Tennessee opens session on school vouchers and Trump immigration push, as protests seek gun control
Tennessee opens session on school vouchers and Trump immigration push, as protests seek gun control
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s Republican-dominant Statehouse gaveled into session Monday with blueprints from Gov. Bill Lee to greatly expand school voucher access and find ways to embrace President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda.
But as lawmakers eased into the special session, they were met with renewed calls from the public for gun control changes less than a week after another school shooting. Last week, a 17-year-old Antioch High student killed a 16-year-old girl who also attended the school, before the shooter fatally shot himself.
So far, Gov. Lee’s proposals are expected to cost an eye-popping $917 million, with $424 million for a voucher plan that folds in other education funding, and $470 million for Hurricane Helene relief in northeast Tennessee. It’s unclear how much the immigration proposal would cost.
“These are all three things that the vast majority of Tennesseans have said they want us to do,” Lee, a Republican, said in a social media video posted Monday. “All of this to make Tennessee a beacon of opportunity, security and freedom.”
Notably, lawmakers will consider the creation of a state immigration division — where a newly appointed division director will seek an agreement for the state under the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) program. The federal program involves deputizing local law enforcement for duties that are typically performed by ICE agents.
Yet on day one, the Republican supermajority was met with advocates and area students, including some from Antioch High, hoping to persuade lawmakers to consider gun control measures. They chanted and held signs in and around the Capitol.
Mballow Danjo, a 12th grade Antioch High student, told the crowd she had been to the Capitol multiple times to ask lawmakers for more gun control.
“Once again on January 22, 2025, an unruly gunman entered another school with an illegal firearm. Not only was it just another school, it was my school. My safe space,” Danjo said. “Here we are begging once again for stricter gun laws, begging for gun reform.”
Almost two years have passed since a shooting at a separate Nashville private elementary school in March 2023 killed six people, including three children.
The Covenant School tragedy prompted months of pleas and protests asking lawmakers to pass gun control measures. But GOP lawmakers in the majority refused to do so.
And they are unlikely to consider the issue during a special session centered on school vouchers and immigration.
Specifically, Lee’s voucher plan would make 20,000 education scholarships of around $7,000 available next year, with half going to students who are lower income, disabled or otherwise able to participate in the current program. Any student entitled to attend a public school could access the remaining 10,000.
The policy proposal comes as a dozen states have approved programs that allow families, regardless of income, to use public tax dollars to fund alternatives to public education for their children, including private schools. Some have not been implemented yet.
Lee’s yearslong campaign to expand school vouchers has seen limited success. The Republican has narrowly won efforts to create a school voucher program for low-income families in three counties. But last year, Lee failed to win enough support to launch a statewide school voucher program no longer based on income.
Outside groups have weighed in heavily, spending money to try to secure lawmakers’ votes on the closely split issue. The president of the conservative Club for Growth, which is running pro-voucher TV ads, warned lawmakers who won’t support the legislation — “expect to lose an expensive primary funded by Club for Growth Action,” David McIntosh wrote in a guest column Sunday in The Tennessean.
However, just how much that threat will sway lawmakers is unknown.
Last year, only a handful of Republican candidates backed by Lee and outside pro-voucher groups actually won legislative seats. But some incumbents who supported vouchers lost, so the proposal’s passage still isn’t assured.
Notably, lawmakers will consider the creation of a state immigration division — where a newly appointed division director will seek an agreement for the state under the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s 287(g) program. The federal program involves deputizing local law enforcement for duties that are typically performed by ICE agents.
Meanwhile, other policies include adding felony penalties if local officials vote for or adopt a “sanctuary policy,” such as local government restrictions on helping detain immigrants for ICE.
Separately, lawmakers will consider new grants to train local law enforcement officers on immigration enforcement and incentives for local officials to strike immigration agreements with federal authorities.
Another proposed change would require a different, temporary driver’s license for lawful permanent residents that notes they aren’t citizens.
Florida lawmakers are likewise focusing on immigration in a special session that began Monday.
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Associated Press reporter Kristin M. Hall contributed from Nashville.
By KIMBERLEE KRUESI and JONATHAN MATTISE
Associated Press
