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A state Republican leader has introduced a resolution encouraging Tennessee teachers, especially geography teachers, to use the names Gulf of America and Mount McKinley when speaking with their students about map locations recently rebranded by President Donald Trump.
As a proposed resolution and not a law, the measure would not place any mandates or requirements on teachers if it’s approved.
State Sen. Bo Watson, a Hixson Republican who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, filed his resolution Thursday and had amassed 19 co-sponsors, including Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, by the end of the day, ensuring its passage in the 33-member Senate. The bill listed no co-sponsor in the House as of Friday morning.
Watson’s resolution follows Trump’s executive order renaming as the Gulf of America the body of water that for 400 years has been known internationally as the Gulf of Mexico. The order – titled “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness” – also reversed President Barack Obama’s 2015 executive order renaming Alaska’s Mount McKinley, the nation’s highest peak, as Denali, the site’s Native Alaskan name.