TN State Government, Dailyrollcall.com, Page 2

September 8, 2022

TN Association of School Librarians – educators or political activists? – Part 2

Part 2 of this series is focused on the Tennessee Association of School Librarians’ banned books campaign.

The Tennessee Association of School Librarians (TASL) “Banned Books Week” campaign is coming to schools beginning September 18th. Self-described activist school librarians will dare students to “rebel” by reading an so-called “banned book”. Updated AASL (American Association of School Librarians) national school library standards adopted by TASL, endorse banned book lesson plans and displays in schools.

The three-tiered library organizations’ “Banned Books Campaign”

Under the guise of “celebrating the freedom to read”, the ALA (American Library Association), the AASL, and TASL push the “banned books week” campaign as part of a political agenda generally described as a “left-of-center approach to public policy”.

Led by the ALA which co-launched the banned books campaign, library associations have been pushing the banned books campaign for 50 years and have helped spread its popularity to bookstores and schools. Restrictions applicable to digital collections are under attack as well.

The “banned books” campaign is based on what the ALA ’s Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF), deems “censorship” in any form which they say means removing a book from the library collection or in the case of “soft censorship”, restricting access to a book. TASL has likewise taken a forthright stand on censorship of books in school libraries.

It is not censorship, however, when a librarian declines to add certain materials to the library’s book collection. Nor was it censorship in 2019, when Katherine “Katie” Ishizuka and Ramon Stephen, founders of The Concious Kid, instigated a takedown of Dr. Seuss books based on allegations of racism. Their attack on the books convinced the National Education Association to remove Seuss from the Read Across America annual celebration in schools and instead, shift the focus to “diverse” books including “books about race, gender identity, and various other left-wing causes”.

The following year, Ishizuka was appointed editor-in-chief of the School Library Journal (SLJ).

In a recent SLJ article titled School Librarians Must Lead the Ongoing Conversation About Problematic Titles and Library Collections, Nashville school librarian Erika Long (who also serves as an AASL State Level Leader for TASL), says that when a librarian decides to remove a book it’s “basic [book] collection development”.

As another librarian put it, “[w]henever a book diminishes human beings through harmful stereotypes or racist language or imagery, that book has no business being on a school library bookshelf”.

In other words, librarians decide the which books make it into the library’s book collection and when librarians make value judgments to remove a book, it can’t be censorship because they were taught in school that “there’s pedagogy behind” these decisions.

The AASL is enthusiastically pushing “banned books week” out to state chapters like TASL whose website features past banned books displays from elementary, middle and high schools across Tennessee.

The TASL’s September 2022 Conference agenda

TASL’s 2022 annual conference will take place this year a week before ‘banned books week”. Many of the sessions align with the updated AASL Standards adopted by TASL including:

TASL’s Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI) committee chair Brandi Hartsell, a Knox County school librarian, will speak about how school librarians can influence teachers and shape their “cultural competence” using “diverse books”. Hartsell has written about her program for educators and encourages the use of the AASL manual on Defending Intellectual Freedom: LGBTQ+ Materials in School Libraries.

“ProjectLit + Ways to Advocate Through Book Clubs” presented by Nashville Cane Ridge high school librarian Tyler Sainato who will describe how she helped students become political activists around perceived anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation. Sainato was featured in a recent School Library Journal article centered around promoting the perceived needs of LGBTQIA+ students, including transgender students in elementary school. (political activism is a target goal of TASL’s advocacy directed at students).

Tennessee elementary school librarian Caroline Mickey (Alpine Crest Elementary School in Red Bank, TN), will talk about “Being an Ally” and “Activism for Introverts”. Mickey’s posted bio states that, “[s]he has been on a personal mission to expand her horizons and learn about her privileges so that she can acknowledge and work to help others recognize theirs. Caroline was recently quoted in a Washington Post article for standing up to book bans in front of her school board. She had recently become the chair for the EDI [equity, diversity & inclusion] Committee…
”Mickey describes her “Being an Ally” session here -“As educators, we are constantly learning how to better support our students. Our BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ students need to know they are welcome in our spaces, we will respect them, and that their stories will be shared and reflected on the shelves. My presentation dives into librarianship and activism and how we can be there for our students.”

Three Tennessee school librarians (one from Rutherford County and two from Davidson County), will talk about state law related to school libraries and promote ideas to celebrate “Banned Books Week” in schools.

Dr. Cindy Welch, Clinical Associate Professor, UTK, School of Info Sciences, will speak about how “[i]ncreased scrutiny and edgier-than-ever diverse and inclusive materials has made it harder – and even hazardous – to do the best job for our children. This session will review related intellectual freedom policies and speak to strategies for stocking elementary school libraries, and continuing the good fight.”

The library associations define “Intellectual freedom” as “the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.”

Defending Intellectual Freedom is the AASL’s guide to assist school librarians using the AASL Standards to help students access LGBTQ+ materials. Along with the activity guide, the AASL provides a detailed chart to support the expansion of LGBTQ+ school library book collections and instruction for students regarding the materials.

The working definition of “intellectual freedom” assumes no information or curation bias on the part of the librarian and that information representing “all sides” on topics such as gun control, legalization of marijuana, abortion and transgenderism, would be easily accessed in the school library. Suggested sources in the “curate” activity guide for students to use to verify information, suggest otherwise.

Similarly, the guide’s suggestion that students use the “ACT UP Method” to validate information should be questioned. As described in the AASL guide, “[t]he primary function of the ACT UP method goes beyond evaluating the credibility of sources. It helps learners to push against privilege and break out of the dominant narrative search cycles”. The “ACT UP” author describes the intent behind the method:

- To ACT UP means to act in a way that is different from normal. Normal is defined as heteronormative, white, cisgendered, male and christian (just to name a few). Normal means patriarchy and the systemic oppression of marginalized groups.
- To ACT UP means to actively engage in dismantling oppressions.
- To ACT UP means pushing against dominant narratives, oppressive hierarchies of knowledge production, and academic ivory tower definitions of expertise and scholarship.

The “Banned Books” campaign and the AASL Standards

This year’s “Banned Books Week” theme is “books unite us, censorship divides us”, a theme which fits well with the new AASL Standards.

TASL, Tennessee’s state chapter of the AASL has been training school librarians in the AASL Standards even though these standards have not been adopted by either the Tennessee Department of Education or the State Board of Education. Regardless, the ALA and AASL require that any school librarian preparation program that wants ALA or AASL accreditation “must” use the ALA/AASL school librarian preparation standards which “reflect the ideals and language in the AASL [National School Library] Standards.” In fact, the first school librarians preparation standard requires that the AASL Standards be part of their training.

As explained in Part 1, the AASL Standards are supported by AASL activity guides which are written by teams of ALA “emerging leaders” who are librarians with fewer than five years of experience.

In one activity for example, AASL’s suggestion for school librarians confronting a book challenge is to “facilitate and share lesson plans that incorporate banned books”.

TASL’s current president agrees that school librarians should follow state law as it applies to the Age Appropriate Materials Act which was passed this legislative session. Lindsey Kimery, coordinator of library services for Metro Nashville schools, past president of TASL and chair of the AASL Chapter Delegates, likewise conceded to this bill and is confident that “TASL members do not purchase obscene or pornographic materials for school collections”.

It may, however, depend on whether books currently in Tennessee school libraries like Gender Queer, Lawn Boy and TASL recommended Flamer meet the state law’s definition of obscenity or pornography.

In her May 2022 article posted in the American Libraries Magazine, Kimery tells how members of TASL and TLA “worked nonstop to counter [HB1944] this harmful legislation” which would have made the state’s obscenity law apply to school libraries and possibly result in books which violate the “harmful to minors” law, being removed from the school library.

Kimery is opposed to book bans, “worried that young readers could loose access to ideas and information in their schools” including,“titles written by or about marginalized communities, such as racial minorities or students who identify as LGBTQ”.

Rep. Sam Whitson introduced Kimery in committee to speak in support of his bill to reinstate a state-wide school library coordinator within the Department of Education.

Court rules that removal of book from school library is not a book ban

Inflammatory book ban rhetoric and school displays may get attention from staff and students, but telling the school community that the books are “banned” is misleading at best. For that matter, school administrators and school boards should question the propriety of the school library being used for any library associations’ political campaign. School administrators and school boards should carefully probe claims that students’ rights are violated when books are removed from school libraries.

In C.K.-W. v. Wentzville R-IV School District, an August 2022, federal case filed by the ACLU challenging a Missouri school district’s policies regarding book challenges and the removal of books from a school library, the court held that “[a] school district does not ‘ban’ a book when, ‘through its authorized school board’, it ‘decides not to continue possessing [a] book on its own library shelves”.

Two school board policies were involved in this case; one policy permitted school librarians to remove materials “ based upon the contribution to the education program and the age appropriateness of the materials”, while the other policy permitted a committee to review complaints challenging library materials resulting in possible removal.

Plaintiff C.K., a minor student’s case was filed by her parent, T.K. They claimed that the books, three of which were removed indefinitely violated students’ First Amendment rights “by restricting their access to ideas and information for an improper purpose.”

Law Professor Eugene Volokh, recognized as “one of the nation’s top experts on First Amendment law”, provides an instructive analysis of the case, concluding that as to K-12 public school libraries, “the [court’s] decision seems legally correct to me.”

This case is important for several reasons especially as it relates to Tennessee’s Age Appropriate Materials Act and Public Chapter 1137 (which sets forth the age appropriate standard), and the continued reliance by the three-tiered library associations on the Supreme Court’s case Board of Ed. v. Pico, an earlier school library book removal case also filed by a student. Generally, the library associations cite the Pico case for the proposition in Justice Brennan’s plurality opinion that “school officials can’t ban books in libraries simply because of their content” and that students have a “right to receive ideas [as] a necessary predicate” to the exercise of their First Amendment rights.

What the library associations don’t disclose about the Pico case is that it was not a majority opinion and as Volokh points out the decision has no real value as legal precedent.

According the most generous reading of the Pico case as it applies to a student’s First Amendment right to “receive ideas”, Volokh concludes that the takeaway from Justice Brennan’s plurality is that:

“‘local school boards have ‘a substantial legitimate role to play in the determination of school library content’ and that districts have ‘significant discretion’ to determine the books available in school libraries.” School boards, however, cannot remove books “simply because they dislike the ideas in the books”. But, books can be removed according to Pico, based on “‘educational suitability’ or if the books are ‘pervasively vulgar’”, the latter reason agreed to by all the Supreme Court justices.

In the same vein, the Wentzville court held that vulgarity and educational suitability “are at the heart of the determination of the ‘age sensitivity’ determination”; in other words, when books may or may not be age appropriate.

The AASL Standards activity guide for the shared foundation “curate” also recognizes that assessing books in the school library should “be appropriate for the subject area and the age ability level, learning styles, and social, emotional and intellectual development of the students for whom the materials are selected”.

The point is that a book may be removed from the school library without violating students’ rights, nor can the removal of a book honestly be labeled a book ban, ergo, school displays of “banned books” are nothing more than political propaganda.

Using students to advance political advocacy

As TASL says, “students are at the heart of [TASL’s] work, and our purpose is to help them grow academically”. Students are also used to advance the political objectives of the three-tired library organizations.

For example, the School Library Journal is trying to help FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), find student plaintiffs to sue school districts and challenge decisions made regarding books removed from school libraries. FIRE admits to the weakness of the Supreme Court’s decision in Pico and is trying to help get lawsuits filed that might weaken school board authority related to school library book removal.

Students are included in TASL’s advocacy wheel which includes ideas such as helping students form student-led groups. Examples provided include, ProjectLIT, Sustainable Schools, Urban Green Lab, GSA [Gay-Straight Alliance].

A Knox County middle school librarian describes the purpose of a Project LIT book club is to both encourage reading but use the opportunity to “facilitate discussions on diversity, bias, and other relevant social issues.” In this particular book club students whose parents declined consent for the chosen book may not have been aware that the non-consented-to book’s content and themes were still part of the book club’s session.

Similarly aligned to the AASL Standards, a school librarian-supported, student-led banned book club was launched this year at a Georgia high school.

Tennessee law that may impact book challenges

PEN America uses “educational gag order” to characterize state laws which seek to counter the three-tier library association agenda related to advancing the elements of critical race theory, gender diversity and sexualization of students playing out in school libraries.

In 2021, the Tennessee General Assembly passed a law prohibiting the teaching of concepts that derive from critical race theory (T.C.A. 49-6-1019(a)), including for example, that “[a]n individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently privileged, racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously”.

And yet, after the law was passed, TASL joined the “Teach Truth” campaign and published a recommended book list which included two books by Ibram X Kendi, one of the most vocal proponents of the elements that comprise critical race theory. It should be of equal concern that TASL has thrown their support to the Zinn Education Project, linked of course to Howard Zinn whose work has come under serious and credible scrutiny.

Public Chapter 1137, passed during the 2022 legislative session requires the Tennessee Textbook Commission to issue guidance for local school districts for reviewing library materials to ensure that the materials are appropriate for the “age and maturity levels of the students accessing the material and that the materials are suitable for, and consistent with, the educational mission of the school”. The Textbook Commission is also authorized to receive an appeal of a local school board’s decision regarding a book challenge.

Public Chapter 1002, also passed during the 2022 legislative session ensures that Tennessee’s “harmful to minors” obscenity law applies to digital and other online resources provided to students. It is important to note that the law removed the education exception that blocked the obscenity law from applying to materials in schools.

Public Chapter 744 dubbed the “Age-Appropriate Materials Act”, requires each public school to maintain and post on the school’s website a list of the materials in the school’s library collection. It also requires each local board of education to adopt a policy to establish procedures for the review of school library collections.

Conclusion

Using its library standards, the AASL which describes school librarians as “change agents”, has issued a charge to school librarians to wage a social justice campaign, create student activists, collaborate with educators in their school buildings and use the AASL standards to influence them.

TASL has adopted these standards and is using the standards to train school librarians. AASL and TASL suggest that school librarians should have the power to be the sole and independent determiners of what books reside in a school’s library and which ideas and books our children should be interested in and read.

School displays claiming that selected books have been “banned” mislead students, teachers and visitors to the school. The displays undermine the value parents and legal guardians bring to a student’s learning, the same parents and legal guardians who educators say they want involved in a child’s education.

Some might argue that pushing the idea of “banned books” invites acrimony between students and their parents and guardians, or undeserved distrust of elected officials. Displays that encourage students to inappropriately “act like a rebel” use the school library for a political agenda that is not really about “freedom to read” but rather, a protest against compliance with constitutionally sound state laws.

August 27, 2022

TN Association of School Librarians – educators or political activists?

This is a three-part series that will explain how the three-tiered library organizations are taking school libraries from education to activism.

Part 1 of this series will introduce the three-tiered library organizations working to influence and “transform” school libraries including those in Tennessee using the new National School Library Standards also known as the AASL Standards. The structure of the standards is explained below. Part 2 will focus on the Tennessee Association of School Librarians’ banned books campaign. Part 3 will discuss how the three-tiered library organizations define and use “intellectual freedom” as it applies to students, librarians and school libraries and what it means for Tennessee school libraries.

Part 1 -Tennessee’s new state-wide school library coordinator

Lobbying by the Tennessee Association of School Librarians (TASL), succeeded this year with the passage of legislation re-establishing a State Coordinator of School Libraries in the state Department of Education (DOE).

The state library coordinator position has been an on-going legislative goal of the three-tiered library organizations. In 2019, the president of the American Library Association (ALA) and the president of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), co-signed a letter to Tennessee DOE Commissioner Penny Schwinn, advocating to “reinstate” the position. TASL likewise encouraged their members to use “TN Library Legislative Day” to advocate for the state library coordinator position. TASL is organized as a 501(c)(6) and is not prohibited from lobbying or engaging in other political advocacy.

The AASL is a division of the ALA. TASL is an approved state chapter of the AASL. The TASL handbook requires that anyone serving as president of its organization must be a member of the TN Library Association, the ALA and the AASL.

SB1784/HB1667 sponsored by Senator Jon Lundberg and Rep. Sam Whitson, codified at Public Chapter 1048, passed unanimously in the Senate but with two abstaining votes in the House. The bill was signed into law by Governor Lee in late May.

In committee, Rep. Whitson explained that he had engaged with TASL over time and discussed with them about how they could best “lobby and promote their organization’s agenda”. Rep. Whitson invited Lindsey Kimery, coordinator of library services for Metro Nashville schools, to speak to the committee in support of his bill.

Kimery, is a past president of TASL and the past chair of the AASL Coordinating Team for AASL state chapters.

The new law requires that the new state library coordinator be a “certified school librarian”. Generally, this means that the individual would have completed a master’s degree program in either Library and Information Science or a master’s degree that awards a School Library Specialist endorsement. These programs are accredited either by the ALA or the AASL.

The new law also requires DOE’s new state library coordinator to “consult [with], guide and train school librarians to strengthen school library programs” and to promote “best practices among school librarians”. The new state coordinator is also required to help school librarians partner with classroom teachers to “support school and district-level instructional programs”.

On the House floor Whitson said his bill would “assist school librarians as they implement the Department of Education’s (DOE) policies including the requirements of the Age Appropriate Materials Act of 2022 in LEAs [local school districts] that have limited library staff or coordinators”.

According to James Ritter, Tennessee’s newly appointed State Librarian and Archivist, “[s]chool libraries fall under the TN Department of Education, so they would be the state agency implementing [education] standards across the state”.

Presumably this means that school librarians and the libraries they oversee, must comply with the same state laws applicable to the DOE. State laws include for example, TCA 49-6-1019 and the rules promulgated by the DOE pertaining to the prohibition on teaching concepts underlying critical race theory, the Age Appropriate Materials Act (Public Chapter 744), and Public Chapter 1002 which removes the education exception for obscene materials as defined in Tennessee law and requires steps to prevent using school computers to access materials “harmful to minors” as defined in Tennessee law.

The Three-tiered Library Organizations and Political Advocacy

Ritter also confirmed that prior to the COVID shut-down, TASL began training Tennessee school librarians in the new National School Library Standards (the AASL Standards) release by the AASL in 2018. TASL was awarded a grant from the AASL to help roll-out training to Tennessee school librarians on the new standards. TASL formed an AASL Standards Task Force to provide the training.

The AASL Standards are heavily influenced by the ALA’s advocacy positions including their platform on intellectual freedom. In line with the ALA and the AASL, TASL’s “advocacy” drop-down menu includes “intellectual freedom” and “banned books week”, both of which will be discussed further in this series of posts. TASL also includes a fuller description of what Tennessee librarian “advocacy” can include as applied to different groups such as students, families and elected officials.

For example, TASL suggests that as to students, librarians can “create, facilitate and encourage student led groups (ex. ProjectLIT, Sustainable Schools, Urban Green Lab, GSA [Gay-Straight Alliance]”. Librarians are also encouraged to help “young people” to become political activists by “teach[ing] them how to write to representatives about various bills”.

Political advocacy within the three-tiered library organizations flows top-down and bottom-up.

The new president-elect of the ALA, Emily Drabinski, made headlines when she tweeted the following:

I just cannot believe that a Marxist lesbian who believes that collective power is possible to build and can be wielded for a better world is the president-elect of @ALALibrary. I am so excited for what we will do together. Solidarity!
And my mom is SO PROUD I love you mom.

Of greater concern than Drabinski’s public declaration of sexual preference are her goals for the ALA which are solidly grounded in her Marxist ideology:

I will direct resources and opportunities to a diverse cross section of the association and advance a public agenda that puts organizing for justice at the center of library work.

AASL’s Knowledge Quest publication and the ALA affiliated Freadom to Read Foundation help promote the idea that school librarians should also be connecting “intellectual freedom” to social justice standards. For example, an elementary school librarian writes about how she learned at the 2019 AASL national conference to align the National School Library Standards “six shared foundations” with Learning for Justice’s Social Justice standards.

Learning for Justice seeks to uphold the mission of the Southern Poverty Law Center: to be a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond, working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy, strengthen intersectional movements and advance the human rights of all people.

Sarah Searles, Knox County School’s Library/Media Services Supervisor, chairs the AASL Knowledge Quest board. Searles has been a leader in rolling out the AASL Standards in Knox County schools and has written about her experience here. She has also authored the book about the shared foundation “explore”.

Three other Tennessee school librarians serve on the Knowledge Quest board. Metro Nashville Public School librarian Jennifer Sharp who announced the AASL grant to TASL, serves as an AASL director-at-large.

Structure of the AASL National School Library Standards

The AASL Standards have several moving parts which are described below. The AASL says that the standards framework is designed to connect the student, school librarian and the school library in a way that “standards-related activities would be mutually reinforcing, simultaneously building capacity among learners, school librarians and the school library”.

six “common beliefs” which are foundational to the standards:

– The school library is a unique and essential part of a learning community.
– Qualified school librarians lead effective school libraries.
– Learners should be prepared for college, career, and life.
– Reading is the core of personal and academic competency.
– Intellectual freedom is every learner’s right.
– Information technologies must be appropriately integrated and equitably available.

shared foundations
The six shared foundations are, “inquire”, “include”, “collaborate”, “curate”, “explore”, “engage”. The shared foundations “anchor” the standards and serve to “reinforce the core values that learners, school librarians, and school libraries should reflect and promote”.

key commitments
These are the expanded definitions of the shared foundations. For example, the shared foundation “include” is defined as “[d]emonstrate an understanding of and commitment to inclusiveness and respect for diversity in the learning community”.

domains
Each shared foundation contains four domains – “think”, “create”, “share”, “grow”. The chart below shows where each domain within each shared foundation is applied to the student, the librarian and the library. Each domain within each shared foundation is also supported by an activity guide directed to the learner (students), the school librarian, and the school library. Each activity is prefaced with a “scenario” describing an example of what could occur under a given set of circumstances. Included in the scenario is how to answer or approach the desired answer.

Below is a “framework” chart which demonstrates how a shared foundation integrates with each domain and samples from the activity guides. For example, applying the domain “create” to the student in the shared foundation “include”, the scenario describes 10th grader “Jonah (preferred pronouns he/him/his)” who realizes that his LGBTQ+ friends are being bullied, one of whom tells Jonah that he wishes he “had a support group to help them deal with feelings of anxiety and loneliness”. The two friends find the GLSEN website and decide to start a GSA (gay-straight alliance club). For the learner the domain “create” based on the scenario above, the activity guide suggests the students “create” a GSA.

Applying the same domain “create” to the school librarian in the shared foundation “include”, the suggestion is “the balancing act” for which activities are provided. The school library scenario is “dealing with book challenges” and recommended activities include “facilitate and share lesson plans that incorporate banned books”.

The activity guide for the shared foundation “include” is titled Developing Inclusive Learners and Citizens. This guide follows the standards organizational format with activities divided by the four domains in separate sections for students, school librarians and school libraries. The activity guide introduction advises that by “[u]sing the resources in this activity guide, learners and school librarians alike can seek balanced perspectives, global learning, empathy, tolerance and equity”. The guide also uses activities intended to make the school library a fully inclusive space.

While there are many creative and useful ideas in the activity guide, there are others that may well fall outside Tennessee DOE education policies and still others likely to be considered highly controversial in the community in which the school is located.

For example, in the “think” domain, there are four suggested activities. “Understanding Equity” is activity #4 for learners which includes students. The stated objective is for “learners to better understand various groups’ struggle for equity”: The suggested activity on page 14 is a privilege walk described as:

A privilege walk highlights how race, gender, and sexuality can affect individual success. Ask learners to line up in an open space and instruct them to move forward based on statements read related to race gender, or sexuality. The power of the lesson comes from the debrief after the lesson when learners see how it feel to be in the front, middle, or back of the group and their placement in relation to others position, which allows them to see others more clearly.

Similar exercises of recognizing personal bias and privilege is advised in the “grow” domain for school libraries as applied to educators and community members.

Included in the same guide are activities in the “share” domain for school librarians. Activity #1 is “inclusive research” with the objective for the school librarian to learn the pronouns used by learners in the school community – “hold a conversation about recognizing pronouns with a large same of learners of varied gendered expression and allow them to share their opinions honestly.”

Activity #2 builds on Activity #1 by using the information to “create a new gender inclusion and diversity policy protecting and empowering learner and their autonomy”. GLSEN’s model gender diversity policy is provided.

The “create” domain applied to school libraries advises about book collections, book challenge policies and an activity to “facilitate and share lesson plans that incorporate banned books”. This activity encourages the school librarian to design a lesson plan that “puts the spotlight on banned books”.

standards crosswalks
The crosswalks show the intersection between the AASL National School Library Standards and other sets of national teaching and learning standards.

AASL Library Standards and social justice charge to school librarians

The AASL says that the shared foundation “include” is the school librarian’s directive to wage a social justice campaign with their students and the wider community:

Thinking back to January 2019, when our Emerging Leaders group met for the first time, we could never have anticipated just how timely our discussions about equity, diversity, and inclusion would be. We focused our project on the Shared Foundation of Include from AASL’s National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. As we prepare for the coming school year, whether it be in-person, virtual, or some form of hybrid learning, it is evident that our project is more timely than ever. We know that we must do even more to address intersectionality, bias, racism, and other social justice issues. Who better to lead the charge than school librarians?

TASL’s Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI) committee chair Brandi Hartsell, a Knox County school librarian is a contributor to the AASL Knowledge Quest publication. In one post, Hartsell describes a program she created for her school’s teachers to influence and shape their cultural competence. In another of her posts Hartsell encourages other librarians to ensure that the school’s library addresses the needs of LGBTQ+ readers and encourages the use of the AASL manual on Defending Intellectual Freedom: LGBTQ+ Materials in School Libraries. This publication will be the subject of Part 3 of this series.

Hartsell also writes for TASL Talks, a blog directed to Tennessee school librarians. Hartsell’s EDI committee posts book recommendations on a variety of issues including racism (including picture books for elementary school), illegal immigration, and LGBTQ. Book recommendations are divided by elementary, middle and high school.

Conclusion

The AASL says it “empowers leaders to transform teaching and learning.” The AASL describes, the school librarian as a collaborator, change agent, and leader. (emphasis supplied) a characterization reinforced by the AASL’s sample job description for the school librarian. The AASL standards also elevate the school librarian from educator to activist.

However, the AASL standards are not state law and must not be used in any way to skirt any state laws applicable to the Department of Education and Tennessee schools including the teaching of critical race theory concepts, the age appropriate materials and obscenity laws. This oversight responsibility is inherent in the position of the new state-wide school library coordinator.

TASL has been training school librarians in the AASL standards which may not comply with Tennessee state laws. School librarian practices may require extensive review in light of legislation passed since TASL began training in the new standards.

August 10, 2022

Why is The Tennessee Conservative Giving Cover to the NON-Conservative TN Chapter of Americans for Prosperity?

Next week, The Tennessee Conservative will host its second Freedom Summit billed as “A Gathering of Tennessee’s Most Influential Conservatives in Media, Policy, Advocacy & Activism”.

Brandon Lewis, founder of The Tennessee Conservative, will speak at the summit on “Corporatism Vs. Conservatism: Reclaiming the TNGOP”. Given the stated theme of the summit and in particular Lewis’ subject, it is ironic that a representative of the Koch-backed AFP whose immigration agenda is intended “to benefit big business and corporate interests”, will also be speaking at the summit.

AFP-TN state director Tori Venable, who was featured at last year’s summit, will be back again this year. Venable works for and represents the Koch-backed AFP. She also helps to promote the immigration agenda of AFP’s LIBRE Initiative.

It is at best confusing that AFP-TN is being lumped in with the state’s “most influential conservatives” since AFP goes to great lengths to NOT promote itself as a conservative organization. The reason AFP doesn’t promote itself as a conservative anything, is because it isn’t. Neither are its founders, largest funders or positions on critical issues like illegal and legal immigration.

This year AFP’s Venable wears two hats in her listing – as a representative of AFP and something called the “conservative braintrust panel”. The term “braintrust” may be used to designate a pool or network of individuals with a specific talent or expertise. For sure, AFP-TN has a “talent” for hiding AFP’s agenda on illegal immigration from Tennessee conservatives – unless of course you remember Venable’s 2019 oped about finding “common ground” on illegal immigration.

AFP’s Illegal and Legal Immigration Agenda

It is reported that the bulk of AFP and the AFP Foundation’s backing come from personal foundations funded and controlled by billionaires Charles Koch and his late brother David who used to chair the AFP Foundation board. AFP Action PAC is also heavily financed with Koch money.

Keeping it all in the “family”, Mark Holden, general counsel and senior vice president of Koch Industries who now chairs the AFP Foundation Board, co-chaired with David for the two years preceding David’s death in 2019.

AFP is a 501(c)(4) and the foundation is a 501(c)(3), which helps to shield its money sources.

While the Koch brothers were reputed to be fiscally conservative, David was a self-described “social liberal” who was pro-abortion. In 1980, David ran as a libertarian vice-presidential candidate promoting “full legalization of abortion”. The remaining Koch brother Charles appears to agree with his brother’s positions.

AFP characterizes its positions on legal and illegal immigration as intended to reform a broken immigration system.

The Koch position on illegal immigration was initially centered around amnesty for illegal aliens granted DACA. More recently, the Koch network which includes the Koch-funded LIBRE discussed below, “are cheering President Joe Biden’s automatic extension of work permits for border crossers and illegal aliens….Many of the work permit categories eligible for this auto-extension are earmarked for illegal aliens, including those who simply filled an asylum application that the government has yet to adjudicate and those with TPS”.

The illegal aliens with federal work permits which are being cheered by the Koch network, are now eligible for commercial and professional licenses under the new Tennessee law sponsored by Republican state senator Shane Reeves. The new Tennessee law advances the agenda promoted by AFP and LIBRE.

AFP-TN Venable’s 2019 oped urging Tennesseans to find “common ground” on immigration was co-authored with the president of LIBRE. AFP-TN’s silence on the Reeves bill and deliberate omission to score his “Workforce Expansion Act” seems like an almost deliberate effort to pretend that AFP-TN somehow stands apart from its parent organization’s policy and political objectives. It looks very much like the salaries of AFP-TN’s director and deputy director are paid by AFP and here, with additional support from Stand Together which will be discussed below.

Does anyone really believe that AFP-TN can disavow the AFP-LIBRE immigration agenda?

With regard to legal paths for immigration the Koch AFP, joined by the George W. Bush Institute, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a coalition including Bethany Christian Services, is pushing Biden to expand mass immigration to the U.S..

Bethany Christian Services is a Tennessee licensed provider of adoption and foster care services and operates in five locations in the state. They maintain a contract with the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement to receive and provide transitional foster care services to Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) who are typically smuggled across the border by family members who themselves are here in violation of immigration laws. A Bethany representative testified to last summer’s Joint Study Committee convened by the Tennessee General Assembly. Several committee members praised the work of Bethany despite the fact that their movement of UACs facilitates illegal immigration to Tennessee.

When the Koch network of “donor class organizations” talk about helping employers who are “struggling to find workers to fill jobs in many industries”, they are talking about cheap foreign labor regardless of whether it undercuts the U.S. working and middle class.

AFP has also made it clear that they will use their super PAC AFP-Action to endorse any candidate who supports AFP’s amnesty agenda. So, it is no coincidence that AFP-Action endorsed John Coryn from Texas and Thom Tillis from North Carolina, the two Senate Republicans who approached Democrats to resurrect discussions about amnesty for grantees of the illegal DACA program.

AFP-TN’s Venable also serves as an AFP-Action Senior Advisor who stumped for Marsha Blackburn in 2018.

AFP’s advocacy for illegal and legal immigration run through the veins and interlocking leadership of AFP, its sister organization LIBRE, it’s Uniting for Immigration Reform PAC and their Stand Together initiative.

The LIBRE Initiative

In 2011, Daniel Garza launched the LIBRE initiative with almost $10 million dollars from the Koch’s Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce. LIBRE’s primary mission was to convert Latinos into Republican voters. Much like AFP, “[i]n an investigation [in 2015], ProPublica found that LIBRE not only receives millions of dollars of funding from the Koch network but appears to be controlled by it as well.”

As far back as 2013, LIBRE’s President Daniel Garza (who served in the Bush administration), has endorsed amnesty for DREAMERs, i.e., beneficiaries of Obama’s illegal DACA program.

LIBRE’s early “statement of principles” seeking legal status for children brought into the U.S. illegally by their parents required the parents to be working legally in the U.S.. The current revised LIBRE position focuses solely on advocating for ”permanent status” for “DREAMers” and those with Temporary Protected Status (TPS). It no longer matters whether the parents or whoever may have transported the “DREAMer” to the U.S., is themself here legally.

In fact, in last year’s case in federal court where the DACA program was ruled “illegal”, and DACA grantees were acknowledged to be illegal aliens per federal immigration law, a document introduced by the U.S. government showed that half of the DACA grantees were visa overstayers and many DACA grantees entered the U.S. on their own. DACA only requires that the individual be at least 15 years old when they apply and have entered the U.S. before turning 16. According to FAIR, “the age range of eligible beneficiaries spans from 24 to 40 years old. No DACA recipient or DACA-eligible alien in 2021 is a minor.”

The “permanent status” that LIBRE and AFP want for illegal aliens typically means green card also referred to as legal permanent resident (LPR). Green card holders after a certain number of years, can typically become citizens.

As to the “undocumented population”, LIBRE wants a “permanent legislative solution” so that they can “come out of the shadows and get right with the law.”

According to LIBRE’s 501(c)(3) arm called the LIBRE Institute, it operates in ten states including North Carolina, a state which has struggled mightily with crimes committed by illegal aliens.

LIBRE is talking amnesties for both groups of illegal aliens. Amnesty does not always mean citizenship, but rather, forgiving illegal immigration status and providing an immigration status that enables the otherwise illegal alien to remain in the U.S. without threat of deportation.

AFP and AFP Foundation’s tax filings from 2017 through the last available 2019, lists Garza as Executive Director. This is the same Garza with whom AFP-TN’s Venable co-authored the oped on finding common ground on immigration.

Using a similar model to AFP-Action, Garza serves as Senior Advisor to The LIBRE Initiative Action. Tori Venable serves as an AFP-Action Senior Advisor.

Jorge Lima, AFP’s Senior VP of Policy, listed as such in AFP and AFP Foundation’s tax filings from 2017 through the last available 2019, was variously the Executive Director and Policy Director of LIBRE between 2013 and 2018.

LIBRE’s position on amnesties tracks the 2013, bipartisan Gang of 8 comprehensive immigration reform bill which included a blanket amnesty called “registered provisional immigrant status” for illegal aliens in the U.S.. Even the Congressional Budget office agreed that the bill gave amnesty to illegal aliens, and also reported that the G of 8 plan would barely make a dent in reducing future illegal immigration.

The Gang of 8 bill also incorporated the goals of the DREAM Act to amnesty illegal aliens who entered the U.S. before age 16, whether brought by parents at a young age or entering on their own.

To no great surprise, Tennessee’s globicans Corker and Alexander voted for it.

AFP- Backed “Stand Together” Initiative

In 2019, Charles Koch announced that he was reorganizing his variously funded entities to now be called “Stand Together”. One of the groups was the Seminar Network, “a network of nonprofits funded by Charles Koch and like-minded conservatives and libertarians who donate at least $100,000 annually to ‘help people improve their lives.’”

Along with many worthy issues affecting people’s lives such as encouraging businesses to hire formerly incarcerated individuals and help them restart their lives, the Seminar Network also tried to use its heft with Trump, to push amnesty for DACA.

In an effort to consolidate its influence, AFP put LIBRE and Concerned Veterans for America (CVA) under the AFP controlled “Stand Together”. Importantly, AFP reserved to itself, “all political and policy efforts of LIBRE and CVA.

This also means that wherever a state AFP chapter operates, so does LIBRE. AFP-Action and LIBRE Initiative Action also work together in state legislative races.

On the heels of this reorganization, AFP’s CEO and Senior Advisor for AFP-Action, issued a memo announcing four new super PACs that will “make contributions directly to candidates”. That way politicians seeking re-election and would-be politicians won’t be afraid of earning their AFP PAC money even if they make their constituents unhappy.

The new PACs are, “Uniting for Economic Opportunity”, “Uniting for Free Expression”, “Uniting for Free Trade”, and “Uniting for Immigration Reform”.

Conclusion

While Tennesseans watch the General Assembly’s House chamber move toward the center and the Senate drift left, it makes it much more important for The Tennessee Conservative news outlet to remain credibly conservative. Featuring AFP and worse still, promoting AFP as a conservative organization, raises legitimate credibility questions.

August 2, 2022

Tennessee’s Elected GOP Are Redefining the Word “Conservative”

Too many of the Tennessee General Assembly’s GOP are redefining the “conservative” label similar to how leftists have changed the definition of terms like “woman”, “recession”, and “illegal alien.”

Three bills from the 2022 legislative session, one of which became law, leave little doubt that “what is to be conserved”, is instead, being trashed.

First is the professional and commercial licensing bill for illegal aliens (SB2464/HB2309), which was sponsored by Senator Shane Reeves who has characterized his bill as “consistent with conservative principles” and as a “conservative immigration and poverty solution”.

Second is one of the HPV vaccine bills (SB2026/HB2032) which was sponsored by Senator Bill Powers whose campaign website promised that he would “use common sense and conservative values to make our state even greater.”

Note: HPV stands for human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted disease which can cause genital warts and certain genital and cervical cancers. The CDC advises that HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection.

Third is the other HPV vaccine bill (SB148/HB946) sponsored by Senator Dr. Richard Briggs, who is promoting himself as a conservative in his recent facebook campaign ad.

Each of these bills began as caption bills and all three were championed by a significant number of Republicans.

Backgound: what is a caption bill?

The Legislature’s website defines “caption” as a “[b]rief description of a bill’s contents appearing on a bill and the bill’s jacket. A bill’s content cannot be any broader than its caption.”

The critical part of the caption is the reference to the part of the state code to be amended. Whatever content is filled in below this heading often doesn’t relate to the language filed later as the “amendment to rewrite the bill”. This new language presented to a committee is what is intended to be the substance of the bill.

The problem for those who value transparency in government operations is that the amendment which “rewrites the bill”, i.e., the actual language of the bill, is not available for public review until after this amendment is adopted by the committee and subsequently posted on the legislature’s website.

This was precisely the case with all three bills referenced above. Each bill used bogus language such as filing or not filing an annual report or changing the number of days from 30 to 45.

Sometimes caption bills help legislators meet the bill filing deadline as a placeholder while bill language is still in process. Strategically using caption bills, however, to conceal a bill’s controversial subject-matter has been a long-standing practice by legislators. The caption bill satisfies the bill filing deadline and can shield the sponsor and their intended bill from potential bill-killing push-back. It also provides legislators time to gather support from their colleagues.

With this background and technical details addressed, consider the three following bills.

The Reeves licensing bill for illegal aliens

Senator Reeves’ illegal alien benefit caption bill stated:

Once the amendment to “rewrite the bill” was introduced and adopted by the committee, individuals with illegal immigration status who have a temporary federal work permit, were deemed eligible for the state public benefit of commercial and professional licenses.

Individuals with illegal immigration status who choose to make Tennessee their home can now apply for business licenses and become, for example, licensed teachers and lawyers.

Along with all Democrats present, 35 House and 15 Senate Republicans voted to pass this bill.

The Briggs and Powers HPV vaccine bills

Senators Briggs and Powers’ HPV vaccine caption bills stated:

Once the amendment to rewrite each bill was filed and introduced in committee, these bills taken together authorized dentists and other licensed healthcare providers to administer the HPV vaccine to minors without parental knowledge or consent. Once the intent of these bills became known (and the likely negative public reaction), Powers added consent from the parent or legal guardian to his bill before a dentist could administer the vaccine.

The Briggs bill, however, authorizing certain licensed healthcare providers to give the HPV vaccine to a minor without consent from a parent or legal guardian was not changed.

Both bills passed the Senate Health Committee. Both bills passed the House Health subcommittee but were ultimately stopped from moving forward by the House bill sponsor, ie, “taken off notice”.

Both Briggs and Powers were co-sponsors of Reeves’ licensing bill and Reeves as a member of the Senate Health Committee voted for both HPV bills.

As to the HPV vaccine bills, do generally understood conservative values which Senator Powers promised would guide him, support the state invading a parent’s right to manage their child’s healthcare? Does a self-described conservative like Senator Briggs believe it is good statecraft to give healthcare providers greater rights than parents or legal guardians, to make certain healthcare decisions for minors? Regarding the licensing bill, does Senator Reeves believe that it is a conservative principle or “solution” to ignore the law and reward illegal immigration?

When GOP legislators Richard Briggs calls himself a conservative and Bill Powers and Shane Reeves sell their bills as reflecting some element of conservative thinking, they seem to have another definition of “conservative” from the one I and many other Tennesseans share. These legislators need to find a different word to justify their actions because I’m not giving up my conservative principles and values.

May 19, 2022May 29, 2022

District 63 (formerly Glen Casada) – Please, No More State Legislators With Questionable Money Handling

Exchanging sexually demeaning text messages and the scandal it created was enough for Glen Casada to resign as Speaker of the House. But it was not enough for District 63 to reject him as their representative, choosing instead to re-elect him in 2020 to serve for two more years.

Sparing his district from further humiliation, but with stunning hubris, Casada, whose home was searched by the FBI for suspected ties to “shadowy” handling of campaign money, ran for Williamson County Clerk in the most recent primary. County voters handed him a resounding defeat.

Isn’t it time for voters in District 63 to clean up their act and elect someone who won’t continue to make Tennessee a national joke (watch video at end of post), and who demonstrates prudence when it comes to money?

District 63 candidate Laurie Cardoza Moore has put up a highly stylized campaign website that looks good and sounds good but ….?

In contrast, Republican candidate Jake McCalmon’s campaign website is straightforward, reflecting a no nonsense grassroots, self-made working man who has earned his money instead of living off donated funds like Moore does from her 501(c)3 Proclaiming Justice to The Nations (PJTN).

Moore describes herself as a homeschool mom but talks a lot about what she believes is going on in the state’s public schools. In contrast, McCalmon has three kids who right now actually attend his county’s public schools where he has a front row seat and a very personal investment.

Given the legacy of Casada which doesn’t appear to be over, District 63 voters should pay scrupulous attention to any money-handling information related to their next representative. For example, Moore’s non-profit organization PJTN 990’s raise reasonable questions.

The vast majority of money accumulated by Moore comes from donors which is then used by PJTN to employ Moore, her husband and her children.

Nashville Scene’s Betsy Phillips has also noticed Moore’s handling of her organization’s finances. While her 501(c)(3) shouldn’t show a “profit”, it has, however, proven more than profitable for Moore, and her family members. As Phillips notes, of the nine officers listed in the 2019 tax filing, Moore is the sole officer being paid, while “[t]he person who prepared the tax return and who is one of these officers was paid no salary.”

In time for the 2020 tax year the PJTN Treasurer received a $60,000 salary.

The 2019 tax filing shows Moore’s salary at $145,120, despite running a balance sheet of liabilities outstripping revenue. The following year Moore took approximately 12% of donated funds and increased her salary to $160,000, continuing to run a balance sheet of liabilities exceeding revenue.

Daughters Christina and Jessica have been paid as “contract labor” since 2011, while daughter Josephine moved from contract labor to a $47,876 salary beginning in 2019.

Moore’s husband, owner of MP Films, Inc., has likewise profited from the PJTN business. Tax filings between 2011 and 2020, show that MP Films, Inc. was paid over $700,000 for “production expenses”. But according to the Tennessee Secretary of State’s website, MP Films, Inc. was dissolved in 2009.

In 2020, Moore raised $1,360,051- almost all from donors. She paid herself $160,000, paid her husband’s business $97,301 and paid a total of $63,824 to employ three of her kids. In addition, she annually claims an “occupancy expense” which has been as high as $40,000 but a measly $36,484 in 2020. Phillips notes in her piece that Moore is using her “own nonprofit [to] pay[s] her this money to keep offices in a property she owns, like rent for having her own home office.” In PJTN’s early days, donor money also paid $15,445 in “rent and utilities” to Moore’s husband Stan who served as an officer of the organization.

In just one year, Moore’s “business model” paid out $421,433 to benefit her family. That amounts to 31% of donated funds going into the pockets of the Moore clan.

Another very serious question District 63 voters should address with Moore is the $150,000 loan made to its board chairman Stanley Tate. Despite Tate’s personal wealth, a sizable balance of the loan has not been repaid. According to Tennessee law, 48-58-303, non-profit corporations like PJTN are not supposed to “lend money to or guarantee the obligation of a director or officer of the corporation”.

Scattered through PJTN’s tax filings are amounts claimed for lobbying expenses, a chunk of which are not subject to tax. Moore’s 2017 claimed lobbying expenses of $86,000 presumably included her failed performance in front of a Tennessee House subcommittee. Despite lacking a credible factual foundation, Moore insisted that the University of Tennessee Knoxville campus was a hotbed of antisemitism driven by the campus’ Hamas related student groups. Three students from UTK, two Jewish and one Muslim, told legislators a completely different story sending Moore and her bill down in flames.

Moore’s stated positions on the issues posed on her campaign website are pretty standard fare from members in the General Assembly. Even her positions on Israel and antisemitism which have fueled her fundraising have long been the meat and potatoes of Tennessee Jewish Federations, the state’s Jewish community’s leader organization.

This year, leaders from the Jewish community worked with state legislators, many of whom are members of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the largest pro-Israel grassroots organization in the U.S., to pass two landmark bills; a pro-Israel bill and another pushing back on antisemitism. Both bills will help educate all Tennesseans about antisemitism. Nor are Moore’s “ideas” about law enforcement training in Israel new or unique – it’s already being done and it’s the same for increased trade relations with Israel.

Plenty of free money in “production expenses” and a home-based business has made it easy for Moore to promote herself on social media and youtube. After all, that’s what brings in the dollars. If elevated to public office though, will she manipulate a new promotional perch from which to financially enrich herself and her family?

After the Glen Casada fiasco, District 63 has an opportunity to rehabilitate itself by sending someone whose representative duties won’t be inextricably tied to their organizational fundraising and nepotism that provides jobs for her family.

April 8, 2022

TN GOP State Legislators Do Most of Left’s Work on Illegal Immigration…

With the exception of SB2245/HB2128, this year’s crop of GOP sponsored immigration bills show Republican legislators caving to the left’s agenda on illegal immigration.

SB2245/HB2128, sponsored by long-proven conservative Sen. Joey Hensley and Rep. John Crawford, in a nutshell, bars non-U.S. citizens including illegal aliens and lawful permanent residents (LPR, aka, green card holders), from voting in a federal, state or local election. Different categories of LPRs are eligible to adjust their immigration status to citizen. For example, refugees who are legally admitted to the U.S, through the overseas refugee program, are required to adjust their immigration status to LPR after one year and are then eligible four years later, to try and pass the citizenship test.

The bill also prohibits a local jurisdiction from granting a non-U.S. citizen the right to vote. All House Democrats voted in favor of the bill while all Senate Democrats voted against it.

Beyond this one bill, thanks to the GOP, the left is high-fiving itself all the way to the border.

SB2783/HB2868 sponsored by Republicans Sen. Bo Watson and Rep. Ryan Williams. Both legislators served on the summer’s misnamed Joint Study Committee on Refugees which was convened in response to the discovery of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) arrivals to Tennessee.

When it became public that the UAC arrivals, who enter the country illegally, were being housed in a federally-contracted facility in Chattanooga, legislative leadership felt compelled to spring into action! Adopting the love language of the left which refers to UACs as “refugees”, Tennessee’s leadership convened the Joint Study Committee on Refugees.

As defined in federal law, UACs have “no lawful immigration status in the United States”.

Were they confused by Congressman Mark Green’s bill which treated UACs as refugees? This was one of the very few times they should have listened to pro-refugee Bill Lee who, believe it or not, understands that UACs are not refugees – “[when] the Times Free Press asked specifically about the migrant children, the governor said the Times Free Press was conflating unaccompanied minors with refugees. “‘These are unaccompanied, illegal immigrant children,” Lee responded during the Monday news conference. “Those are two entirely separate issues.’”

Nevertheless, both Watson (who cheered on Green’s bill) and Williams, sponsored SB2783/HB2868, a bill initially intended to reopen a state office on refugee resettlement to track UAC arrivals. The bill was subsequently amended to remove the reopening of a state office and instead, to simply have after-the-fact arrival information sent to different legislative committees.

While presenting his bill, Rep. Williams repeatedly told his colleagues what a great job Catholic Charities is doing with the state’s refugee resettlement program and that the NGO is a “great partner to the state”.

After the GOP fortified Catholic Charities of Tennessee with the largest dump of money the non-profit has ever received, the rave reviews sound more like a justification for a questionable decision.

In November 2020, the state handed over $7.3 million dollars of taxpayer money to Catholic Charities to spread their infrastructure into ten new counties without any restrictions on also spreading their refugee resettlement activities.

Bottom line of the Watson-Williams bill is the knowing when illegal aliens arrive – that’s it.

SB2729/HB2711 sponsored by Republicans Sen. Dawn White and Rep. Dan Howell, the co-chairs of the misnamed Joint Study Committee on Refugees.

In direct contradistinction of quick steps taken in Florida with DeSantis’ emergency order to “ban the issuance or renewal of all state licenses to companies or NGOs that provide services to UACs” in his state, Tennessee legislators are actively creating a new category of state agency for UACs called the non-traditional child care agency (NCCA). As described by Rep. Howell, this initiative is intended to enable the state to better provide for the “safety and welfare” of the UACs because according to Howell, the “federal government says states have to”.

Howell was honest about the fact that UACs have no lawful immigration status, but lamented that his new child care license is “all that we can do” in the face of federal jurisdiction over immigration. Trying to soften the blow, committee chairman Andrew Farmer reminded everyone that the federal government has “exclusive jurisdiction even though we are a sovereign state”.

DeSantis clearly disagrees, because his administration followed up his emergency order with new rules that retains the bar on licenses for facilities housing UACs sent to Florida in the absence of a cooperative agreement between the state and the federal government.

Howell’s bill would limit the number of UACs housed in a dormitory style facility like the one in Chattanooga, limit the number of facilities across Tennessee and the facility owner would have to pay the state for each child. Importantly, Howell, the bill supporters and the Joint Study Committee members are leaving Bethany Christian Services’ (BCS) license untouched even though BCS, a federal contractor, testified that they provide transitional foster care services to UACs in Tennessee. In other words, they admitted that they facilitate illegal immigration in Tennessee.

Sen. White presented the Senate companion bill without ever mentioning that the new non-traditional child care agency was being created specifically for UACs.

The House and Senate bills are going to their respective Finance Committees; the House Finance Subcommittee passed it but placed it behind the budget.

Probably the most intelligent comment to come out of any committee on this bill was made by Democrat House member Mike Stewart. He made the point that if employers were thrown in jail for hiring “undocumented” workers, this could all come to a screeching halt. Stewart is right in mocking GOP concern about illegal alien kids given the GOP’s willingness to bend at the knee of NFIB and the TN Chamber who want to keep cheap labor flowing to the state as evidenced by the next bill on E-verify.

SB1780/HB1853 sponsored by Sen. Jon Lundberg and Rep. Clark Boyd. The bill was pretty much the amendment approved by the TN Chamber and the small business lobby NFIB, during the last legislative session when Rep. Griffey wanted to require all Tennessee employers regardless of the number of employees, to use E-verify (the Employment Eligibility Verification) program.

Unable to pass his bill, Griffey folded and accepted the meaningless 25 employee threshold, but the bill never advanced in the Senate that year.

The Chamber/NFIB 25 employee amendment now being sponsored as a bill by Rep. Boyd was amended in the Senate by Lundberg to raise the employee threshold to 35 or more employees. Lundberg was also forced (by a committee Democrat), to confirm that illegal immigrant workers can receive workers compensation albeit not at the same level as work authorized employees. Some make a credible argument that Tennessee law builds in an incentive to hire illegal immigrant workers.

After the House passed the 25 employee threshold bill, it backed down, re-voted and agreed to accept the Senate’s 35 employee threshold. Does the Tennessee GOP value legal workers? The concerns and devaluing of hard-working legal immigrants and U.S. citizens is secondary to GOP appeasement of the business community. Never mind their own conflicts of interest and their willingness to abet the destructive agenda of the left.

It is difficult to understand the GOP resistance to mandating use of E-Verify program for all businesses. E-Verify is a FREE federal database which checks the social security numbers of newly hired employees against Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security records to help ensure that the new employee is eligible to work in the U.S.

When Tennessee first passed its E-Verify law in 2011, businesses with 6 or more employees were required within one year to begin using it. In 2016, the General Assembly caved to special interest lobbyists and raised the employee threshold to 50 employees.

Consider that the highest number of UACs released into the U.S. are reported as boys ages 15 – 17+ except there are plenty of credible reports that the working age “boys” are actually adults lying about their age. Add to this factor, the reports documenting 67,000 illegal alien essential workers in Tennessee and the Metro Nashville government report of 31,000 illegal aliens living and working in Davidson County. Both reports are likely under estimating the numbers in light of the Biden open border policies.

SB2730/HB2712 sponsored by Sen. Dawn White and Rep. Dan Howell. This is another “now we’ll know after it happens” bill. This bill reflects particulars learned during the summer hearing mostly related to statutory limitations on the Department of Children’s Services as to how they issued the license to the facility in Chattanooga and then dealt with the license after discovery of criminal behavior by certain staff at the facility and the incident of a resident running away from the facility.

The “child” who left the facility was discovered to have somehow made it back to his country of origin.

While the bill allows under certain circumstances for revocation of a DCS license, most of the bill is more about filing reports. The bill does require a license applicant to disclose any agreement they may have with third parties to provide residential child care services. This does not mean nor does the bill provide that a license can be denied to an applicant who has a federal contract to provide services to UACs.

Neither of the Howell-White bills reflect any concern that UAC arrivals are part of a human smuggling operation. Rather, the bills work to accommodate the practice. Nor do the bills reflect any concern that U.S. HHS data from 2018 – 2019 shows that 79% of sponsors to whom UAC are released, were “without status” meaning that they were present in the U.S. illegally.

Bottom line in Tennessee on UAC arrivals is we will accommodate because as Howell stated, the “federal government says states have to”.

March 26, 2022

TN’s Dems Hate Jews & Repubs Join Them in Hating Parents

Not a shocker that NO Tennessee state House Democrats voted to support the bill against the antisemitic boycott of Israeli businesses with whom Tennessee does millions of dollars of trade. But Democrats were doing what they always do – walk in lockstep with their leaders in D.C. and supporting the Biden administration’s real push on Israel. And if there is any question about where the Democrats stand on Israel, both the Iran nuclear deal and the Biden blaming Israel for his policy on Ukraine, the veil is lifted on Biden’s long-known hatred of all things Jews and Israel/

But when it comes to parent rights in Tennessee, we are starting to see that Tennessee’s GOP, many of whom like to wave their allegedly conservative principles, sidled over to the Democrats’ overt disrespect for parents’ relationship with their own children. Never forget that it is Biden’s Justice Department that labelled parents concerned with their children’s education, “domestic terrorists“.

The Tennessee House vote for and against Israel

On Monday in Tennessee’s General Assembly, Rep. Ryan Williams presented his Israel anti-boycott bill on the House floor. Two Democrats abstained and the rest voted NO. All Republicans who were present voted to pass the bill. Earlier in the Senate, Democrat Heidi Campbell whose district includes a large swath of Jews, voted against the bill.

It’s no secret that the DNC platform is anti-Israel so it should be no surprise that the Biden administration is following it.

Biden’s ambassador to Israel, Thomas Nides, Obama’s former deputy secretary of state, has confirmed that he doesn’t believe Jews should live in Jerusalem, is against Jews living in Judea and Samaria an area of Israel he has refused to visit just like his refusal to view the tunnels used by Hamas terrorists to murder Israeli civilians. Nides insists on calling the Islamic terrorist “pay to slay” program as “martyr” payments which just happens to violate the U.S. Taylor Force law. Then there is the desire of the Biden administration to reopen the U.S. Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem.

On this last point, early last year, Sen. Bill Hagerty introduced a bill which passed the Senate, that would keep Israel’s capital city Jerusalem from being divided by the Biden administration’s push for a Palestinian consulate which has been vigorously opposed by Israel’s government. According to Hagerty, Biden’s plan, violates the U.S. “Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995”, which his bill upholds and which passed the Senate. Senate Republicans continue to fight Biden’s antagonistic Secretary of State Anthony Blinken who wants to reopen the Palestinian consulate in the western part of Jerusalem, deliberately infringing on Israeli sovereignty and deliberately attempting to redivide Israel’s capital.

Add to this that the U.S. State Department has announced a grant which will reward $1 million of taxpayer money for anti-Israel NGOs to report alleged human rights abuses by Israel. Forget China, Cuba, Russia, Iran, shari adherent countries, and Biden’s other favored Marxist friends.

Biden and those who speak for him or rather, work to excuse whatever comes out of his mouth, only serve to prove that his anti-Israel/anti-Jew animus is real. There simply is no way to justify his and the DNC’s alliance with aggressive Jew haters like Linda Sarsour (who btw, is also embraced by the Tennessee AMAC), and Al Sharpton.

Tennessee legislative subcommittee joins Democrats and refuses to recognize parental rights

On Tuesday, the House Health Subcommittee chaired by one of the worst legislators the GOP has to offer, in a show of collegial disrespect, refused to allow Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver to present her bill on parental rights to the subcommittee.

Rep. David Byrd (R-Waynesboro), offered a motion to hear the bill while not a single Republican would provide a “second” to allow Rep. Weaver to present her bill. Demonstrating the epitome of cancelling the voice of their legislator colleague and Tennessee parents, not a single other Republican spoke up. Of course, the lone Democrat on the subcommittee did what was expected of him and remained silent as well.

Proving once again his “worst GOP legislator” bona fides, subcommittee chairman Bob Ramsey ignored the fact that it is not against the rules for the chair to “second” the motion and allow the bill to be heard.

Except for Rep. Byrd, this offensive move by the subcommittee members is too obvious in its intent to be ignored. None of these cowards want to record a NO vote against parents and probably hoped that it would go unnoticed. That is how stupid they think Tennessee voters are.

Well, Rep. Weaver who is among the minority of clear-headed and conservatively principled serving legislators and she is not quietly going along with what she described as the “feckless men” (ie, careless and irresponsible) on the subcommittee.

As reported by the TNStar,, Weaver said that her bill “was the same in principle to one that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis passed in 2021.”

“Florida’s HB 241 included legislative findings that it is a fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing, education and care of the minor children and that important information relating to their minor child’s health, well-being and education while in the custody of the school district should not be withheld from the parent.”

Weaver’s bill is even more critical for Tennessee given that despite a law passed last year by the legislature, CRT is still being taught in Tennessee schools.

It’s no surprise that Bill Lee and his milquetoast administration made it known that they were opposed to the bill.

Any wonder conservative transplants to Tennessee are shocked when they discover that the conservative grassroots base is actually only reflected in a teeny-tiny minority in the General Assembly and entirely absent in the governor’s office?

One of the “feckless men” of the subcommittee Bob Ramsey, has a primary challenger. We don’t know Bryan Richey, but on paper he sounds good and the fact is, that parents in his district who care about their kids can’t possibly do worse than Bob Ramsey. If Ramsey manages to hide his long record of gross missteps and grosser voting record from his district and is sent back to Nashville, he should not be rewarded with chairing any subcommittee or committee; let Speaker Sexton know how you feel.

If conservatives in Tennessee want to take back the GOP, they had better start letting their representatives know what they think.

Messages of support to Rep. Weaver can be sent to rep.terri.lynn.weaver@capitol.tn.gov

Messages to Speaker Sexton can be sent to speaker.cameron.sexton@capitol.tn.gov

March 3, 2022

TN State GOP Curcio Calls Rep. Cepicky a “Show Horse” & Then Votes to Keep Pornography in Schools

Yesterday, the Tennessee General Assembly’s Criminal Justice Subcommittee continued its hearings about Rep. Cepicky’s bill, HB1944, that would keep pornographic and obscene reading materials out of Tennessee’s schools. Plenty of people showed up to speak for and against the bill.

The video is posted through the link here https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default.aspx?BillNumber=HB1944. Get comfortable, make a big bowl of popcorn and watch the show.

Prior to the show getting started, Cepicky explained the bill and how the bill avoids broad brush book banning and the explicit guardrails in the bill to avoid indiscriminate censorship and possible constitutional challenges. As Cepicky explained, the bill permits the review of books and materials in schools to determine if they are in violation of the state’s law on obscene materials provided to minors, here and here.

Everyone knows that groups like the ACLU and other Marxist driven organizations, will sue and claim that taking pornography out of schools violates students First Amendment free speech rights regardless of whether that claim is legitimate or not. In fact, the folks who spoke in opposition to the bill including a representative of school librarians and prize-winning authors of books for minors, waived the students’ rights flag for everyone to hear. These same speakers carefully avoided addressing the super explicit examples taken from Tennessee school materials, provided by the first set of panelists.

Probably one of the most impactful points made by one panelist, was that the books found in different county schools in Tennessee, would be considered contraband and disallowed for distribution in the state’s prisons.

To no great surprise, the subcommittee’s two Democrats voted against the bill.

But, prior to the vote, Republican Michael Curcio, who is not a lawyer, schooled the committee on why the bill was “facially unconstitutional”, referred to the bill sponsor as a “show horse” and then voted NO when the roll call was taken.

Curcio explained that a “show horse” is one that does “a lot of huffin’ and puffin’” as opposed to a “work horse” who actually gets something done.

GOP Rep. Michael Curcio – claims he’s against pornography and obscene materials in schools but votes with Democrats to keep it in schools.

Email Curcio and tell him how you feel about his NO vote –rep.michael.curcio@capitol.tn.gov

Two things to consider about Curcio’s vote. First, the week before, the Main Street book store owner in Curcio’s hometown of Dickson testified in opposition to the bill. Second, two subcommittee members who actually are lawyers voted for the bill. Even more surprising about these two lawyers is that one is the Majority Leader William Lamberth, and the other is Andrew Farmer who tends to lean RINO.

Moral of this legislative hearing? Cepicky the “work horse” is putting his all into getting the needed protection for Tennessee’s school children across the finish line while Curcio stands with Democrats and leftists who want to keep pornography and obscene materials in our schools.

January 12, 2022

States Can Combat Illegal Immigration If They Really Want To

When Tennessee’s elected tell you that they can’t do anything about illegal immigration, that it’s all up to the federal government to fix, or because the Chamber of Commerce and the NFIB small business lobbyist say it’s anti-business, or because it’s not really a problem in Tennessee because the governor and too many RINO state legislators refuse to acknowledge the growing problem in Tennessee, show them this:

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/01/11/ron-desantis-agenda-blacklist-companies-facilitating-illegal-immigration-to-florida/

DeSantis has been working hand-in-glove with his Republican state legislators to protect his state’s citizens and legal residents from the destructive immigration policies of the Biden administration.

DeSantis has already issued an emergency order to “ban the issuance or renewal of all state licenses to companies or NGOs that provide services to Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) in Florida.” Now he has sent six legislative proposals to the legislature to address the problem of businesses, NGOs, and any other concern whose operations facilitate illegal immigration.

DeSantis is sending a clear and unequivocal message, that these businesses and NGOs are not welcome in his state and he will do whatever is legally within his power and that of the other branches of his state government, to make life untenable for those helping spur illegal immigration.

Tennessee on the other hand, continues to bend over backwards to accommodate the Chamber and NFIB on any business related legislation practically forgetting that big businesses have been moving to Tennessee because of the business-centric benefits.

For example, Alliance Bernstein moved its headquarters from NYC because it is simply cheaper from any and all perspectives to operate in Nashville as compared to NYC. In addition, their employees could afford to live where they work. They and their woke politics were welcomed with Tennessee taxpayer money.

As to illegal immigration, Tennessee’s state legislators choose to side with the Chamber and NFIB and close their eyes to growing problem in the state. Even with lax workplace enforcement, GOP Rep. Mike Sparks couldn’t stop himself from whining about the fines placed on employers who hire illegal aliens in violation of state law.

And heaven forbid Tennessee actually pass an E-verify law that actually makes sense, assuming a bill that makes sense is actually filed. The E-verify process requires submission of certain documents which then are compared to U.S. government databases to determine “employment eligibility”, ie, that a person is legally authorized to work in the U.S. There are three categories of acceptable documents to establish identity for submission through the E-verify program. If a person cannot submit one of the documents from List A, then they must submit one document from each of List B & C.

List B includes submission of a drivers license but it must be backed up by a document from List C.

What this means is that Tennessee’s current statute and any bill that relies solely on a drivers license to determine employment eligibility, is meaningless given the numerous documented reports of fraud perpetrated in the issuance of driver licenses. And that’s to say nothing of the implications for voter fraud.

Tennessee legislators spent months and taxpayer money exploring the arrival of UACs to the state and Sen. Richard Briggs and Rep. Ryan Williams making excuses and minimizing the impact of NGO Bethany Christian Services whose Nashville director openly admitted to contracting with the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement to receive and provide transitional foster care to UACs extolling the Christian virtue of facilitating illegal immigration to Tennessee.

Catholic Charities of East Tennessee, also reputed to be assisting UAC arrivals to Tennessee, was asked to appear before the committee but simply didn’t show up and the committee just couldn’t be bothered to follow up.

At least two members of the Joint Study Committee, Sen. Richard Briggs and Sen. Bo Watson, after wasting taxpayer money on the study committee, conceded that addressing illegal immigration is a federal problem and they can’t really do anything about it at the state level. Worse still, Watson says we need to look to our federal legislators to fix the problem and Briggs says Tennessee is not in an illegal immigration crisis, so basically, we don’t have anything to be concerned about.

Both Watson and Briggs were cheerleading Mark Green’s UAC refugee bill which allows an illegal alien living in Tennessee to facilitate the smuggling of a child to the U.S. border without any penalty, and which would override the (unlikely) governor’s veto regarding UAC placements in Tennessee.

Tennessee not only has a growing illegal immigration problem strengthened immensely by the proliferation of well-funded NGOs protecting illegal aliens living and working in the state, so much so that they are holding public rallies protesting employers who take advantage of illegal alien workers because they are “undocumented.”

These are the employers being protected by bad policy pushers like the Chamber and NFIB and bad policy makers like Briggs, Watson to name a few.

They could not be more wrong on all counts. We’ve already had the lesson that when Republicans had complete control of the federal government, they did nothing to address the problem of illegal immigration. In fact, they worked against the most impactful, beneficial for Americans, immigration policies put forward by Trump. Why would we expect anything more in 2022 or 2024?

The DeSantis lesson is crystal clear – our Constitutional system of federalism equips states with power if they choose to use it and it is absolutely up to states to guard their own best interests. Unfortunately for Tennessee, the governor’s office and too many in the General Assembly don’t see it that way and perhaps even believe that a certain amount of illegal immigration (ie, cheap labor), is just fine for Tennessee.

December 27, 2021

Catholic Charities..Help for Refugees over Nashvillians.

Catholic Charities doesn’t care about Nashvillians in need, but they do care about refugees and illegals. That’s right, the same Catholic Charities that received $7.3 million dollars from the bloated TANF fund (Tennessee Assistance for Needy Families) is the same organization sitting on over $100,000 meant to be distributed to those victims of the Nashville Christmas day bombing in 2020.

From September 2021 through March of 2022, Catholic Charities will help resettle over 150 Afghanis in the city of Nashville, the same city where many Nashvillians and businesses were displaced by a terrorist and need help to rebuild.

In a recent tv interview between News Channel 4 and Ashley Bergeron, who lost her apartment and her art gallery, Bergeron states she needs help, and after one year of trying to make ends meet, she needs it now. Bergeron says she received a little over $3,200 that helped pay for things like her mortgage and utility bills, but those bills haven’t gone away. “Now that its been almost a year I’m now realizing okay wow, I’m going to need to ask for some more support,” said Bergeron.

Almost a year after the bombing, Ashley Bergeron is still feeling the impact

https://www.wsmv.com/news/investigations/one-year-later-christmas-day-bombing-survivors-still-struggle-financially-where-s-all-the-donated/article_746f9e02-63f7-11ec-ba25-aff5cb8f7697.html?block_id=994460

Why is it Nashvillians are not receiving the assistance they need? Judy Orr, the executive director of Catholic Charities says “What we try to do is take care of the most immediate needs. If someone were to come forward now with additional expenses all of those would be considered.” Considered? Seriously?

So what does CC bring to the table when refugees are involved? Afghans receive 30 to 90 days of assistance, case management and $1,225 per individual. Per individual. So for a family of lets say 4 that is $4900, $1700 over what Nashvillian Bergeron was given. But wait, the Afghan refugees, according to Kellye Branson, director of Refugee and Immigration Services for CC, will also receive housing complete with furnishings, Social Security cards, enrolling their kids in school , and following up on any medical needs or mental health needs they might have. Gee..did those suffering from the Nashville 2020 Christmas day bombing get that help and service?

The bottom line is $950,000 was forked over to The United Way and The Community Foundation in Nashville, in addition to a $2 million grant. The question begs to be asked where is the money for those Nashvillians? Perhaps it is time for donations to be given elsewhere rather than large wealthy non profits. Catholic Charities may imply they are religious, and a charity, however it looks more like refugees and illegals are more profitable for them rather than those in their own backyard.