Tennessee State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) confirmed on Tuesday he plans to appeal the July 4 decision by Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles that blocked the release the journals and other written materials left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale.
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A school voucher pilot program that began this school year in Davidson and Shelby counties could be expanded if new proposed legislation becomes law.
Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, has proposed Senate Bill 12 to expand the program to any school district, called a Local Education Agency, with more than five schools that was identified as being in the bottom 10% of schools in performance in 2017 and then was also identified as a priority school in the 2015, 2018 and 2021 cycles.
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A closed shelter in Chattanooga again was the focus Thursday for much of the Tennessee Legislature’s Study Committee on Refugee Issues meeting.
Tennessee Department of Children’s Services Commissioner Jennifer Nichols said the home, run by the Georgia-based Baptiste Group, remains under suspension as the Baptiste Group appeals its license suspension in chancery court.
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State Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-TN-10) wants to boost inner-city and rural access to fresh food to fight “food deserts,” The Chattanoogan reports. Gardenhire made the announcement Monday to the Hamilton Place Rotary Club. The Hamilton County senator said he wants to provide incentives for grocery stores to open in the inner-city. The senator made reference to a Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations report from January that found 21 percent of Tennesseans live in an area considered to be a food desert. Fifteen percent live in an urban food desert, while 6 percent live in rural food deserts. The TACIR report is available here. Residents in “food deserts,” or areas with lowered access to healthy food, “tend to have a less nutritious diet and poorer health outcomes than those living in other communities,” the report says. Also, according to the report: While not always limited to food deserts, a variety of policy alternatives have been implemented in states and communities around the US to both improve access to and encourage the consumption of healthy food, including improving transportation to and from healthy food retailers, bringing the food to the customer through mobile markets or food delivery, providing vouchers for…
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California, New York, Florida, New Jersey and Connecticut all provide the in-state tuition benefit for illegal aliens in their states and all permit illegal aliens who graduate from law school, to apply for and obtain a license to practice law. Last week Connecticut became the fifth state to change its rules and license eligible illegal aliens to practice law. Prior to the rule change, Connecticut required lawyers to either be a U.S. citizen or “an alien lawfully residing in the United States.” The rule now includes anyone “authorized to work lawfully in the United States.” The rule change was proposed by Denia Perez, a grantee of Obama’s unconstitutional DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) administrative amnesty program. Illegal aliens trying to get a license to practice could potentially have an easy path in Tennessee, especially as explained below, if proponents of the in-state tuition bill are successful during the next legislative session. State Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) and State Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) who last session sponsored the bill for its fourth run, are likely to try again in 2019. Unlike Connecticut and California before they changed their rules, Tennessee’s rules about who is eligible to be granted a law…
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During Tuesday’s debate on SB2333 sponsored by State Sen. Mark Green (R-Clarksville) that would prohibit local jurisdictions from creating their own identity card programs, State Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) offered an amendment addressing parent access to schools. The local identity cards, also called municipal IDs, have been made available to illegal aliens in other states to help them access certain public services and appear as if they are lawfully present, While explaining his amendment, Gardenhire, who annually sponsors a bill to award in-state tuition to illegal alien students, disparaged “White and African American” parents who, he said, don’t “show up” to be involved with their children’s schools: In my district we have an enormous amount of Latino students. Let’s just get right down to the chase of it. We have an enormous amount of Latino students and these parents want to be involved. They’re involved more than any other segment of the population are. And if we exclude them because they can’t show some ID and get into the building and participate, we’re doing the students and the teachers and the principals a disservice. You can watch and hear Gardenhire make these comments at the 5:41:57 mark of this video of the debate…
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State Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) and State Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) have failed three times to pass a bill that would award the in-state tuition benefit to illegal aliens but they are trying again this legislative session using the same argument about financial accessibility of in-state v. out-of-state tuition. A less expensive college tuition, however, is already available to illegal aliens and, it doesn’t require passing the Gardenhire/White bill. University of the People (UoPeople) offers completely free “quality, online, degree-granting educational programs to any qualified student” including refugees, asylum seekers and illegal aliens: Founded in 2009, University of the People is the first non-profit, tuition-free, accredited American online university. To date, the university has enrolled nearly 10,000 students from more than 200 countries and territories around the world – almost half of whom reside in the US. Recently, the university has seen a significant spike in enrollment from immigrants in the US, among those, refugees, DACA and undocumented students. According to a recent student survey, 69% of US-residing students reported being immigrants, of whom, approximately 30% are DACA or undocumented. ‘It is our duty to support anyone who wants to improve their lives through education,’ says [UoPeople founder] Reshef. ‘We…
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Lacking any consistent rationale, State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga), the perpetual sponsor of the Senate’s bills to give illegal alien students taxpayer-subsidized in-state tuition, last year co-sponsored a bill allowing judges to give illegal aliens convicted of felonies longer sentences based on their immigration status. The bill was signed into law in 2017. While Gardenhire is willing to punish illegal aliens who commit crimes, he prefers to dismantle state law and reward parents for violating the country’s immigration laws, forcing Tennessee’s taxpayers to provide a free education for the children they brought with them. English Language Learner (ELL) services in Tennessee’s public schools are funded through the state’s education funding formula called the BEP (Basic Education Program) and comes primarily from state and local revenue meaning that every Tennessee taxpayer shares in the cost regardless of which county’s schools are providing the services. State education funding provides 70 percent of the expenditure leaving the local share at 30 percent. In fiscal year 2012, total funding for ELL services was $70 million with the state share at $49 million and the local share at $21 million. The most recent fiscal year’s total funding has grown to $122.3 million with the state share…
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Up for a fourth try to award a statutorily classified “state or local public benefit” to illegal immigrants in Tennessee, Rep. Mark White continues to tell his legislator colleagues that his bill is about education and not immigration even though the state law White needs to change was “based on Congress’s asserted interest in ‘remov[ing] the incentive for illegal immigration provided by the availability of public benefits.’” Tennessee’s “Eligibility Verification for Entitlements Act” (EVEA) passed in 2012, classifies in-state tuition is a state benefit. The EVEA requires that: …every state governmental entity and local health department shall verify that each applicant eighteen (18) years of age or older, who applies for a federal, state or local public benefit from the entity or local health department, is a United States citizen or lawfully present in the United States in the manner provided in this chapter. The EVEA defers to the federal law definition of a “state or local public benefit.” A 2017 opinion issued by Attorney General Herb Slatery notes that this federal law was “based on Congress’s asserted interest in ‘remov[ing] the incentive for illegal immigration provided by the availability of public benefits.’” The federal law which limits the authority of state governments…
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The Education Subcommittee of the Tennessee House of Representatives passed State Rep. Mark White’s (R-Memphis) bill granting in-state tuition to illegal immigrant students in Tennessee on a voice vote Tuesday afternoon. With the exception of State Rep. Dawn White’s (R-Murfreesboro) strongly worded statement opposing White’s bill, no discussion was had by the subcommittee before they passed the bill on a voice vote. Bill sponsor State Rep. Mark White (no relation to State Rep. Dawn White), who chairs the Education Subcommittee, opted to move his bill up from number thirty-five on the agenda to the first one voted on by the subcommittee. White’s bill, HB2429, is his fourth attempt to give illegal immigrant students access to taxpayer subsidized in-state tuition. To do this, White’s bill dismantles state law by removing reduced college tuition from Tennessee’s definition of “state or local public benefit. Stating her opposition to the bill, State Rep. Dawn White noted the high fiscal impact from illegal immigration on Tennessee taxpayers estimated to be $793 million in 2017. She also referenced the magnetizing effect that offering the reduced college tuition would have on Tennessee, a point worth noting since none of Tennessee’s border states offer in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. Among the…
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Last year, State Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) gave his word to House Education chairman Harry Brooks that he would not try to change state law that currently says taxpayer subsidized in-state tuition is a state benefit. White made that promise with regard to his bill HB660 which removed in-state tuition from the current state law definition of “state or local public benefit” so that it could be provided to illegal immigrants. This year, White has broken that promise by filing a new bill, HB2429 which combines parts of the two in-state tuition bills he sponsored last year, including the section that would redefine “state or local public benefit.” The first in-state tuition bill that White tried to pass last year, HB863, failed to pass the Education Committee in a close 7-6 vote. White deferred his second bill HB660, to the current session. When White first introduced this bill in the Education Subcommittee, Chairman Harry Brooks questioned the section removing in-state tuition from being a state benefit as currently contained in state law. White gave his word that he would amend that section out if the bill was allowed to go before the full Education Committee. The bill failed to pass the Education committee…
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Desperate to give illegal alien students in-state college tuition, Sen. Todd Gardenhire’s bill SB2263, removes publicly subsidized reduced college tuition from the current state law definition of “state or local public benefit.” SB2263 would amend Tennessee’s “Eligibility Verification for Entitlements Act” which defers to the federal law definition of a “state or local public benefit.” A 2017 opinion issued by Attorney General Herb Slatery notes that this federal law was “based on Congress’s asserted interest in ‘remov[ing] the incentive for illegal immigration provided by the availability of public benefits.’” But the federal law does permit states to grant public benefits to illegal aliens through state legislation. The AG’s opinion was in response to a 2017 bill sponsored by Gardenhire and Rep. Mark White who is also committed to securing in-state tuition for students unlawfully present in Tennessee. White has sponsored the House companion bills to Gardenhire’s Senate bills. Their 2017 bill would have allowed the governing boards of state colleges and universities to grant in-state tuition to illegal immigrant students. The bill passed the Senate Education Committee but failed in the House Committee in a 6 – 6 tie vote. White “preserved” the bill by rolling it to the 2018 session instead…
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During last week’s radio interview with Ralph Bristol, Randy Boyd repeats the same arguments being used by legislators to grant in-state tuition to illegal aliens living in Tennessee. At first, Boyd makes it sound as if he is opposed to giving in-state tuition to illegal aliens when he says, “I don’t believe that the state should be providing additional benefits for people that are illegal in our state.” But Boyd makes a quick pivot relying on the same arguments used by legislators who voted in favor of the State Sen. Gardenhire/State Rep. White in-state tuition bill. Former State Sen. Jim Tracy (R-Shelbyville) said his focus was wanting to help UT Martin fill their open seats because “we need more students in college…we are not at full capacity now…I’m just trying to reach more students.” Boyd used a partially empty hotel example to illustrate why the state shouldn’t use its tuition policies to “charge a penalty of triple” the amount of in-state tuition: I think that’s true and I think this my be a longer conversation for another interview, but I think there is also a concern that I have about us being able to attract more talent around the country and around…
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Teach For America (TFA) is “actively recruit[ing]” illegal aliens who have been granted temporary deportation through the unconstitutional DACA program. After one month of TFA summer training the “DACAmented teacher” can be placed in a Tennessee public school. Over one hundred “DACAmented” trainees are currently teaching in schools around the U.S. to date, and TFA is actively working to find more schools that are willing to employ illegal aliens who were given temporary work permits. In 2006, Memphis began partnering with TFA and three years later, Metro Nashville Public Schools followed. In 2014, the Islamic Center of Nashville whose president Rashed Fakhruddin helps train Metro middle and high school teachers, hosted TFA recruits at the mosque. Passionate about supporting the “DREAM Act” and educating “undocumented students,” TFA tells its DACAmented recruits that a personal story of living in the U.S. illegally can influence students : Picture standing in front of a classroom, having grown up undocumented. Imagine having the opportunity to share your story from fearing deportation to the day you graduated from college, and what it was like to get admitted to Teach For America. Think about the impact your story could have on your students, both those born in…
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State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) has taken exception to The Tennessee Star’s polling question which accurately refers to foreign nationals of any age who have entered or been brought into the country without permission as “illegal immigrants.” Gardenhire prefers to use the left’s politically deceptive description of “children of undocumented immigrants who are brought to this country when they are very young.” “Illegal alien” is the term used in federal immigration statutes and is the term sanctioned by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 2012 immigration case. Open border leftist organizations such as the TN Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and La Raza, also use “undocumented immigrant” in an effort to “obscure the illegal actions and conduct of those who violate our immigration laws.” In 2014, after failing to move his in-state tuition bill out of committee, Gardenhire tried for a second time the following year. Working his 2015 bill to grant in-state college tuition to illegal alien students, he never used “illegal” anything, referring instead to the potential beneficiaries as, “certain students,” “best and brightest of this category,” “this segment of the population,” “these people,” “undocumented,” and “Tennessee high school graduates.” Rep. Mark White, sponsor of the companion House bills,…
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A year after the state legislature diverted its diversity funding, the University of Tennessee-Knoxville will see the funding come back July 1, but school officials have yet to decide how to spend it, reports the Knoxville News Sentinel. The school will receive $445,882 in state funding for diversity, an allocation that was used in the past to support the Office for Diversity and Inclusion. Lawmakers voted last year to divert funding to minority engineering scholarships for one year after outcry over Sex Week and the school’s promotion of gender neutral pronouns and discouragement of winter holiday celebrations that include any type of reference to Christmas. The school is still prohibited from using state funds on those particular efforts even though the funding is restored. Earlier this year, some lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to pass a measure that would encourage intellectual diversity on campus and make conservative views more welcome. State Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) told the News Sentinel that he wishes the university would continue to use the state funding on minority scholarships. Gardenhire sponsored the Senate version of the bill last year. Gardenhire said the Office for Diversity and Inclusion was “giving a horrible reputation to the University of Tennessee and the state.” “I…
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A bill that would require seat belts on Tennessee school buses has been pulled from this year’s legislative calendar. The measure was seen as an effort to do something in the wake of a school bus crash in Chattanooga in November in which six children were killed and dozens injured. The proposed legislation was sponsored by two Chattanooga legislators, JoAnne Favors, a Democrat in the House, and Todd Gardenhire, a Republican in the Senate. Proponents of the bill said it might prevent injuries and deaths in the future, but others said the bill was an emotional and flawed response. Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver (R-Lancaster) voiced concerns about young children panicking and not being able to work themselves out of their restraints. Others said the Chattanooga crash pointed more to a need to better screen bus drivers. Costs were another concern. In the Chattanooga crash, bus driver Johnthony Walker was charged with vehicular homicide. Police say Walker was speeding when the bus crashed into a tree and flipped over. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, school buses are the safest vehicles on the road, with only four to six children dying each year on school transportation vehicles, making up less than…
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee — State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) on Wednesday made a pitch to compensate Tennessee taxpayers for surplus revenue. He was a lone voice, however, before the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee voted 10-1 for a bill that allows the money to be used for government spending. Gardenhire was the only one who voted against the proposed legislation. The bill authorizes state spending to exceed growth in revenues by $438 million, or 2.85 percent, for the current fiscal year. The bill is a way around the Copeland Cap, which says that spending should not exceed the growth of the state’s economy, measured by estimated growth in personal income in the state. Added to the state constitution in 1978, the budget restraint provision is named for former Republican State Rep. David Copeland. The General Assembly can disregard the cap with a simple majority vote, which has happened numerous times. During a discussion before Wednesday’s vote, Gardenhire exchanged tense words with Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris (R-Collierville), the bill sponsor in the Senate. Gardenhire said he didn’t want to see the Copeland Cap undermined. Norris snapped that lawmakers should stop collecting so much in taxes if they want to avoid this…
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A bill that would require seat belts on Tennessee public school buses passed a House panel Tuesday morning. The Education Administration and Planning Committee passed the proposed legislation on a voice vote. Supporters attending the meeting clapped after the vote was taken. The measure is in response to a school bus crash in Chattanooga in November in which six children were killed and dozens injured. Bus driver Johnthony Walker was charged with vehicular homicide. Police say Walker was speeding when the bus crashed into a tree and flipped over. The seat belt bill is sponsored by two Chattanooga legislators, JoAnne Favors, a Democrat in the House, and Todd Gardenhire, a Republican in the Senate. The amended bill would require buses purchased starting July 2019 to have seat belts. During a discussion before the vote Tuesday, Rep. Craig Fitzhugh (D-Ripley) said the bill is “a long time coming.” “We are buckled up everywhere,” he said, adding that school buses should be no different. Downplaying concerns that young children might not be able to unfasten their seat belts in an emergency, Fitzhugh said his three-year-old grandson can work himself out of his car seat restraints in “a New York second.” But opponents…
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State Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver on Wednesday called a bill that would require seat belts on Tennessee school buses “emotionally-driven” and “bad policy.” Weaver (R-Lancaster) made her comments when the proposed legislation was brought before the House Education Administration and Planning Committee. The bill is sponsored in the House by Rep. JoAnne Favors (D-Chattanooga) and in the Senate by Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga). It comes in the aftermath of a Chattanooga school bus crash in November in which six children were killed and others injured. Bus driver Johnthony Walker was charged with vehicular homicide. Police say Walker was speeding when the bus crashed into a tree and flipped over. Weaver said requiring seat belts could lead to more deaths as a result of little children not being able to work themselves out of their restraints, especially if a bus caught fire or ended up in water. “This is a very dangerous bill,” Weaver said. The bill originally called for any bus purchased starting July 2018 to be equipped with a restraint system and required any bus currently in use to have seat belts by July 2023. The bill was later amended to require only buses purchased starting July 2019 to have seat…
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Rep. Mark White’s (R-Memphis) second bill, HB660, that if left unamended, would have allowed the governing boards of state colleges and universities to grant in-state tuition to illegal immigrant students, failed in the House Education committee for lack of a majority on a 6-6 vote. During committee testimony, the TN Board of Regents lobbyist explained that for their institutions, this bill was about revenue – filling seats in their schools and being able to make their own rules about border state recruiting. The UT lobbyist explained that flexibility in being able to offer in-state tuition as part of the universities’ business model could be more beneficial than the revenue generated by out-of-state tuition. In sponsoring this bill, Rep. White wanted to uniformly expand the authority of the new school governing boards that were created by the Governor’s FOCUS Act, but White also used the bill as an opportunity to have a second bite at the apple to give illegal immigrant students access to in-state tuition should his other bill, HB863 fail to pass. That bill was defeated in the House Education committee yesterday. During an earlier House Education subcommittee hearing, concern was raised by Chairman Harry Brooks, as to whether…
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Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) and Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) have sponsored two bills this session that would grant in-state tuition to illegal immigrant students. HB863 failed in the House Education committee Tuesday on a 7-6 vote but Rep. White’s other bill, HB660, looks like it will be the first bill considered by the committee on Wednesday morning. This White/Gardenhire bill would authorize the new college and university governing boards to decide which students are eligible to pay in-state tuition rates. “The bill is designed to allow each local community and institution to do what is best for their institution” is how Rep. White’s office described the bill in an email to the Tennessee Star. Importantly, however, HB660 “exempts the extension of in-state tuition that this amendment provides from the definition of ‘state or local public benefit’ under the ‘Eligibility Verification for Entitlements Act’” according to an earlier email statement from Paul Marsh in Rep. White’s office. Last year, the Tennessee legislature passed Governor Haslam’s FOCUS Act enabling the six universities in the Board of Regents system, including Tennessee Tech, Tennessee State University and MTSU to have their own boards that among other duties, will oversee tuition. When White’s HB660…
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A Tennessee bill that would have offered in-state college tuition to illegal immigrants died in a House committee Tuesday morning, effectively ending its path forward this legislative session. The Education Administration and Planning Committee shot down the bill in a close and emotional 6-7 vote. The bill was sponsored in the House by Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) and has been sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga). Both are Republicans. “I cannot pass the burden onto the taxpayers of Tennessee,” said Rep. Dawn White (R-Murfreesboro) during a discussion before the vote. She said Tennessee would become a magnet for illegal immigrant families who would want their children to be able to take advantage of in-state tuition. The influx would create a need for more schools at the K-12 level and raise property taxes at time when some schools already have a number of portable classrooms, she said. Similar legislation passed in the Senate in 2015 but failed by just one vote in the House. Rep. Mark White, the House bill sponsor, was overcome with emotion Tuesday and seemed near tears as he asked for support for the bill. He said young people brought to the U.S. through no…
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Long before there was debate over in-state college tuition for illegal immigrants in Tennessee and around the country, there was debate over illegal immigrant students in grades K-12. The matter was settled in 1982, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Plyler v. Doe that public schools must grant illegal immigrant children a free K-12 education as they would for any other student. Doing otherwise would violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, the court said. The ruling helped set the stage for future wrangling over providing young illegal immigrants with benefits for continuing their education and finding work after graduating from high school. In Tennessee, a bill that would provide in-state tuition for illegal immigrants is moving through the state legislature. The proposed legislation is sponsored by two Republicans, Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) and Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis). A similar bill was passed by the Senate two years ago but failed in the House by one vote. Currently, at least 18 states offer in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Proponents say it’s not fair to create hurdles for college-bound illegal immigrants after they were welcomed and encouraged in their K-12…
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Rep. Mark White’s bill, HB863 that would allow illegal immigrant students to pay in-state college tuition in Tennessee, scheduled for a vote this week, was rolled to next week. The companion bill, SB1014 passed by the Senate Education committee will be put on the calendar in Senate Finance, Ways & Means. During discussion of the bill in the Senate Education committee, Sen. Gardenhire, the bill sponsor in the Senate, confirmed that any criteria that would have restricted the beneficiaries of the 2017 bill to grantees of the Obama Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, had been removed. Criminal histories aside, individuals who entered the U.S. illegally and were “born after June 15, 1981 is within—and shall remain within—DACA’s age requirements” are eligible to apply. If approved, DACA grantees receive a two-year temporary deportation deferment and work authorization which then enables applying for a social security number and a driver’s license. Grantees can apply to renew their DACA status at the two year expiration. Importantly, being granted DACA status does not change the individual’s illegal immigration status. Broadening the scope of the revised 2017 bill as compared to the 2015 version that failed to pass on the House floor, means that…
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The state Senate Education Committee on Tuesday passed a bill called the Teacher Bill of Rights that educators say would give teachers much-needed respect. However, the bill was amended to take out a provision prohibiting Tennessee public school teachers from being evaluated by professionals who do not have the same subject matter expertise or from being evaluated based on the performance of students the educator has not taught. The provision had earlier been removed from a companion bill in the House. Also stripped from the Senate bill Tuesday was a provision prohibiting schools from moving teachers to other schools based solely on test scores from state mandated assessments. The former had been deemed too unwieldy and costly, and bill sponsor Sen. Mark Green (R-Clarksville) told the committee Tuesday the latter provision wouldn’t give struggling schools the flexibility they need. “I’ve gotten to the point where I can accept that,” he said. The bill retained measures calling for teachers to be treated with civility and have their professional judgment respected. It also frees them from the burden of spending personal money to “appropriately equip a classroom.” It promises teachers a “safe classroom and school” and underscores their right to defend themselves if…
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