Darby, Stevens Speak at Henry County Forum

PARIS (February 21) — State Senator John Stevens and State Representative Tandy Darby were the featured speakers at a Henry County forum sponsored by the Paris-Henry County Industrial Committee.

Held at the Paris campus of TCAT-Henry/Carroll, the two legislators spoke about Highway 641 North construction, school vouchers, the mental health crisis, and the state of the state.

Senator Stevens made these opening statements:
He said he supports moving the responsibilities of the Tennessee Human Rights Commission into the office of the Attorney General since the AG is appointed by the state’s Supreme Court, not by the Governor or members of the Legislature.

This year’s session began with a Special Session to deal with the Governor’s Education Scholarship plan to provide state-funded scholarships to those who attend private schools. Stevens supported the vouchers under the pilot program, which limits the total number of scholarships to 20,000. In questions about his vote in favor of the vouchers, Stevens said he conducted polling and campaigned for the lottery and was reelected. In a question about providing public money for private institutions, he noted that students at Bethel University, a private school, are eligible for state-funded scholarships.

Regarding state school achievement, he noted:
Tennessee, from 2019 to 2024, fourth-grade rating: We went from 31st to 14th in math, from 28th to 12th in eighth-grade reading, and from 29th to 11th in eighth-grade math.

In support of his vote, Stevens said:
“I’ve heard for years from parents that they wish they could get the kind of Sunday school education... And so this program is the only Constitutional way you can do that. And that’s the other main reason I support it. Not every parent’s going to choose that. That’s okay. I don’t mind that. But if they wanted the option and if you can’t afford a private school, this is an option. Will they be around here? Probably not. Because it’s hard enough to pay for schools right now.”

He explained that the way the law passed was with $98 million nonrecurring, so one-time money is appropriated for teacher bonuses. It comes out to at least $2,000 per public school teacher. The local school board has to elect to join into that program; if your local school district doesn’t take the money, that amount will be added to other schools that do take the money.

The Special Session also dealt with appropriations for hurricane relief for devastated portions of East Tennessee and the creation of a state immigration program in support of President Donald Trump’s initiative to deport illegal immigrants, especially those with criminal records.

Stevens said he supports the elimination of a $10 fee for background checks when you want to do a background check to purchase a firearm or if you’re selling a firearm privately without a gun license or a licensed firearm dealer being involved. You can go to a pawn shop or gun shop or whatever and pay $10 to do a background check on that person. And so I want to remove that $10 fee. It goes through the TBI to do that background check, but I’ll remove that $10 fee to make it cheaper to buy or to sell a gun or purchase a gun. That will make sure that the buyer isn’t a felon and the seller is not breaking the law.

There is a movement to restrict the use of Roundup-type products on Tennessee crops. They want to sue farmers and the manufacturers of that product. Anybody who is in agriculture knows each year that the price of your crop is the highest it’s ever been every single year. Getting trial lawyers involved is not going to decrease the crop price and it’s not going to decrease the cost of food or the products that agriculture produces. One of the things that was really clear in the last election cycle was people are concerned about inflation. He said we do not want to get trial lawyers involved in your pocketbook. As long as a federal agency determines the product is safe for use, then those trial lawyers will not be able to sue our local farmers and the producers of that product in state court.

The last one is a little more fun. “I’ve carried the name image and likeness legislation in the state of Tennessee to help student-athletes maximize their value. The legislation says the NCAA can’t punish current, former, current players and coaches for bad acts of former players and coaches. So, if you remember, Jeremy Pruitt was accused of giving cash in McDonald’s bags to players. The NCAA didn’t like that, and they said, well, Tennessee, you’re not going to be able to play in the—I think it was the Citrus Bowl against Clemson... There are some class action lawsuits going on right now. The NCAA found some willing plaintiffs and then they settled with the NCAA, which really is collusion and what you’re going to get is the NCAA now getting a court order in the Ninth Circuit. Tennessee will now be hauled up before some federal judge in the Ninth Circuit for violating some court order by our recruiting practices or what we’re trying to do for student-athletes.” Stevens said he doesn’t yet have quite the language of the proposed bill.

“If the legislation is adopted, the University of Tennessee, MTSU, and all of our eight state schools will have hopefully a recruiting advantage, because they’ll be able to allow players to maximize their value to the best of those players’ ability.”

The governor’s budget is $58.4 billion proposed, including $29.5 billion in state dollars, $20.8 billion in federal money, and other funds. The governor is proposing 2% growth. It includes more school funding including funds for summer schools.

Stevens said he has served 12 years in the Senate. In recent years, Tennessee has experienced successes in student achievement due to the hard work of our educators to transform the way we’ve been teaching reading and math in the state and the focus we put on it. A little bit of what has happened is that everybody else didn’t improve.

The state has always been a pay-as-you-go state for building and maintaining the state’s roads. State roads, bridges and infrastructure are all paid through the gas tax. We don’t use sales tax money, generally, to pay for roads and infrastructure, said Stevens. Tennessee is shifting a little bit. Sales tax on tires, estimated at $80 million, is directly earmarked for roads. “We’re going to put a billion dollars into roads,” said the Senator. Part of those funds are for the expansion of Highway 641 North to the Kentucky state line from near Paris.

There is $12 million of scholarships for TCAT. The funds are derived from lottery money.

The lottery will not continue to grow, said Stevens. The lottery, especially if Alabama gets a lottery, we’re going to see about a 5% loss from the current revenue in the lottery.

Representative Tandy Darby
So my hat’s off to all for working together and making Henry County one of the best counties in the state. Representative Darby said the budget includes $30 million for a low-income housing tax credit; $25 million to recruit new businesses; $130 million to protect Tennesseeans from violent crime; $25 million to create a farmland conservation fund since the number of productive agricultural acres continues to decline in Tennessee.

Tennessee holds the highest bond rating issued by all three of the nation’s credit rating agencies, which reflects extreme confidence in the volunteer state’s preparedness in meeting financial commitments in tough economic times. So that puts Tennessee as the top three states to do business, a top 10 state to start a business, sixth business climate in the nation, and top two for GDP growth.

Representative Darby said he campaigned against school vouchers and state education funds going to private schools.

“I can’t ever go for vouchers. I grew up in a small town (Greenfield) and since the third and fourth grade, you hear the word consolidation. And I think this right here… I know we’ve got four or five small schools, really small schools in my district… I really think a lot of private schools around the nation are putting together programs right now for online and I think everybody will know what they’ll cost, $7,075... We’ve got high-performing schools. I’m proud of my teachers. I’m proud of our schools, what they represent, and I know that without a shadow of a doubt, all these small towns hang their hat on their school. That’s their calling card.” He added he would not vote to jeopardize that.

Representative Darby said a constituent from Martin called him and supported the vouchers. He had been a school consolidation guy, according to Tandy. The word consolidation in Weakley County is a poison pill for politicians there. The constituent encouraged Darby to reevaluate his stance on vouchers. Darby said Gleason and Greenfield are both too small for a private school; however, a private charter school might want to establish a school across from Martin Westview. He said the constituent was silent after learning that charter schools might concentrate on Martin as a location.

Henry County General Sessions Court Judge Vicki Snyder said the state has a mental health crisis. Those suffering from mental health often cycle through the court system and the local jails, never receiving the mental health care they need. There are not adequate counselors or facilities to care for the mentally ill.