Latest news with #HouseBill622
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Dismantle DEI Act won't create equality. It will maintain disadvantage
As someone who has spent the last several years helping justice-impacted individuals, especially Black and brown youth, find meaningful pathways in education and employment, I've seen up close what a lack of opportunity looks like — and what intentional inclusion can do to change that. That's why the Tennessee House of Representatives' swift passage of the 'Dismantle DEI Act' (House Bill 622) by a 73-to-24 vote on April 17 should alarm everyone in the state, regardless of political affiliation. This wasn't just a vote. It was a clear refusal to engage in the democratic process over a matter that affects thousands of lives and futures across this state. On April 22, the Tennessee Senate voted 27-6 to approve companion Senate Bill 1083. It now goes to Gov. Bill Lee for his consideration before becoming law. Supporters of the bill argue that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts amount to discrimination − even calling them 'communist' and 'racist.' But let's step away from slogans and look at the facts. A 2023 report by McKinsey & Company found that companies with diverse executive teams were 39% more likely to outperform their peers on profitability. In higher education, DEI programs have led to increased enrollment and graduation rates among first-generation students, students of color, and low-income students − all demographics that are traditionally underserved in Tennessee. That's not ideology. That's impact. Tennessee's public universities serve a student body that is increasingly diverse. At the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, students of color made up more than 20% of the 2023 incoming freshman class. DEI programs aren't about favoritism — they are about ensuring that all students, regardless of where they come from, have a fair shot at success. Removing those supports doesn't create equality. It just maintains old systems that already disadvantage the few. And if you want to talk about fairness, let's talk about how the bill was passed. There was no debate. No discussion. A quick procedural move was used to silence dissent. That's not transparency. That's suppression. If DEI is so dangerous, why not let it be debated openly on the floor? As a Black business owner, a nonprofit founder, and someone who's successfully navigated reentry after over a decade behind bars, I know what happens when the system doesn't see you. I also know what happens when it finally does. I am a product of second chances and deliberate inclusion. The people I now serve − youth in crisis, men and women returning home from incarceration − are proof that inclusion works. Equity isn't about making people special. It's about making opportunity real. By dismantling DEI, the legislature isn't protecting fairness. They're dismantling progress. And doing it without debate? That tells me they were never interested in listening to the people who would be most affected. We deserve better. Our students, our workforce, our future — they all depend on it. Tristan Buckner is the founder of Live X-perience, a nonprofit serving at-risk youth and justice-impacted individuals in Tennessee. He is also the developer of several reentry and workforce development programs for correctional facilities and returning citizens. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee's Dismantle DEI Act is dismantling progress | Opinion
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Beshear vetoes legislature's last-minute aid to put police in private schools, draws GOP rebuke
Senate GOP Floor Leader Max Wise, right, is criticizing Gov. Andy Beshear for vetoing a provision that would have helped private schools hire police. The proposal surfaced in the Senate on March 14, the last day before the veto break. Conferring with Wise on the Senate floor March 14 are Senate President Robert Stivers, left, and Sen. Chris McDaniel. (LRC Public Information) Months after Kentucky voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed public funds to support nonpublic schools, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear applied the same logic in a line-item veto. Beshear's veto spurred Senate Republicans to issue a news release Friday and again Monday headlined 'Senator Max Wise rips governor's veto of school safety provision,' asserting that the proposed public funding would have gone to law enforcement agencies not the private schools that could have used it to employ police as school resource officers. The provision, which surfaced on the 28th day of the 30-day session and received little attention, directed the Kentucky Department of Education to provide up to $20,000 to help nonpublic schools employ a law enforcement officer on their campuses. The Senate added the provision to House Bill 622 which modified state contract and invoicing procedures. Public schools also were eligible for the assistance in hiring security personnel known as school resource officers. The Senate authorized spending $5 million a year over the current biennium. When the legislature reconvened after the 10-day veto period, the House rejected the Senate version and the legislation went to a free conference committee, which also recommended the aid to put officers in private as well as public schools. Both chambers approved the conference committee's proposal on March 28. That was the day the legislature adjourned meaning the Republican-controlled legislature had no chance to override a Beshear veto. Beshear issued a line-item veto last week, striking the aid to private schools as well as some of the original bill's contracting requirements. In response, Wise, the Senate Republican floor leader, accused Beshear of politicizing school safety. Kentuckians say 'no' to public funding for private, charter schools 'Governor Beshear's line-item veto sends an unmistakable and deeply disturbing message to families across the commonwealth: If your child attends a private school, their safety matters less,' Wise said. 'As the primary sponsor of the 2019 School Safety and Resiliency Act, I've spent years working so that every Kentucky student, teacher, and staff member—regardless of ZIP code, income level, or school type—is protected from the threats facing our world today. The Governor's decision doesn't just fly in the face of a bipartisan mission — it politicizes it.' Wise, of Campbellsville, sponsored a 2019 school safety law in the aftermath of a shooting at Marshall County High School. Beshear signed that law. A 2022 update to the law, also signed by Beshear, requires a school resource officer (SRO), a type of sworn law enforcement officer, on each campus in Kentucky, although the legislature has never fully funded that mandate. Last year Wise successfully sponsored legislation allowing volunteer 'guardians' to fill vacant law enforcement positions at schools. In his recent veto message, Beshear pushed back on using public funds in nonpublic schools and cited a proposed constitutional amendment that voters rejected last fall that would have allowed the General Assembly to fund nonpublic schools, such as private or charter schools. 'All Kentucky children deserve to be safe in their schools, but the Kentucky Constitution requires public funds be used for only public schools,' Beshear wrote. He added the Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled against supporting nonpublic schools with public funds. In 2022, the state's high court struck down a 2021 Kentucky law creating a generous tax credit to help families pay for tuition at private schools. The next year Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd struck down a charter school law passed in 2022. Wise accused Beshear of 'appeasing special interests and institutions' and pointed out that parents who send their children to private schools pay taxes to support public schools and other local services such as law enforcement. Wise also argued that Beshear 'has chosen to punish Kentucky families for making a decision that was right for them,' as parents of nonpublic school students pay taxes for local services. The senator vowed that the Republican-controlled state legislature 'will not be silent in the face of this reckless decision' and that student safety 'is not negotiable.' The final version of HB 622 that passed on the legislature's last day also included $30 million to expand a sewage treatment plant in Elizabethtown; $20 million to help communities experiencing economic growth presumably from the electric-vehicle battery plant being built in Glendale, and $10 million for infrastructure in Grayson County. Beshear allowed those provisions to become law. The legislature overrode Beshear's vetoes of bills that were passed in time for the Republican majority to overturn them. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
What is the 'Dismantle DEI Act'? How Tennessee lawmakers are targeting hiring initiatives with legislature
Tennessee lawmakers are looking to further dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the Volunteer State. House Bill 622, known as the "Dismantle DEI Act," would mandate that local governments and publicly funded colleges and universities get rid of their DEI programs. The bill is sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, and Rep. Aron Maberry, R-Clarksville. If passed, the legislation would take away all DEI hiring initiatives in county, municipal and metropolitan governments in the state of Tennessee. It would also eliminate any diversity and inclusion programs for hiring at public institutions of higher education, including the University of Tennessee. "The general assembly finds that local governments are at their most effective when the employees of the local government are the most highly qualified candidates for employment with the local government and that hiring decisions should be based on merit rather than any other metric," the bill reads. Simultaneously, Tennessee Republicans are pushing another anti-diversity initiative that would eliminate affirmative action programs on state regulatory and health-related boards and commissions where the governor appoints the members. This would include the Board of Medical Examiners, Board of Nursing, Board of Occupational Therapy, Board of Dietitian/Nutritionist Examiners and more than 20 others. Under House Bill 1237, such boards would no longer allow "racial preferences or racial quotas" in the composition of board members. The boards that currently are required to have at least one member of a racial minority or woman could get rid of that clause. The governor would have fewer restrictions as to whom he could appoint under the proposed legislation. The bill is sponsored by Sen. Paul Rose, R-Covington, and Rep. Jason Zachary, R-Knoxville. Stronger calls to eliminate DEI programs in Tennessee come as President Donald Trump looks to dismantle diversity programs at a federal level. On his first day back in office, Trump revoked a 1965 civil rights executive order to roll back authority long used to prevent employment discrimination by federal contractors, subcontractors and grant recipients. The president has signed executive orders to eliminate DEI policies across much of the federal government. A number of the efforts are facing legal challenge in the courts. Most recently, Trump targeted the Smithsonian Institution with a March 27 executive order that pulls federal funding from "exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy." Trump has reversed decades of DEI initiatives in just a few months. But why? According to the Trump administration, the president is "putting merit first," according to a recent news release. The administration called the federal DEI programs "radical and wasteful." "President Trump is restoring fairness and accountability in federal hiring, and terminating DEI across the federal government," the news release said. Cutting DEI programs was a key pillar of Trump's 2024 reelection campaign and a promise he has made good on in the early months of his second administration. DEI stands for diversity, equity and inclusion. It has a fairly open-ended definition and can be construed differently depending on a person's political ideology. Generally, DEI is a conceptual framework that promotes the fair treatment and full participation of all people, especially populations that have historically been underrepresented or subject to discrimination because of their background, identity and disability, according to the American Psychological Association. Supporters of these diversity programs say they help companies hire and retain top talent and boost innovation and profits. Others consider the policies to be "woke," saying that they allow companies to hire based on race instead of merit. Critics believe DEI programs propagate 'reverse discrimination," that is, discrimination against white people. USA TODAY reporter Jessica Guynn contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee lawmakers target DEI with two new bills. What to know
