southern spirit is alive and well, and, frankly, is missing the entire point. Teachers are not given the option to stay home if we're legitimately fearful of going to school and doing our jobs. Neither are the principals, guidance counselors, teacher's aides, custodians, secretaries, or bus drivers. The school system is responsible for everyone's safety. The county's mask mandate allows for students to avoid wearing a mask if they have a legitimate doctor's excuse. As a parent, I can appreciate wanting to move mountains to protect your children and do what you think is best for them; as a teacher who was given no choice about returning to work during a global pandemic, I found the injunction to be insensitive and repugnant. After all, the school where I teach has already lost two teachers who refused to return to the classroom and who, I presume, were fortunate enough to be able to financially afford to make those decisions. (I'd like to add that my viewpoint on this lawsuit is mine alone, and I am not speaking on behalf of anyone else but myself.)

By Saturday morning, almost all of my muscle soreness was gone. I went online and checked on the results of the test from the health department. It was there, and it was also negative. I avoided getting covid-19 this time, but I reminded myself that I must continue to remain diligent because it's still out there. The rate of positive tests in my county is at almost 6%, and my school just played their first home football game last night--albeit with a smaller than normal crowd.

I learned long ago, with my battle against kidney cancer, that life is precious. I don't want to endanger the lives of my home family or my work family. Following my passion for teaching is also what puts a roof over my head and pays the bills, and with that comes the risk of endangering the lives of those who are close to me. It's an uncomfortable, oxymoronic position to be in. If empathy were as rampant as covid-19, we could have defeated it a long time ago. I optimistically hope that one day we can societally return the social contract that was the very building block of our constitutional democracy. When John Winthrop delivered his infamous "Model of Christian Charity" on board the ship Arbella on April 8, 1630, he made it clear that when they arrive in the New World, it was their responsibility to look after and support one another. In so doing, their colony would become the shining "city upon a hill" and be a beacon for the rest of the world to follow. Our beacon is dim, but not extinguished. It can be relit with patience, compassion, and empathy. We're all in this together, and the only way we will make it through this pandemic is by acting in unison and fighting for each other.

Coffee County Teachers Stage “Walk In” to Raise Awareness about Vouchers

On the morning of April 17th, a group of teachers gathered at Coffee County Central High School and Coffee County Middle School for a “Walk In” to raise awareness about the current Educational Savings Account (also known as voucher) bill that is working its way through the Tennessee Legislature. A “Walk In” is when teachers gather in front of the school building while they are off-duty before school starts and hold up signs for parents to see while dropping their children off at school. This event was organized by Mike Stein, the President of the Coffee County Education Association.

House Bill 939/Senate Bill 795, if passed, would rob over $110 million from public education while causing local property taxes to rise. Eligibility for the ESA program initially is limited in counties with at least three schools in the bottom 10% — but zoning in a bottom 10% school is not required. Due to state law, there will always be a list generated of the bottom 10% of schools. That will play a role in vouchers expanding to other counties across Tennessee. This has happened in other states.

In Arizona, 75 percent of all ESAs are used by the affluent families zoned for A or B rated schools. Most vouchers in Indiana now go to affluent families who never intended to send children to public schools. The ESA program is designed for families who already send children to private school or homeschool and does nothing to improve struggling schools across the state. In fact, those schools will be weakened under this current legislation.

Currently, taxpayers do not currently subsidize private school tuition, but as more families take ESAs for their incoming kindergartners who they never planned to send to a public school, a new ongoing cost will shift to local taxpayers. The Senate version of this bill will allow funds to be used for homeschooling, which has great potential for abuse. ESAs in other states have experienced a significant amount of fraud and abuse. These states believed they had proper safeguards in place to prevent fraud and abuse, but still lost hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.

Additionally, students who use ESAs for private and homeschool are not held to the same accountability standards as public schools, putting those students at risk for falling behind their peers in traditional public schools. Private schools do not have the same certification and expertise requirements as public schools. In the House version, voucher students do not have to take state tests in Social Studies and Science, and in the Senate version students will not have to take any type of state test, which can be substituted for any nationally-normed test. ESAs and vouchers don’t work and actually harm student learning. Research clearly shows voucher students fall behind their peers who attend to private schools or homeschooling.

When Mike Stein e-mailed Rep. Rush Bricken stating his concerns about this bill, Mr. Bricken sent this reply: “I appreciate you taking the time to let me know how you feel about HB 939. I support and believe in public education. I am not fully for this legislation but want to wait to see what comes out of committees before I finally decide.” Despite all of the pitfalls of this legislation, Rep. Bricken is hesitant to do what many other lawmakers have done and stand on the side of public education and against this bill. He will vote on this bill within the next few days and can be reached at (615) 741-7448 and rep.rush.bricken@capitol.tn.gov. If you don’t live in Coffee County, you can quickly contact your representative by going to  https://actionnetwork.org/letters/no-to-vouchers.

3 Reasons Why Tennesseans Need Karl Dean

I am a high school teacher who works with over a hundred teenagers every day. I deeply care about them, about their futures, and about our local community. I am also a father of two young girls and a husband to an amazingly supportive wife. Whom Tennesseans elect as our next governor is crucially important to me. In fact, for many Tennesseans, this election is a matter of life and death--and no, I’m not exaggerating. There are three main reasons why this teacher is supporting Karl Dean to be Tennessee’s next governor.

Reason #1: He will save lives by pushing for Medicaid expansion. This won’t cost taxpayers any additional money because we’re already paying for it. Every single day, this state sends almost $4 million of our tax dollars to the federal government to pay for Medicaid expansion for other states. That money could come back home, to us, if only we’d allow it. This state leads the country in the number of hospital closures, leaving Tennesseans with literally no where to go in the case of an emergency. Additionally, we have about 300,000 people across the state who are in a coverage gap--they cannot qualify for TennCare and they make too much money to qualify for the Affordable Care Act. From a teacher’s perspective, it’s nearly impossible to educate children unless their basic needs are met. Health care is a basic human right, and expanding Medicaid in Tennessee is the right thing to do.

Reason #2: He is the best choice to continue the upward trajectory of our public education system. This is exemplified by the Tennessee Education Association Fund for Children & Public Education endorsing him. Additionally, at a recent town hall, Dean said: "When I look at this state, the number one thing that we gotta get right is education. We need to increase teacher pay. We're losing too many teachers to the private sector. We're paying below the national average." On the debacle otherwise known as TNReady, he went on to say: "I don't believe that testing should be punitive toward teachers at all. We lost teachers' voices in this whole process. We need to get back to listening to our teachers. There's way too much testing going on in schools today, and not enough learning." When it comes to public education, he gets it. He’s also staunchly against school vouchers (sometimes referred to as education savings accounts) because he understands that taking money from public schools and using it to help the wealthy send their children to private schools is completely nonsensical and counterproductive. When polled, 64% of Tennesseans oppose vouchers, and Karl Dean is on the correct side of this issue. 

Reason #3: He is very pro-business. While he was the mayor of Nashville, more than 70,000 gross new jobs were created and more than 350 companies expanded or relocated to the area. Karl Dean believes that creating jobs is the most effective way to decrease the need for social welfare programs. He will work to bring jobs to Tennessee, which isn’t a Republican or Democratic issue; it’s an issue that impacts all of our communities. As a teacher who lives in a rural community, I want my students and their parents to find well-paying jobs. Again, it helps their basic needs be met which will help them do better in school. It’s one thing to run a successful company, and another thing entirely to create jobs from the public sector. Running a government is not like running a business. Its purpose is not to make profit, but to provide for the safety and well-being of the people. Karl Dean, and his two predecessors, Bill Haslam and Phil Bredesen, all have the necessary experience of running a major metropolitan government before becoming governor. He’s clearly the most qualified candidate for the job.

I'm Moving

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for following my posts on this blog. I have recently decided to partner with another teacher on a different blog, and my future posts will be on there. Please take some time and check it out! The new web address is https://www.unpackedu.com/.

The Gutting of America's Public Schools

The following article was co-written by Hope Street Group Tennessee Teacher Fellow Debbie Hickerson. She is a fifth grade teacher at Cason Lane Academy in Murfreesboro, TN.

Keep your eye on what is being proposed at the federal government for our public school system. Have no illusions. The school voucher system will gut public school funding across the country. A voucher does not provide enough money for full tuition. Those who want to use vouchers to put their children in private school will need to supplement the tuition cost out of pocket. This means those in poverty and the working poor will not be able to access private schools. That leaves those in the public school system who cannot afford private school. Public schools will lose a majority of their funding to the vouchers, leaving underfunded public schools with a high proportion of children in poverty. Statistically, high poverty schools don’t do well on standardized tests. Universally low test scores, because of the vouchers, will feed into the false narrative that public schools are failing the students that they serve. This is not equitable education for all. Don't we want ALL of our children in America to have a good education?

To those of you not in the education field, you may not understand that having a school voucher system doesn't just mean you can choose any school you want your kid to go to. It also means the public education program will be dismantled. Let me explain.

House Resolution 610, introduced by Rep. Steve King of Iowa (yes, the same person who tweeted something so racist that people cancelled their vacations to Iowa), will effectively start the school voucher system to be used by children ages 5-17 and starts the defunding process of public schools. It will eliminate the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, which is the nation's educational law that provides equal opportunity in education. The ESEA established what are known as title programs and, because these are so important to maintaining free and equitable public education, Congress has reauthorized ESEA every five years since 1965. Under President George W. Bush, ESEA became known as No Child Left Behind; under President Barack Obama, it was rebranded the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and passed Congress with rare bipartisan support.

ESSA is a comprehensive law that covers programs for struggling learners, advanced and gifted kids in AP classes, ESL classes, classes for minorities, rural education, education for the homeless, school safety (Gun-Free schools), monitoring and compliance, and federal accountability programs. Yes, there are all of these programs happening in our education system, in addition to academics, and they will disappear if this bill becomes law. Some things ESSA does for children with disabilities include ensuring access to the general education curriculum, and accommodations on assessments. It also requires local education agencies (i.e. the school systems) to provide evidence-based interventions in schools with consistently under-performing subgroups.

House Resolution 610 also abolishes the Nutritional Act of 2012 (No Hungry Kids Act) which provides nutritional standards in school breakfast and lunch. It dangerously has no wording whatsoever protecting kids with special needs, no mention of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) nor the Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) act.

Please call your representative and ask him/her to vote NO on House Resolution 610. If you don’t know who your house representative is, go to http://www.house.gov/htbin/findrep and type in your zip code. Please call all local offices and the D.C. office. E-mails are okay, too, but phone calls are much more effective and really will not take much of your time at all.

5 Reasons Why You Should Support Tuition Equality

Being a college basketball fanatic, this is by far my favorite time of year. It’s amazing watching these teams--each one composed of players from around the country, or even from around the world--come together as one unit and work together for a common purpose. The fans of each of the sixteen remaining NCAA tournament teams come from different backgrounds and have a plethora of life outlooks, yet they solidify as one unified group, proudly wearing their respective team’s colors showing their support.

While the United States continues to transform into an increasingly divided nation, Americans are becoming more proud to wear the colors red or blue. Like sports, most things in life transcend identifying with one color or the other. One of these issues that needlessly divides Americans is immigration. It’s easy to forget that we are a nation that is founded by immigrants; sadly, in this country’s relatively short history, there has always been an “evil” immigrant group who was forced to wear the opposing team’s jersey through no fault of their own--whether it was the Native Americans, the Irish Catholics, the Jews, the Japanese, the Hispanics, or the Muslims.

Being a public school teacher, it’s my job to teach the students in front of me, regardless of their race, sexual orientation, or immigration status. The bottom line is that I teach people. I teach people with hopes and dreams of what they want to be when they grow up. I teach people who have no earthly idea what they want to be when they grow up.

Rep. Mark White of Memphis and Sen. Todd Gardenhire of Chattanooga have co-sponsored a bill that absolutely needs to pass. HB0863/SB1014, which is up for a vote in the Senate on Wednesday, March 22nd, exempts an individual from paying out-of-state tuition if that individual: attended school in this state for two years prior to graduation from high school, graduated from high school or a home school program or obtained a GED, and is registered at a state institution of higher education. Here are my top five reasons why everyone needs to support this bill.

1. It’s the right thing to do. This bill will allow my immigrant students to follow their dreams and pursue a college degree. The Bible is very clear about helping immigrants. One of my favorite scriptures regarding immigrants is from Leviticus 19:33-34: “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
2. This is a bi-partisan bill. Staunchly conservative Texas was the first state to pass a tuition equality bill. In total, 27 states have passed a bill similar to the one that is proposed in Tennessee. Both blue states and red states support it. Why? That leads me to number 3.
3. It’s good for our economy. Workers with a college degree make $1.3 million more in their lifetimes. More productivity means the state can collect more in taxes. Demand for educated workers is rising while supply is lagging behind.
4. It’s great for our universities. An increase in admissions will provide income to universities that isn’t already there. Allowing undocumented immigrants access to in-state tuition will most certainly increase university graduation rates.
5. Governor Haslam supports it and will sign it if it passes the legislature. In 2013, the governor launched Drive to 55, a campaign to increase the number of college graduates to 55% by 2025. Tuition Opportunity supports the governor's goal of reducing barriers to higher education and creating a more educated workforce.

Update: This bill passed the Senate Education Committee and has moved on to the Senate Finance, Ways, and Means Committee. In the House, this bill is up for a vote on Tuesday, March 28th in the Education Administration & Planning Committee.