Full Senate to Vote on Bill Requiring High School Students to Learn Virtues of Capitalism and the U.S. Constitutional Republic

The full Tennessee State Senate will consider a bill that requires high school students to be taught the virtues of capitalism and the constitutional republic form of government.

The Tennessee State House of Representatives passed the House version of the bill on March 28, 68-21.

The bill was approved by the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday and will be scheduled for a floor vote by the Senate Calendar Committee. The Senate Clerk’s office told The Tennessee Star last week that a vote may not happen in the next few days because of the influx of bills, but that a full Senate vote will be scheduled before the end of session.

SB2728/HB2742, sponsored by Senator Dawn White (R-Murfreesboro) in the Senate and State Representative Dennis Powers (R-Jacksboro) in the House, “requires that high school students be taught about the virtues of capitalism and the constitutional republic form of government in the United States and Tennessee, as compared to other political and economic systems such as communism and socialism, as part of the social studies curriculum.”

Both the House and the Senate version were introduced on February 2, 2022.

The Star previously reported that when the legislation came up for House floor consideration on March 28, State Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) objected on the floor. After the bill was approved, in a tweet Johnson compared its passage to a fictional passage of a bill teaching the virtues of fascism.

Now the GOP cut off debate on teaching the “virtues of capitalism” instead of teaching comparison and contrast on all government systems. Pretty sure we aren’t far away from them passing a bill to teach the virtues of fascism

The text of the legislation reads:

SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-6-1028(b)(2), is amended by designating the existing language as subdivision (A) and adding the following as a new subdivision: (B) Students in grades nine through twelve (9-12) must be taught about the virtues of capitalism and the constitutional republic form of government in the United States and Tennessee, as compared to other political and economic systems such as communism and socialism.

SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it, and applies to the 2022-2023 school year and each school year thereafter.

The Tennessee General Assembly legislative staff fiscal note on the legislation says that the cost of the legislation to the Tennessee taxpayer is “Not Significant.”

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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR, Twitter, and Parler.
Photo “Economics Class” by StFX. CC-BY-SA-2.0.