(C) Tennessee Lookout
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Stockard on the Stump: Tennessee immigrant student bill losing momentum • Tennessee Lookout [1]
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Date: 2025-04-18
Tennessee’s bill restricting education for undocumented immigrant students could be dead for the year.
The Lookout is hearing from key lawmakers that the measure won’t make it to the House floor for a vote this session.
Because of the potential for a major financial impact, lawmakers put the measure sponsored by House Majority Leader William Lamberth “behind the budget,” meaning it couldn’t be taken up until lawmakers approve the spending plan for fiscal 2026. They did so Wednesday, but the legislation that would allow school districts to check the immigration status of students continues to flounder in the House where rank-and-file members don’t want to be put in the position of voting on it.
A major drawback is that the bill contains no provision for the state attorney general to defend school districts if they check students’ status, thus forcing them to spend their own money to go to court to ward off a legal challenge.
Sponsors have been bucking all year for litigation that would send the question to the U.S. Supreme Court, in hopes of undoing Plyler v. Doe, the 1982 case that requires all students, including immigrants, to be educated.
The Senate version of the bill, which passed on a 19-13 vote last week, differs in that it would require school districts to determine whether students have permanent legal status in the country. The House bill makes it optional.
Both measures would allow school districts to charge tuition to students without legal status.
Without changes the bills were likely to wind up in a conference committee of House and Senate members where differences would be worked out, raising questions about whether the bill would come out unscathed.
Hundreds of people have rallied against the bill throughout the legislative session. And Sen. Bo Watson, sponsor of the Senate bill, has drawn heat from Hamilton County principals, the Tennessee Small Business Alliance and other opposition groups.
The financial impact estimate for the bill points out Tennessee is required to follow federal Title VI laws prohibiting discrimination against students. Violations could put $1.1 billion in federal funding at risk, even though the U.S. Department of Education might be eliminated under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Lamberth told reporters Thursday he’s trying to find out if the federal funds would be endangered but said the bill could be taken up at any time.
At the very least, though, the bill is in flux. Whether it flies could be determined by whether backers want a blood bath on the House floor.
Humble to challenge Johnson
A bipartisan eruption over millions of dollars slipped into the state budget to pay for primary elections appears, in part, to be spurring competition for Williamson County’s state Senate seat.
Republican candidate Gary Humble, founder of the ultra-conservative Tennessee Stands political group, told the Tennessee Lookout this week he will run for election to the 27th District seat held by Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson of Franklin. Johnson narrowly defeated Humble in the last battle.
Humble confirmed his candidacy while criticizing a move to add $8 million to the state budget to reimburse county election commissions for holding primary elections. The Senate placed the money in the budget Tuesday during a finance committee meeting, and the House made the move Wednesday on the chamber floor.
Democrats and several Republicans who favor closing primaries and allowing caucuses blasted the move, saying they were deceived in committees when they asked whether the primary bill came with a cost.
Humble told the Lookout he considers the funding move a “slap in the face” of taxpayers. It clashes with proposals by Elevate 2025, a group that Humble supports, to hold a Williamson County Republican caucus.
Humble told the Lookout the primary bill wouldn’t have passed if it had $8 million attached, and he accused lawmakers of lying to the opponents and the public while forcing the legislature to vote on an amended budget.
Without the money, county governments would have been forced to make up the cost to hold primaries.
“Jack Johnson is leading a campaign of fraud and corruption against the people of Williamson County and the entire state for his own desire for political retribution,” Humble said in a statement to the Lookout.
Johnson, who has shied away from commenting about Humble, said the primary bill he sponsored in the Senate isn’t an effort to go after the competing political group. Johnson backed the Williamson County Conservatives group, which opposed Elevate 2025, in recent county party elections.
Nevertheless, he said the opposing group has discussed using a caucus, which he contends would be “an absolute disaster.”
“It would disenfranchise tens of thousands of Republicans that want to vote, or Democrats if they have a Democratic primary,” Johnson told the Lookout.
Johnson pointed out state law requires primaries for general assembly and federal offices, but not for county offices and said he’s glad the legislature is “finally addressing that inconsistency.”
Caucuses, which enable party members to select party nominees instead of voters electing them at the polls, are the great political endeavors that led to the election of Andy Ogles, Tennessee’s most creative resume embellisher, as Maury County mayor. That helped buoy his career and eventual election as U.S. congressman after the legislature gerrymandered the 5th Congressional District to rid themselves of Democrats and liberal Republicans.
Similarly, Rutherford County held a caucus roughly 15 years ago that led to the election of a county sheriff who wound up serving federal prison time for fraud. He allowed his chief administrative deputy to start a company called JailCigs that sold e-cigarettes to jail inmates.
It just goes to show that bypassing voters is good, until it’s not.
Getting Nico-ed
Republican Sen. Page Walley warned colleagues Thursday that the legislature could be “Nico-ing our citizens” by passing stricter rules on the hemp industry after farmers and businesses invested in the product based on laws passed just a few years ago.
The Hardin County Republican was referring to the former Tennessee Vols quarterback Nico Iamaleava who left the team, or was dismissed, after trying to negotiate a raise in his NIL deal to $4 million from $2.1 million.
“We don’t need to Nico our law-abiding citizens who trusted us,” Walley said, as he opposed the bill.
Despite the quippy approach, senators voted 23-9 to set up a new regulatory approach to the hemp industry, putting the Alcoholic Beverage Commission in charge of policing products, and severely restricting the hemp derivative THCA – also referred to as the flower.
"That’s your grandfather’s marijuana," said Sen. Richard Briggs, a Knoxville Republican, of the alleged potency of current weed as compared to former strains. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout) Broxton Collins, left, friend Charlie Arkenberg, both of Murfreesboro, listening to debate on the hemp bill. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout) Chattanooga businessman Dwayne Madden, who owns several regional stores selling hemp products, expressed concern about a bill to restrict hemp sales. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Although state law allows nothing above .3% THC (the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana) in items such as gummies or hemp cigarettes, once the stuff is decarboxylated, the level gets higher.
The bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Richard Briggs of Knoxville, told senators Thursday they were really voting on whether to legalize recreational marijuana in Tennessee and said the state has “totally unregulated” pot under the current setup.
He harkened back to Woodstock, love, peace and rock ‘n’ roll but said the weed people were smoking back then had less than 3% THC.
“That’s your grandfather’s marijuana,” Briggs said.
Enough senators bought his argument that they turned back the clock on hemp and put the industry in turmoil.
Something tells me, though, that folks will find a way to get their weed, one way or another.
Whose school system
The bill allowing state leaders to appoint a board to oversee Memphis Shelby County Schools passed the Senate finance committee and House finance subcommittee this week.
The sponsors, Republican Sen. Brent Taylor of Shelby County and Republican Rep. Mark White of East Memphis, said it’s not a “takeover,” even though opponents are calling it a “hostile takeover.”
In a sizable government expansion, both bills would give a state-appointed board authority over school district budgets, contracts exceeding $50,000 and under-used or vacant properties. The Senate bill also would allow the state commissioner of education to remove the district director and school board members.
The rationale is that the elected board and director aren’t getting the job done. Maybe they aren’t. Then again, a lot of people would say the Tennessee legislature is doing a crappy job, too, so they’re even.
This isn’t exactly a recent phenomenon. But the pending solution begs the question: Who takes over the takeover board when there’s nothing left to take?
“Meet the new boss / same as the old boss.” *
* “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” The Who
Last updated 5:01 a.m., Apr. 18, 2025
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