Gov. Bill Lee on Friday signed into law legislation sponsored by Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, to extend the state's school voucher law into Hamilton County. It will allow some low-income students to use public tax dollars valued at about $8,100 annually per student to attend private schools that are willing to accept them.
Three out of 4 Tennesseans surveyed in a new Vanderbilt University poll said they strongly or somewhat support "red flag" laws that permit a court to order the temporary removal of firearms from a person found to be at "high risk" of harming themselves or others as a way to prevent school shootings.
During the 2023 legislative session, Tennessee lawmakers passed hundreds of bills in areas ranging from the state's $56.2 billion budget to anti-crime and anti-LGBTQ measures. But a number of major bills did not pass and await action next year.
Tennessee lawmakers completed their annual session April 21, approving Gov. Bill Lee's $56.2 billion budget, which includes a $3.3 billion road plan that allows the state to use private companies to build, operate and run toll lanes in urban areas, branded as choice lanes by the governor because people can choose not to use them.
As they wrapped up their annual session last week, Tennessee lawmakers approved a $56.2 billion annual spending plan that plows a record $3.3 billion of one-time money into state and local road projects along with other high-dollar investments, including nearly $1 billion for Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology and $223 million to bolster security in public and private schools.
A yearslong effort to provide firefighters working in smaller departments access to workers' compensation coverage for job-related post-traumatic stress disorder problems has finally paid off.
A bill brought by Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, that would prevent school systems, public charter schools and higher education institutions from requiring "implicit bias" training for teachers and other school employees sparked fierce debate Friday in the Tennessee Senate.
The Tennessee House on Thursday gave final approval to legislation pressed by Republican Gov. Bill Lee to designate Juneteenth as a legal state holiday.
An effort by a Democratic senator to take a "red flag" bill directly to the Senate floor after last month's mass shooting at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville was tabled Thursday by GOP members in a 24-7 vote.
A top Tennessee Republican House leader said Thursday he doesn't see the GOP-controlled legislature passing Gov. Bill Lee's proposed bill to keep firearms out of the hands of people who could harm themselves or others in the current session, which could end as early as Friday.
