This year we have a choice.

A choice between electing a leader who knows that reproductive freedom is a human right and one who wants to BAN abortion nationwide. A choice between a Senator who will defend our democracy no matter what, and one who is a threat to the foundations of our country.

I ended up having an education day today. We met with the school board and listened to their concerns and needs. It was surprising how many bills we have that will affect them that most folks are unaware of. One that is particularly concerning is about Charter schools getting first dibs on decommissioned school properties. wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/…

Yes! Obviously we must hold criminals accountable, but we need to be enacting policy that prevents crime! Thank you @youngformemphis!

https://twitter.com/thetnholler/status/1750940861280755942

“there is a strong relationship between wage levels and criminal behavior, which explains why, over the past 20 years, crime rates for young men have increased while their wages have decreased.” nber.org/digest/nov97/h…

Speaker Sexton is gaslighting you. He thinks you are stupid. He thinks he can lie to you about their intent to defund public education. A voucher is private school being funded by your public tax dollars. It doesn’t matter which pile of public tax dollars it comes out of.

https://twitter.com/thetnholler/status/1744036150556115407

It doesn’t matter if you call it an ESA, it’s a voucher. Public tax 💵 going to private schools with no transparency. Schools that can refuse any child, don’t have to hire certified teachers, no free lunch, no buses, and don’t have accountability measures for teachers or kids.

Let’s talk about the interesting timing of the new school A-F “grading system” news dump on the Friday before Christmas weekend, shall we? Let’s talk about the coincidence of this “system” coming out the year the Governor wants to shove his voucher scam down TN family’s throats. Let’s talk about this new Education Commissioner who never spent a day as a teacher or principal. How she came in and threw out the grading plan ideas created with the department and educators who worked on it. Then she instituted her own rigged grading system.

We say this over and over, the research clearly shows vouchers don’t work, yet still the GOP pushes forward with a 95 county voucher plan that has FAILED in every state that passed one. GOP need to STOP defunding public schools for their dark money donors! time.com/6272666/school… You will hear Rep Mark White say “we have to do something for these failing schools.” Those schools aren’t failing, the TN GOP are failing our schools. They are trying to make our schools look bad so they can bring in their privatizing donors.

Currently attending Charter School Commission Mtg to hear appeal on ACE Charter who uses Hillsdale for their charter schools. Madison and Maury County local school boards have refused them. Today we will see if the state forces these schools on these counties. Important point, Charter Schools can ask for waivers to use texts that aren’t on the TN list (traditional public schools can as well-but that hasn’t been a problem with traditional public schools.) Huge issue with Hillsdale curriculum because it’s a inaccurate and whitewashed.

Sometimes I use a scooter to get around the TN Capitol. That's because I'm disabled; it's not a secret. @Justinjpearson When my Republican colleagues see me in my scooter, some of them like to call me weak. But the fact is, nobody's weaker than Marsha Blackburn and the Tennessee GOP.

No one loves you like your mother and I had one of the absolute best moms a person could ask for. Nell Johnson, my mom, died this morning after a 90-year life filled with love, generosity and great cheer.

I'll miss our long talks, our day trips, Sundays at her petting zoo, and family time.






Both my parents taught me lessons and values that I hold dear still today. Growing up, I learned quickly that we treated people with respect and care -- regardless of who they were, where they lived or how much money their family had.

Today was so reminiscent of the Sine Die in 2019. On that day Speaker Casada sent the troopers to try to lock us in the chambers, they shoved us in and tried to close the doors on us. Many were thrown off balance and one fell to the floor. We were able to get out the doors after they tried to lock us in. We went and held a press conference about the incident, then came back to the chambers. We finished all votes and ended session. There was no mention and no apology of them shoving us and trying to lock us in. They just gaveled out.

Though TN has some of the strictest penalties for juveniles in the country, maga republicans are going to use special session to try to pass laws to try juveniles as adults. Why would they do this, when juvenile crime is down 57% in the last 10 years? Minors have to be out of sight & sound of adult prison population-that often means solitary confinement, which is detrimental to children. Adult facilities don’t offer K-12 education. They will be throwing children away. Do they plan to build Core Civic juvenile charter schools?

As promised, here is the video of the comments made by TN GOP Rep about doing everything possible to save the baby. As an afterthought, protecting the mother "as much as possible."

Full debate on amendment 6 Forcing women with medical issues or fetal anomalies to carry pregnancies is NOT pro-life. Forcing girls as young as 9 or 10 yrs old to carry their rapist's baby is not pro-life.

🚨The GOP supermajority came out with their 1st piece of legislation the day after election. The bill that was burning their fingers it was so important to TN families. Did they expand Medicaid? Address inflation? Solve the DCS crisis? No, they made #DragShows a felony. #NoHate My team and I knocked 1,000’s of doors and made 1,000’s of calls for months before the election, not one person told us the problem the state needs to address is #DragShows. NOT ONE!

I’m hearing @GovBillLee may end an internationally renowned eco-friendly event in Morgan County, The Barkley Marathons, because they want to expand a bit and that means a bit more security. @BarkleyMarathon @TheBarkley100 @runnersworld runnersworld.com/races-places/a… It also means more tourism 💰 for rural TN! This is truly an amazing race. It’s well known by runners internationally. Folks come from all over the world to compete-they bring family and friends who spend lots of money in East TN. There’s even a movie! barkleymovie.com

Interesting, @GovBillLee thought his kids needed a $22k education, but the rest of TN will be fine with less than half of that…or they can get a loan of $14k-$28k per kid to get what his kids deserved. wpln.org/post/despite-s… These vouchers aren’t about anything but subsidizing private ed for folks already attending private schools. Seems forcing parents to pay the rest or get a loan runs counter to the idea of free public education.

So folks across the aisle are starting up their name calling with their “far left radical” accusation nonsense as they do at election time. Well, I’m going to show you some of the legislation I have carried or supported and would love someone to tell me how it is radical. Paid Family Leave-it’s supported by 83% of Tennesseans, including both sides of the aisle. My plan is a conservative plan that has been hugely successful when enacted. The supermajority is calling it a tax, I guess understanding policy is hard for them.

A teacher reached out to me this week to tell me how tough this year’s start is and how much of it has to do with the ridiculous antics of the legislature, the Governor, and his administration. We are wasting to much valuable time that should be focused on kids. Here it is… “I have taught more than 15 years. We have started back and this was week two with students. In the last two weeks I have scanned and uploaded my list of over 1000 books I have in my classroom.

I attended a luncheon with retired teachers and some of the Knoxville delegation today. Our delegation has some interesting differences when it comes to education policy. Differences aren’t necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes, well…. .@RepMcKenzie and I are actually pretty close on education. We want funding to go to traditional public schools that take every child. We want equity in funding, no more charters, and no vouchers.

I saw this post on Facebook from a teacher in Colorado, he says some important stuff, it’s been shared a gazillion times, well said Brent Walker, teacher of music🎶. “For a group of people who likely haven’t stepped foot on an elementary school campus in decades, there seem to be some strong and very misinformed feelings about what goes on there.

“She said when her caseworker quit, she could not even get in touch with the caseworker's supervisor. She said her resigning caseworker warned her the Davidson County foster care office was dramatically understaffed.”

https://twitter.com/nc5/status/1549076868699197442?s=21&t=9-k35Lw3d3jmH3VRRpNycg

Last year @Campbell4TN and I had legislation to remedy this situation. It was voted down in committee on a party line vote. Afterwards, a GOP member on the committee came to me to say “we have to do something,” they are completely aware we have a serious problem-but do nothing.

Since GOP gerrymandering this year, HD90 has been moved to Knoxville & taken over much of the old HD13. About 40% of the district was not in the old HD13 however, so we are going to have a little fun getting to know the new HD90 with a game and the hashtag #GetToKnow90! It basically runs from 4th and Gill to Cedar Bluff Road and is shaped like a monkey wrench. As in, we are going to throw a monkey wrench in the GOP ‘s plans.😉