As usual, and unfortunately, we are deeply concerned with what the Tennessee General Assembly is doing to subvert freedoms and rights of Tennesseans.
Here are some headlined - and horribly concerning - examples:
"Tennessee lawmakers send controversial 'trigger' abortion bill to Gov. Lee."
"Tennessee House passes Gov. Bill Lee's school voucher bill."
"Tennessee House passes bill that could penalize voter registration groups for mistakes."
But there have been two bright spots - both locally generated.
* A big "at-a-girl" goes to freshman Rep. Robin Smith, R-Hixson, whose common-sense gun safety bill overwhelmingly passed (93-2) the Tennessee House last week and makes it a Class A misdemeanor to transfer a firearm to someone the seller or giver knows has been judicially committed to a mental institution or adjudicated by a court as a "mental defective."
Smith, a former nurse and a former Tennessee Republican Party chairwoman, told her colleagues she supports gun rights, has a state-issued handgun carry permit and is a life member of the National Rifle Association. She also emphasized, "This is not a red flag bill. It includes due process."
Following passage of the bill on the House floor, Democratic Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, tweeted in bold-type, "BREAKING NEWS!!! THE TENNESSEE HOUSE JUST PASSED A COMMON SENSE GUN BILL!!!!"
"Rep. Smith, I applaud you," said Parkinson. "This is a good bill, well overdue. Thank you, thank you."
We agree. See how easy that was?
Of course, there's more work to do to bring still more common-sense gun laws to Tennessee. A writer at bearingarms.com noted the Tennessee legislation, which followed a deadly shooting at a Nashville Waffle House last year, applies only to "knowingly" transferring a gun to someone with mental issues. "Unfortunately, the Waffle House shooter got his gun back from his father despite the man knowing explicitly his son was prohibited," Tom Knighton wrote on the web site.
"What it looks like Tennessee was trying to do was put some teeth into a law that already exists." Knighton, continued. "When Rep. Smith argued this was not a red flag bill, I think that was important. It notes that Tennessee isn't becoming an anti-gun state. While I'm sure there will be a lot of opposition to this bill throughout the gun rights community, and understandably so, the fact that Smith made it a point to note that this wasn't a red flag bill signals that the Volunteer State is still pro-gun."
* Bright spot No. 2 isn't quite as over-arching, since the legislation that excludes Hamilton and Knox county schools from Republican Gov. Bill Lee's school voucher-like Education Savings Account legislation was a good stand for morality - until the two local lawmakers who made the moral stand for our students still voted to apply the law elsewhere in the state.
The bill squeaked through the House on Tuesday with a 50-48 vote and would use taxpayer money for private school tuition and home schooling - both of which would exacerbate inequities in our education system. (This time, Rep. Robin Smith was a yes vote, while Reps. Patsy Hazlewood and Yusuf Hakeem said no, according to the General Assembly's web site.)
Hamilton County, whose school leaders rallied against the bill saying we already offer students about 60 choices, is apparently excluded.
But it is in the Senate where this "moral stand" will play out. That is where a key committee led by our own Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, and including Chattanooga's Sen. Todd Gardenhire also recently insisted on Hamilton County's removal before they sent the legislation on for its next Senate vote. According to Chalkbeat, removing Hamilton County from the pilot program and deleting the requirement to check the immigration status of participants appear to clear the way for Gardenhire to give the amended Senate legislation a "yes" vote.
Now with the House version passed, that Senate vote is key. The Tennessean notes the Senate version of the bill is significantly different from the House version, but we'll see what happens. Just excluding Hamilton County doesn't save our tax dollars for Hamilton County.
We had hoped our state lawmakers would support - really support - improving public education, not just legislate the expenditure of state tax dollars to help pay for private school tuition and home schools.
The bill originally was portrayed as a help for "low-income" families to have more school choice. But in reality it's just pink lipstick (and $125 million in school welfare money over five years) to the middle and upper-middle class.
To be eligible, students won't have to be zoned to attend a low-performing school, and they may qualify if their family makes double the income required to qualify for the federal free lunch program. In other words, even a middle-income family of four with a $65,260-a-year income can take an average Education Savings Account award of $7,300 per student and apply it to private school or home schooling.
That's a travesty.