Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee walks through a group anti-school voucher protesters flinging fake voucher “dollars” at him on his way to a press conference at the end of a special legislative session on January 30. (Photo: John Partipilo)
No stranger to pushing constitutionally questionable bills, the Tennessee legislature proved last week it’s ready to spend more time and money in court to defend shaky voucher and immigration policies.
First, Gov. Bill Lee’s $430 million private-school voucher plan thumbs its nose at the constitutional requirement to serve all children by excluding undocumented immigrant kids. (The cost is expected to rise every year.) In last week’s special session, lawmakers rejected a proposal to put those children into the bill, which goes against the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1982 decision in Plyler v. Doe.
Saying they’re working on a mandate from President Donald Trump to rid the country of undocumented immigrants, the legislature also passed a constitutionally shaky $5.5 million-plus plan to create a confidential division in the Safety Department to join Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the quest to rid America of a large segment of its workforce.
Thanks to a large chunk of Hispanic voters who backed Trump, deportation agents soon could be knocking at the doors of immigrants nationwide.
I think this General Assembly passes legislation that they believe is constitutional, so, yeah, the bills pass because the General Assembly believes it’s constitutional.
– Gov. Bill Lee
Another plus is that we won’t have about 100,000 undocumented folks working in Tennessee’s hotels and chicken factories, climbing on roofs, cutting grass and framing houses. Once they’re shipped out, we can teach young people a little work ethic, such as how to haul bundles of shingles up a ladder at 5 a.m., how to hang on to the gutter when falling, and – this is critical – how to avoid rusty nails that can cause an infection so nasty your mother thinks it’s syphilis. It is absolutely, without a doubt, the worst job ever, but you do drink a lot more beer and tequila at night, thus killing two birds with one stone.
Anyway, the American Civil Liberties Union is ready to sue the state over this immigration enforcement bill, which creates a Class E felony for locally-elected officials who vote for an alleged sanctuary city policy.
Sanctuary cities are illegal in Tennessee. But that hasn’t stopped undocumented immigrants from moving here and working their fingers to the bone so the rest of us can party like it’s 2099.
Critics of the bill say that part is indefensible because elected officials should be able to vote their conscience under the Constitution. Never mind, the Constitution won’t be around much longer anyway, and the governor’s assurances aren’t exactly comforting.
Following last week’s super-duper session in which lawmakers solved immigration, education, flood relief and transportation in one failed swoop, Lee said, “I think this General Assembly passes legislation that they believe is constitutional, so, yeah, the bills pass because the General Assembly believes it’s constitutional.”
Tennessee House passes immigration enforcement bill; ACLU plans legal challenge
I hate to be bearer of bad news, but just because the legislature thinks something is constitutional doesn’t make it so. Their track record in recent years isn’t great.
Thus questions about the bill will be “ferreted out,” Lee said. But for now, the legislature believes it is constitutional, so let’s move forward, he said. Or backwards, depending on your take.
With an eye toward the not-so-distant past, Democratic lawmakers complained that these measures are akin to Nazi Germany and the hunting of slaves who escaped to free states some 150 years ago.
Republican leaders denounced those comments and pushed on with risking the state budget for the questionable proposition of paying for kids to go to private schools and setting up a secret police force (This is not the Dream Police).
By the way, they failed to put an estimated cost into the immigration enforcement bill for detaining immigrants in local jails. Oh well, they can always push that on counties. They also forgot to mention the cost of brown shirts to outfit the Department of Safety’s new confidential bureau. But I hear there’s a blue light special at Kmart (Oops, they’re out of business).
This ain’t over – quite
Some of the House’s most conservative Republicans blasted leadership late last week after they felt disrespected during the debate over the governor’s private-school voucher.
Rep. Todd Warner of Chapel Hill, a voucher opponent, was most vocal, not only calling the bill fiscally irresponsible and a “blatant abuse of taxpayer funds,” but accusing House leaders of silencing dissent and refusing to allow full debate.
“They treated legislators like children, forcing us to put our names on a list just for the chance to speak – like students begging their teachers for permission to go to the bathroom,” his Facebook post said.
Warner also claimed they linked the voucher bill to disaster relief funding for East Tennessee flood victims, which is becoming pretty clear on its own.
“It’s a betrayal of the very people we were elected to serve. This is not conservatism – it’s corruption,” Warner said.
Republican Rep. Jody Barrett of Dickson criticized the plan, too, saying it creates a huge entitlement program that will force the state of a “fiscal cliff.”
Neither one of them were given the chance to speak during floor debate.
People wearing education “choice” stickers flooded Cordell Hull, but their only argument is that people want the money. Aside from attaching themselves to the government teat, lobbyists reminded me of the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, except instead of “always be closing,” their mantra was always be “winning.” After all, that’s most important, no matter how it costs.
“A little bit of this / A little bit of that”
NewsChannel5’s Phil Williams reported that President Trump called off the feds who were looking into U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles’ campaign fundraising discrepancies.
The report came a week after Ogles sponsored legislation to amend the Constitution to allow Trump to serve a third term. Under current law, someone can serve only two terms as president.
Considering the president pardoned and commuted sentences for about 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol and caused people’s deaths on Jan. 6, 2021, this is no shock.
But it could raise an eyebrow or two.
Even before his election, Ogles started misleading people. His resume has few, if any, truths. He didn’t earn a degree at Vanderbilt’s business college, never was a real economist, as he claimed, and might have done some other unsavory things.
Ogles has refused to comply with Federal Election Commission requirements, thus the FBI investigation into his finances. A House Congressional Ethics panel recommended further investigation after finding he likely violated federal campaign finance laws, mainly by reporting an inflated personal loan to make his bid for office look stronger.
Is this the end of the FEC, congressional ethics office and FBI, or just an exercise in defanging?
Only a little bullying
Republican Sen. Adam Lowe of Calhoun whined last week that vouchers are needed to keep kids from getting a bloody nose at school.
Yet Republicans jumped at the chance to question (beat up) a young man named Aiden Pratt from Wilson County who had the gall to question the private-school voucher bill in the House Education Committee.
Since he admitted to doing some work for the Democratic Party, maybe he deserved it.
Asked if he was aware the state had put an extra $3.8 billion into K-12 over the last decade, Pratt said “that means nothing,” because teachers still have to take on side jobs to get by. He said the state should have added $6 billion more.
Republican Rep. Scott Cepicky of Culleoka, who was running the dog and pony show, said, “Hopefully, Mr. Pratt, the lessons we’ve learned over the last four years will be changed here going forward where the price of eggs won’t be $10 a dozen.”
First, the next time someone says “going forward,” I’m gonna puke. Second, even during the recent snow storm, we never saw eggs at $10. But grocery stores all over the place gouged the heck out of hungry people.
Third, with all due respect to Rep. Cepicky, what does the price of eggs have to do with pouring $430 million into a private-school voucher plan that turns the term “fiscal conservative” upside down?
Republican Rep. Gino Bulso of Brentwood then joined the fun, saying anyone who learned math in Tennessee should be able to figure out that private-school vouchers are a good deal. He said that even though two-thirds of them will subsidize students attending private schools already and do little to help the state’s poorest kids.
Granted, Pratt wasn’t exactly polished. But even though lawmakers made him admit he’s only 18 years old, he hung in there, saying teachers are struggling to make a living with starting wages under $50,000.
Bulso is one to lecture the public. He introduced a questionable bill a year ago to punish the House’s protesting members, then fought a measure to prohibit first-cousin marriage.
He also refused to answer when asked if he thought the voucher bill received a fair hearing as Republicans cut off committee debate, a sure sign the vote outcome was predestined, but with moderate bullying just to let everyone know who’s running the show.
Whose “slush fund”
Republican Sen. Mark Pody questioned a $100 million response and recovery fund for the governor, saying it allows too much discretion to give out money. It’s all part of the hurricane relief plan lawmakers passed last week.
“I’m really comfortable with everything we’re doing for Helene. But it’s almost like we’re creating a slush fund for the governor,” said Pody, a Lebanon lawmaker who represents a portion of Metro Nashville.
Pody said he’s more comfortable with the executive branch being required to come to the legislature for funds “and not just having a hundred million dollars sitting out there.”
Readers might recall the legislature approved a “slush fund” of sorts in 2019 when the first iteration of Lee’s voucher plan squeaked to approval. It took nearly 45 minutes of arm-twisting by former Speaker Glen Casada to break a tie vote and a flip on the part of Republican Rep. Jason Zachary of Knoxville, who changed his vote to “yes” on the guarantee Knox County Schools wouldn’t be a voucher district.
Casada defended the line item tucked away in a supplemental budget, saying lawmakers knew it was in there and could have voted against it. That vote led to an FBI investigation that dragged on for six years. Who knows, though, with Trump at the helm, all could be forgiven.
Incidentally, Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson of Franklin assured Pody everything’s gonna be alright.
Get thee to a prison-ery
The U.S. Department of Justice ordered former Sen. Brian Kelsey to report to prison by 2 p.m. Feb. 24 to start serving a 20-month sentence for federal campaign finance violations.
The former Germantown Republican who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee is to go to Ashland Satellite Camp in Ashland, Kentucky. If he’s unable to surrender there, he can report to a local U.S. Marshal’s office by noon that day.
Despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear his case and orders by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals for him to serve the prison term, he’s still fighting it. You’ve gotta give him credit. When he goes down, he goes down in flames. Problem is, it’s hard to back out of a guilty plea.
“I ain’t seen sunshine since I don’t know when.”*
* “Folsom Prison Blues,” Johnny Cash
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