skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

TN Senator Withdraws Bill To Link Welfare and School Grades

play audio
Play

Thursday, April 11, 2013   

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Legislation that would link a family's welfare payments to its children's grades in school was withdrawn from the Tennessee Senate today by it's author.

Under the proposal, if a child failed to maintain satisfactory progress, the parents would have their payments reduced by 30 percent.

Kathy Chambers, director of Clergy for Justice, said it's a bad plan to shift the responsibility onto children.

"Basically, to carry the weight of their families on their shoulders," she said. "I received an email from a friend of mine last night, a teacher in Tennessee. She wrote, 'I've had two students come and ask me about their grades. One of these students told me the reason they were asking is because her parents told her if she had Fs to be ready for a beating, because they weren't going to lose out on their money.' "

The bill's author, state Sen. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, said those who receive the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits need to be accountable when it comes to their children's education. He said the legislation includes several options on how affected families could avoid the reduction, including having parents enroll their child in summer school or by attending parenting classes.

"What I'm doing is, I've put a burden on parents whose children are failing," Campfield said, "and I've said, 'If your child is failing all their classes to the point that they're not going to advance to the next grade, if you want our government benefits, we're going to put a requirement on you.' "

Chambers calls the bill immoral and unjust because it only targets the poorest children in Tennessee.

"When Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me,' he didn't give stipulations," she said. "He didn't say 'only if you knew how to read or write.' And stipulations shouldn't be given and certainly not placing the weight again on those little shoulders. That's just too much for them to bear."

Under the bill, a single mother with two children would see her payment reduced from $185 a month to less than $130 if her children didn't have a satisfactory performance at school.

Details on the bill, SB 132, are online at wapp.capitol.tn.gov.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021