by Aaron Gulbransen
The snow in Tennessee this week isn’t the only thing accumulating in Nashville. With our general assembly back in session and the bill deadline looming – legislative priorities for our representatives and senators are coming into view. And, for Governor Bill Lee, who enters his last year in office – it’s his last chance to advance his policy agenda.
As in years past, The Tennessee Conservatives Coalition will be monitoring legislation and having an impact on issues that conservatives in Tennessee care about – from bedrock conservative principles of expanding school choice, to social issues including protecting the unborn and addressing human trafficking, to economic issues of ensuring low taxes, a conservative budget and maintaining and promoting a business friendly environment.
Priority number one is expanding the President Trump endorsed education freedom scholarships. School choice is also in the Republican party platform and should be a foundational principle of any Republican legislator in our state. We fully expect the legislature to at least double the number of scholarships available, if not more.
According to the Tennessee Department of Education, more than 50,000 applications were submitted in the first week for only 20,000 scholarships. The proof is in the pudding. Thankfully, Gov. Lee and many in the legislature including House Speaker Cameron Sexton, along with likely future Governor – U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn and Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs and countless others have enthusiastically endorsed expanding the number of available scholarships to at least 40,000. It’s our firm belief that any child in Tennessee who wants an education freedom scholarship – which redirects their own taxpayer money towards each child’s individual education – should have the ability to access the scholarship to provide the best education for each individual student. The education establishment and union bosses should not determine where your kid goes to school, parents should and with these scholarships, families are empowered to do what’s best for each child.
We call on the legislature to listen to parents and see the real-world demand and to respond. As long as a child is receiving a quality education, it shouldn’t matter where that student receives the education – a brick-and-mortar zip code zoned public school, public charter school, private school, parochial school, home school, etc. What matters most is that kids are learning on grade level and can read, write, excel at math and have interpersonal skills. Students who graduate on time and on grade level will be productive members of society and net givers, not net takers. The statistics are grim if you’re behind grade level when it comes to finding a job, economic success and upward mobility. We expect Democrats to do the dog and pony show with the unions, call education freedom a scam and engage in disruptive protests. Thankfully, this extreme and unhinged minority has no actual sway when it comes to policy at the State Capitol and they should be largely ignored.
We’ve also been champions when it comes to combating child and human trafficking. We will advocate for additional resources for law enforcement to make continued progress on this vital issue. Unlike unhinged protests in Minnesota, we love and respect our law enforcement.
The surge in law enforcement in Memphis has shown what beefed up law enforcement presence and resources can do – a significant decrease in crime, more than 100 lost kids found and returned to their families within only 40 days, etc. Thankfully, our legislature, Governor and Attorney General are all committed to arresting the criminals, rescuing people from human trafficking and restoring and promoting human dignity for all.
However, the secret to a great offense is having a great defense. To that end, we will also keep our eye out for legislation that violates conservative free-market principles and hold legislators to account. One concerning proposal was recently introduced by State Senator Bobby Harshbarger and co-sponsored in the State Representative Rick Scarbrough that would ban any pharmacy benefit manager company from owning and operating a pharmacy in the state of Tennessee.
While we’re no fan of PBMs, Tennessee has in fact already passed more than a half-dozen reforms of pharmacy benefit managers. However, it’s simply not a free market or conservative principle to tell a company they cannot operate in your state. Arkansas already tried this last year and a judge issued a preliminary injunction saying it was likely unconstitutional.
Tennessee legislators should not tell companies they cannot run a business in our state – that’s something we’d expect of Gavin Newsom in California, but not here in the free state of Tennessee.
This proposal would shut down more than 100 neighborhood pharmacies that Tennesseans have been getting their prescription drugs and also other convenient household goods at for decades. It would also immediately put more than 1,000 pharmacists out of a job and affect veterans on TRICARE and their access to prescription drugs. The impacts of this anti-free market legislation are vast along with the direct harm it will cause to countless patients.
As we kick off this year’s legislative session, The Tennessee Conservatives Coalition encourages legislators to stand strong with their conservative principles and listen to voters who are calling for more school choice, supporting our law enforcement and ensuring that Tennessee remains the best state in the country – where people want to live, work and raise their families in the lowest taxed and best fiscally managed state in the Union.
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Aaron Gulbransen serves as CEO of The Tennessee Conservatives Coalition.
Photo “Tennessee Capitol” by Kayfishup. CC BY-SA 3.0.
I cannot and will not support “education scholarships” until the state budget for the school district losing a student is reduced by the amount of the “scholarship”. We are paying double for these scholarships. I am tired of my money being wasted in the public school cesspool.
It is not conservative to waste taxpayer dollars.