The latest legislative session in Nashville has ended, and it was dominated by a far-right agenda, one that ensures immigrants are regarded as second-class citizens, one that transforms a sound education into a luxury only guaranteed to the wealthy and one that endorses the idea that prosperity for some mandates cruelty toward others.
Looking at what the GOP supermajority has done over the past few months makes that clear.
Among other things, the General Assembly approved Gov. Bill Lee’s prized statewide school voucher system, created a state immigration enforcement bureau exempt from public records law, criminalized by penalty of felony elected officials voting in favor of sanctuary cities and enacted legislation that requires immigrants lacking permanent legal status to have their driver’s licenses marked with that designation.
North Chattanooga’s Republican state Sen. Bo Watson attempted to push through a bill that would allow school districts to deny undocumented schoolchildren the right to public education — a right enshrined under the 14th Amendment — but that legislation was tabled since it would jeopardize $1.1 billion in funding from the U.S. Department of Education, due to the bill’s clear violation of federal civil protection laws.
These far-right legislative priorities echo those within the national Republican Party headed by President Donald Trump.