Latest news with #Maberry
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Wilkesboro Church, Child Care Program Team Up in Model for Others
This article was originally published in EducationNC. In the last 18 years, Wilkes County has lost 56 child care programs, 67% of its child care capacity. This year, thanks to a scrappy community effort, local leaders saved the county from losing another. Sharon Phillips and her daughter Katy Hinson, owners of PlayWorks Early Care and Learning Center, cut the ribbon on their new location inside Wilkesboro United Methodist Church in April, expanding their business after months of wondering whether they'd survive at all. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter 'I consider what happened there a miracle,' said Todd Maberry, former managing director of the Ormond Center, a project at Duke Divinity School focused on helping churches assess their communities' needs and find new ways to meet them. The center, which is closing this summer, helped the Wilkesboro church decide how to use an empty wing to help address a local lack of child care and bring in new revenue. The specifics of the initiative, called 'Big Building, Little Feet' — both the people behind it and the speed at which they raised more than $600,000 as the five-star program faced eviction — are specific to this community. But the model itself, Maberry said, has lessons for the entire state. 'There's not one of the 100 counties that doesn't have a church that has an empty educational wing sitting there,' Maberry said. 'This can be a blueprint.' With pandemic-era child care funding gone and bipartisan state leaders prioritizing child care solutions, local leaders like those in Wilkes County are convening, collaborating, and raising money to make things work for their neighbors in the meantime. 'Communities need to think outside the box,' said Michelle Shepherd, executive director of Wilkes Community Partnership for Children, the local Smart Start partnership. 'I think that's the biggest takeaway. These children deserve quality child care, and what does that look like, and what do communities have to offer?' In 2023, Phillips and Hinson were touring every vacant building in town. They were looking for a larger space to expand their 10-year-old business and help fill child care gaps. That year, a study funded by the Leonard G Herring Family Foundation found that the county needed 836 additional child care slots, almost double the capacity it had. The report's findings, released by the Wilkes Economic Development Corporation (EDC), were starting conversations in the business community. 'The child care study revealed what a crisis we were in,' Hinson said. Hinson and her mother were already struggling with a balance familiar to child care owners. They did not have enough revenue to pay teachers much more than minimum wage, couldn't raise tuition without pricing out families, and were unwilling to cut costs by lowering quality. Stabilization grants funded through the federal American Rescue Plan Act were expected to dry up, leaving a large gap in the budgets of programs across the state. 'We just kind of felt like we had done all we could on our own two feet,' Phillips said. Phillips and Hinson were coming up short in their search. 'We had knocked on doors, we had toured all the vacant buildings, we had been to town officials,' Phillips said. Then they started conversations with a local entity with its own financial struggles: Wilkesboro United Methodist Church. 'Our church has dramatically shrunk … especially post-COVID,' said Gilbert Cox, who has attended the church since 2008 and was the chair of its finance committee at the time. Cox recalled holidays when he first joined with people overflowing into the aisles and Sundays with regularly full pews. A couple of years after the pandemic, the church was lucky to have 50 members attending services. 'This is a very common story for a lot of congregations in the country, particularly in North Carolina, particularly in rural places, where mainline churches have just been decimated by a pandemic, by disagreements,' Maberry said. 'And Wilkesboro is not immune to that.' Plus, more than 90% of the church's space was sitting unused more than 90% of the time, Cox said. 'Eventually, what was an asset was going to turn into a liability,' he said. 'The maintenance of it, and it stored more and more. I think we found five pianos. There were two in a closet we didn't even know about.' The church entered a six-week 'design sprint' with the Ormond Center called the Community Craft Collaborative to figure out a different path forward. The process aims to helps churches better understand their community through data and interviews, and then encourages them to come up with an idea to experiment with. Through a conversation with the EDC, Cox learned about the child care study's findings. The organization connected him to Phillips and Hinson, who had recently reached out in their search for a new home. By the end of the sprint, the church presented its idea: house and expand PlayWorks. Phillips and Hinson toured the church's facilities and heard from the church's leadership that they were on board. 'How could we take what is becoming a liability, and better connect to the community?' Cox said. In April 2024, a contractor gave an estimate on the building renovations necessary to meet regulatory standards. It would cost about $1.6 million. Everyone involved agreed: 'It was insurmountable,' Cox said. The potential collaboration felt like it had died, and Phillips and Hinson were back to square one. 'Everybody ghosted,' Phillips said. While they were already down, they were hit with what Phillips described as 'a gut punch.' In June 2024, the program received an eviction notice from its landlord, a local theater company that wanted to repurpose the space. PlayWorks had to be out by September. Their hunt for a new building became a make-or-break endeavor. 'I can just remember thinking, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? We don't have any choices,' Phillips said. 'I immediately called Michelle at the partnership.' Shepherd, who had been the executive director of Wilkes Community Partnership for Children for about a year, said she immediately understood the urgency. With a background in K-12 education, Shepherd had spent her time at the partnership learning about just how dire her county's child care needs were and developing relationships with a whole new sector of educators. 'We just couldn't let them fold,' she said. Shepherd's leadership was a game-changer. 'When she wouldn't give up, I wouldn't give up,' Phillips said. Through a $15,000 grant from the Ormond Center, the church paid an architect for renderings, moving forward without knowing whether things would work. Through a stroke of luck, a local contractor was called in to do the building's measurements who was interested in bidding on the project. This time, the estimate came in at about $600,000. 'Michelle says, 'Don't give up,' so it breathed new life into the possibility,' Cox said. 'Even though the church didn't have $590,000, Michelle — she deserves all the credit — she said, 'Let me see what I can do.'' Everyone got busy. Hinson and Phillips asked their landlord for an extension on the move-out date. The church began a deeper process with the Ormond Center to map out the details of the project. Shepherd, with no fundraising experience, started making calls. 'We all stepped out in faith that it would happen,' Hinson said. The child care study helped Shepherd tell potential donors the story of the community's need, she said, and explain the importance of child care for workforce participation. 'This was not some 'Betty Froo Froo' project; this was a necessity for our community,' she said. 'That really played on the heart of business people in the community.' Hinson and Phillips got an extension from their landlord for their move-out date to November, and then to April 2025. Once Shepherd received the first big 'yes' — a $250,000 donation from an anonymous community member — others started following. 'That was my big driver, that we can't tell these kids, 'You've got to go home,' and parents that they can't work that really want to work,' she said. She reached out to people with a connection to PlayWorks, who understood the importance of the high-quality care and education it provided for children and families. She received donations from dozens of individuals, including a large contribution from private donor Janice Story and funds from church members and partnership employees. She also reached out to foundations and community groups, securing grants from the Carson Foundation, the Leonard G Herring Family Foundation, the Cannon Foundation, the North Carolina Community Foundation, and United Way of North Carolina. The effort did not receive any local or state public funding. 'All of a sudden, Michelle had almost a half a million dollars in a matter of almost weeks,' Cox said. The Ormond process provided real estate and zoning expertise, as well as a video crew to help the community tell its story. It was rooted in 'asset mapping,' Maberry said. 'We've got a church with empty space, we've got an incredible child care center that is flexible and can move, and we've got a local nonprofit that's committed to the well-being of children in the county,' he said. 'Those are great assets. They can begin to look at, 'OK, well, there's a child care crisis, and one of the better ones is about to go away. How do we solve that?' Shepherd said her mother was a salesperson, and always told her that salesmanship requires a good product and a powerful 'why.' She had both. 'We had people that gave $50 up to $250,000,' she said. 'It truly was a community, dollar-by-dollar fundraiser.' From November 2024 to March 2025, the team reached their goal. The local contractor agreed to start construction before all the funding was secured to help Phillips and Hinson reach their move-out deadline. There were many obstacles. The team almost had to call off the project once again when they realized the extent of the plumbing needs to have appropriate sinks in each room. They coordinated between sanitation, the county inspector, fire safety, and the state child care licensing under the Division of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE). 'There was not a single source that you could go to who could give you all the answers,' Cox said. PlayWorks closed on March 20 and 21, a Thursday and Friday, plus the following Monday. In that long weekend, they moved with the help of family and friends and set up every classroom. On Monday, the center had its final sanitation inspection and a visit from DCDEE. They opened their doors to children on Tuesday. The execution of the move, Phillips said, was a miracle in itself. Through the months of ups and downs, she kept thinking of the families she serves and the educators she employs. 'I kept going back to, how do we tell our staff? How do we tell our families? We are in such a child care crisis, there aren't spots available in many places in the other child cares. How can we disperse 60 children in this county? You know, where are they going to go?' On the day EdNC visited PlayWorks, Hinson and Phillips were moving in sync. Hinson went between classrooms, providing extra hands for fussy infants. Phillips met with licensing officials in the office during their second DCDEE check-in, which required a fire drill. 'We never really dreamed that something like this would happen,' Phillips said. 'We're just the proud recipients.' The day before, they had celebrated the team's accomplishments with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, during which church leaders called the moment 'a revival.' But the next day, it was back to the work they both love and are challenged by. The new space will allow PlayWorks to expand from serving 55 to 88 children as they add three new classrooms (for infants, toddlers, and 4-year-olds) in the coming months. The church is providing the space at less than $6 per square foot, Cox said, compared with the area's average commercial lease of $28 per square foot. It is also covering utility costs. Phillips said they do not expect any problem filling the new seats. They will first check with families on their waiting list. An interested family was visiting the program during the fire drill, during which all children were walked or rolled to a gazebo in the parking lot. 'Word of mouth is just really getting around,' she said. Phillips and Hinson are still hiring and rearranging teachers to staff the new classrooms. Each room has three teachers for now, for 'an extra layer of quality.' They start teachers, depending on education level and experience, at anywhere from $10 to $15 per hour. The median wage for the state's child care teachers was $12.31 in 2022. Though PlayWorks is not immune to the staffing challenges experienced by the field, multiple teachers have stayed for several years. Teacher Rachel Brionez has worked at PlayWorks since it opened because of 'the environment that Sharon and Katie have created' among the staff, the families, and the children. Educators refer to Phillips and Hinson as 'the dynamic duo.' 'They value us, and that makes coming to work so much better,' Brionez said. 'You don't dread the alarm clock going off.' Brionez said her experiences in child care have not always been positive. Phillips said the same about her early career experiences. Because of the low pay, high stress, and instability, Phillips had discouraged Hinson from going into the field. She pushed her to be a nurse instead. That all changed after one conversation, while Hinson, a high schooler at the time, was helping her mother with her pre-K class. 'She just broke down in tears, and she says, 'I'm not going to be a nurse,'' Phillips said. 'We both cried. And she said, 'This is all I know through you.' … I told her, 'We will do something for your career.' And that's why we're here.' Because of temporary state funding, the funding cliff that worried providers like Phillips and Hinson in 2023 was pushed back. In March 2025, programs received their final installment of the compensation grant, which has helped them raise teacher pay and plug the gap between what families can afford and what it costs to provide high-quality care. 'With the stabilization grant money from the state, we were able to give teachers those raises and bonuses, and we're going to do all we can for that to continue,' Hinson said. Advocates and DCDEE are asking the state legislature this session for child care investments to support the state's child care subsidy program, which helps working low-income families afford care, and the early childhood workforce. None of the current proposals would provide the level of funding providers were receiving from stabilization grants. 'It's worrisome,' Phillips said. 'I really put it on the back burner, just knowing that, with the move and everything, we've got to move forward.' As Phillips and Hinson both breathe a sigh of relief, they know their future remains unclear. 'We'll make it on a slim margin — or I hope we will,' Phillips said. 'I'm just thinking very optimistically that we'll make it work, but it's going to be very hard.' Shepherd said the mutually beneficial partnership required resources that not every community has. She sees the state playing an important role in providing grant money to repurpose space — similar to the Rural Downtown Economic Development Grants. 'I just think this is a great model for a lot of places to look at underutilized space and how to bring in some revenue for both,' she said. Maberry is hoping to find a new way to continue the work of the Ormond Center, which had 55 relationships with churches. Some were working on child care projects, he said. Others were opening mental health services and helping their communities with affordable housing. 'Churches are at their best when they are meaningfully integrated into their community and are making their communities better places to be and to live,' he said. The Wilkesboro project is an example of the power of dynamic partnerships and possibility in a time of disruption. 'For the church, it's energized them,' he said. 'Like they've got kids in their building now, all day, every day, and they're starting to think, like, OK, well, if we can do this, what else can we do? Imagination can be contagious.' The children, staff, and administrators at PlayWorks are settling in. Across the street is an assisted living center whose residents can now see playing children on their walks. Phillips said she does not know whether Hinson will ever let her retire. They both said the new space feels like home. 'With some hard work and perseverance, we've made it,' Phillips said. This story was originally published on EducationNC.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
State lawmakers manipulate language to gaslight Tennesseans on diversity
State Rep. Aron Maberry, a Clarksville Republican, sponsored a pair of bills aiming to "dismantle DEI." (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout) Language is fluid; it shifts, contorts, and adjusts as culture progresses. Largely due to social media, the fluidity of language has increased exponentially over the last decade. One word that exploded into the public lexicon around 2016 was the term 'gaslighting.' The meaning of the word is quite broad and can apply to interpersonal relationships, work dynamics, and, most notably, politics. Ironically, gaslighting is most effective when it uses the fluidity of language to manipulate a message. When boiled down to its most primal definition, gaslighting is the exploitation of thoughts and emotions by twisting language and truth to fit a desired mindset. To use gaslighting to its fullest potential, one must be well-versed in language, be willing to overlook any nuance, and boil a topic down to the one idea that will elicit the most emotional response in someone else. During the last several legislative sessions, Republican lawmakers in Tennessee have conducted a masterclass in how to gaslight Tennesseeans. The most recent pieces of egregious legislation by the GOP supermajority are bills designed to strip away diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives related to departmental appointments and hiring practices. As with most recent controversial legislation by the GOP, there was a lawmaker ready and willing to break down the gaslighting process. Logic and nuance would tell anyone that 61 years of 'equality' doesn't amount to much when you weigh that amount of time against 300 years of abuse, murder, slavery and marginalization simply based on one's skin color, sexuality or gender. Rep. Aron Maberry, a first term Clarksville Republican, was the House sponsor for HB0622 and HB0923 – both designed to 'dismantle DEI.' The first step for any gaslighting expert is to find a word to target. It doesn't matter what the true definition of that word is as long as that word has attained a certain connotation. In this case, the word Maberry chose was equity — the meat of the DEI sandwich. 'The big problem in DEI is equity. We all know diversity, we all love including people. Equity is not equality, and it's not about treating people fairly or ensuring equal opportunity … equity in the context of DEI is essentially that everybody gets the same outcome,' Maberry said. Maberry paints a bullseye on the word equity and fires. This isn't a difficult shot for him because the connotation of the word had already been established in corners of right-wing conversations five years ago. Now, the word is blasphemous in the world of most conservatives. The true meaning of equity has been lost and replaced by a mutated form of the word, one that is often equated with socialism and promises an equal outcome for everyone, when the actual definition of equity does everything except guarantee an equal outcome for everyone. Equity provides gateways and resources to opportunities that have been historically out of reach for many women and people of color. Maberry and Senate sponsor Jack Johnson, a Franklin Republican, sought to further explain the reasoning behind their bills by entering into phase two of the gaslighting process: ignore all nuances of a given topic. Maberry and Johnson saidthat their bills focus on merit, qualifications, skill and competency in employment decisions, and diversity will 'happen naturally through fair hiring practices.' Yes, in a world devoid of history and nuance, 'fair' hiring practices would occur naturally. What Johnson and Maberry fail to take into account is that systemic racism is still very much alive today, 61 years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964. DEI initiatives were put in place to catalyze the pursuit of more diverse personnel in business and government by intentionally recruiting people who would typically fall outside a company or department's purview. DEI is about making sure we all understand that we don't live in a post-racial society simply because certain hiring practices are illegal. Subconscious and systemic prejudice will always find a way to circumvent the law, even unintentionally. Logic and nuance would tell anyone that 61 years of 'equality' doesn't amount to much when you weigh that amount of time against 300 years of abuse, murder, slavery and marginalization simply based on one's skin color, sexuality or gender. Our society is still in the formative stages of course correction from these atrocities, and the systemic rivers of opportunity that have benefited white men for centuries haven't dried up yet. Removing the dam of DEI initiatives simply allows those rivers to flow faster. For their final act, Maberry and Johnson needed something to stoke the flames of emotion; something to indisputably turn the tables on inclusive initiatives. If DEI were about making room for all people to have equal access and opportunity, then the last card to play in the gaslighting hand is to flip the script completely. Maberry and Johnson initially tread lightly into this final act by disarming their skeptics with the admission that diversity could be beneficial before sealing the entire process with the claim that DEI initiatives weren't just misguided but were actually a form of discrimination themselves. Nothing angers people of privilege more than believing they are the ones being discriminated against. Tennesseans can agree to disagree on issues of policy and legislation, but we should collectively be offended when our supermajority lies to our faces and tells us it's the truth, as members have with anti-DEI laws designed to penalize minorities. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ethics Commission dismisses complaint against Republican rep.; threatens complainants with penalties
An ethics complaint against Clarksville Republican Rep. Aron Maberry was dismissed by the Tennessee Ethics Commission on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Photo: John Partipilo) The Tennessee Ethics Commission on Tuesday unanimously threw out a complaint against a Montgomery County Republican representative and admonished those who filed it after determining that the commission lacked authority to consider the case. The complaint, filed April 3 by a group of current and former educators in Montgomery County, said Clarksville Republican Rep. Aron Maberry's actions as a state representative violated his oath as a sitting Clarksville Montgomery County School Board member. The complaint cites Maberry's vote in favor of House Bill 793 — which would allow school districts and charter schools to refuse to enroll students without permanent legal documentation — as a breach of his 'duty to provide equal education opportunities and to refrain from using his position for partisan gain.' The measure itself is on hold over concerns that its contradiction of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1982 Plyler v. Doe ruling guaranteeing all children access to public education could result in Tennessee schools losing federal funding. In an expedited hearing Tuesday morning, Commission Chair Tammy White said she was 'extremely disturbed' that the press obtained copies of the complaint before it was filed with the commission. She also warned the complainants that filing 'unsubstantiated complaints' could result in civil penalties against them. 'This body was not created to be used as a political pawn for headlines,' White said. 'There should be serious repercussions for those who act in such a manner as this. And while I do applaud everyone's political involvement and passion, matters like today should and can be resolved at the local ballot box.' Tuesday's special-called hearing, which would typically be confidential, was open to the public at Maberry's request. The committee's next regularly scheduled meeting is in August, which the commission deemed too far in the future to allow a complaint of this nature to go undecided. Bill Young, the commission's executive director, characterized the complaints as 'policy disagreements' and said staff determined that the commission did not have jurisdiction to decide qualifications for office or compliance with the ethics codes of local bodies. The constitutionality of policy is litigated in court, he said. The Tennessee constitution does not prohibit individuals from serving as both a state representative and a school board member. Commission Secretary Duane Gilbert said the complaint was a 'colossal waste of time, the state's resources and employees.' The commission considered calling for a show-cause hearing to determine whether the complainants should be penalized for filing the complaint, but ultimately decided against it. White and Commission member Stacey Floyd-Thomas said they did not want this complaint to set a precedent for others. 'Any further action in this manner would necessitate a show-cause hearing' where the complainants would be asked to show why their actions should not be considered reckless disregard, Floyd-Thomas said. Joy Rice, a member of the group that filed the complaint, said she was 'shocked' at the commission's response. 'I didn't realize I would have to bring an attorney with me to an ethics complaint,' she said. 'I think … it's a bullying tactic to make sure that nobody else complains.' Rice said the complaint was not based on Maberry serving in two seats, but rather that 'what he's doing in one seat affects the other one.' 'He took an oath for the Code of Ethics in the school board capacity to represent all children, and then he went to the state and immediately … attempted to pass legislation that went in direct violation of that,' Rice said. Karen Reynolds, who also signed the complaint, said she was encouraged by a school board member to file the ethics complaint with the state because the school board lacks a formal ethics complaint policy. 'That's a lot of bullying up there, considering that basically they said they didn't have jurisdiction,' Reynolds said. 'We knew we would hit that wall, but I guess we didn't expect — basically they tried to silence us by saying, get a lawyer or shut up.' Maberry, who was also present at the hearing, said he was grateful for the commission's decision on what he says is a 'partisan attack' against him led by someone who he believes is 'trying to stay politically relevant in the community.' Reynolds, a Democrat, ran for the District 22 Tennessee Senate seat in 2024 but lost to Republican Bill Powers. 'Education and protecting CMCSS was the core reason that I ran for state senate, so I'm still going to stand up and do what I think is right for our schools and our children and our community,' Reynolds said. Reynolds and Rice said their group will consider other paths available to them to pursue the complaint. Maberry said every decision he's made on the school board is 'to better our public schools,' and his constituents at the state level voted him into office knowing that he intended to keep his school board seat. He does not plan to resign from the school board. 'I believe the message was sent clearly to Tennessee that if you're going to come after somebody that's duly elected and make up complaints against them, that you yourself need to make sure that it's an actual complaint, because you could be breaking state law,' he said.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Montgomery County group files ethics complaint against Republican representative
State Rep. Aron Maberry, a Clarksville Republican, has been accused of ethics violations by a group of his constituents. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout) A Montgomery County group filed a formal complaint with the Tennessee Ethics Commission against state Rep. Aron Maberry, saying he has a conflict of interest as a state House and local school board member. The group says Maberry, a Clarksville Republican, should resign from the Clarksville Montgomery County School Board, mainly because of his votes in support of state legislation that could discriminate against immigrant students. The complaint, which was filed April 3, bases its argument on Maberry's vote for House Bill 793, which allows school districts and charter schools to refuse to enroll students without permanent legal documentation, contradicting a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that guarantees all children access to public education. 'By supporting this bill, Mr. Maberry has violated the School Board Code of Ethics, specifically his duty to provide equal education opportunities and to refrain from using his position for partisan gain,' the complaint says. The group, which includes current and former educators, Catherine Garrigan, Joy Rice, Karen Reynolds, Katherine Lawson and Jeri Hiley-Britain, says in the filing the bill could violate federal laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, color or national origin and risks losing $1.1 billion in federal education funding for Tennessee. The filing alleges several ethics violations against the first-term representative of House District 68, including failure to uphold student rights and represent the entire school community, allowing partisan influence to affect his votes, undermining diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as failure to prioritize student needs. Maberry, who voted Monday in favor of the bill restricting immigrant student enrollment, issued a statement saying, 'This complaint is without merit and clearly politically motivated. It's a desperate stunt by woke local leftists who reject the conservative values our community holds dear and that I proudly represent at the Capitol. They are obsessed with overturning the will of the people; all of their previous attempts have failed. I have been fully transparent about my service on the school board and my intention to serve out the remainder of my term. I have full confidence in the Ethics Commission and trust the facts will lead to an appropriate course of action.' Monday's meeting of the House Government Operations Committee was interrupted by ministers who recited the Lord's Prayer in protest of the bill, which passed 8-7. The issue has roiled the legislature all year, leading opponents to rally against multiple Senate and House committee votes. The Senate version of the bill sponsored by Sen. Bo Watson of Hixson, chairman of the finance committee, would require school districts to check the immigration status of students and charge them tuition to enroll. The House bill sponsored by House Majority Leader William Lamberth of Portland would give districts the option to check immigration status. Lawmakers have said they want to pass the measure to challenge Plyler v. Doe at the Supreme Court level, the 43-year-old ruling that requires school districts to serve all students. 8003 Complaint Form Submitted – Ethics Complaints Against School Board Member and State Representative Aron SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Social media safety could be taught in Tennessee schools
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Social media, artificial intelligence and internet safety could soon be taught to Tennessee middle and high schoolers under a bill on its way to Governor Bill Lee's desk. Vanderbilt University Poll: Education, safety, immigration remain top priorities for Nashvillians The proposed legislation, called the 'Teen Social Media and Internet Safety Act,' would require the Department of Education to develop curricula on social media, internet and artificial intelligence use and safety for 6th through 12th graders. Topics would include: Time management and healthy behaviors on social media The negative effects of social media on mental health The permanency of sharing material online The potential for misinformation when using artificial intelligence The benefits of social media use for career and resume building Sponsored by Rep. Aron Maberry (R-Clarksville) and Sen. Bill Powers (R-Clarksville), the bill was unanimously passed Senate Thursday morning. 'This is a common-sense step to protect students and equip them with the tools they need to navigate the digital world safely,' Powers said. The bill would also require school districts to prohibit students from using social media during school unless it's for educational purposes. The measure passed the House March 27, but some Democrats voted against the bill due to logistical concerns. 'You named a lot of different skills that have to be taught, and that's going to take a lot of time,' Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) said. 'Something has to be removed from the curriculum to require this to be done, and that is my concern.' Maberry argued teaching social media and internet safety is worth the time, detailing a story about a student from Florida whose parents say took his own life over an artificial intelligence bot. 'We need our young people to understand the seriousness of this — and understand the benefits of this — and that's why I brought this legislation today,' Maberry said. The bill passed the House 88 to 4, with three lawmakers not voting. It will be sent to Lee's desk. As long as he doesn't veto it, the measure would go into effect during the 2026-27 school year. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
