NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Three polarizing topics have dominated debate in the Tennessee legislature: guns, universal school vouchers and abortion.
The Republican supermajority has the votes to pass bills related to restricting abortion care and to let educators bring concealed guns into schools, according to Mark O'Gorman, a Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies at Maryville College.
"What you're probably seeing is probably democracy in its most raw form — the Tennessee legislature is trying to pass some fairly controversial bills," O'Gorman said. "I know there's a number of citizens in the state who have very strong opinions on it and more than a few with opinions against the legislators. So, I think that's what you're seeing — people in the gallery booing are protesting and probably police officers having to escort the guests out of the gallery of the state House."
The Senate recently passed a bill that would make it a misdemeanor for an adult to help a minor travel to another state for an abortion, without written permission from their legal guardian.
Tennessee has been historically aggressive against access to abortion care, O'Gorman said. It was one of the first states that passed a "trigger law" — set up to immediately go into effect and restrict abortion care access once the Roe vs. Wade decision was overturned by the Supreme Court.
"I did vote for the bill, there was a very persuasive argument that if a child is going to have an abortion, that the parents need to know about," said Senator Richard Briggs (R- Knoxville). "It does not mean necessarily that the parents have to accompany the child out of state, but at least the parents have to give written permission or whoever the legal guardian is."
This bill must match the House version and pass the House before it can become law and O'Gorman said there's one lingering question — who will police it?
"Candidly, how are you going to be able to keep track of minors who are going to go across state lines?" he said. "I don't think we're going to be getting to a place where we're going to have toll booths in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas state lines, saying, 'What are you traveling for?' We just can't do that."
Tennessee is in the midst of three different proposals regarding universal school vouchers. They are effectively scholarships using public money to subsidize the cost of attending non-public schools, such as private schools and faith-based schools. On Wednesday, the Senate deferred the bill to next week.
Over the last year, Governor Bill Lee expressed vocal support for using public dollars to pay for private school expenses and proposed his own voucher plan. However, two other versions of the plan are going through the legislature.
The House, Senate and Governor Bill Lee need to compromise on a single proposal before any program of its kind can go into effect.
"There's a Senate proposal, there is a House proposal, and then there's the governor's proposal — and they literally are a mile apart," Briggs said. "I'm not certain that they're ever going to reconcile that. And I'm not certain that we're even going to have a vote on it this year. Until I get some idea of what a final bill is, I don't know if there's anything that I would vote for."
Supporters of the bill said it is meant to improve school choice in areas across the state. However, critics said the program effectively defunds public schools and may not cover the full cost of attending non-public schools.
"Literally a private or parochial school might be a place where they might be able to take 25 more students, but if a voucher program allows an expansion of 200 more students to schools, suddenly the burden now is on the private and parochial schools of, can they do this?" O'Gorman said. "Obviously, charter schools inside the public school system is an option, but you're going to be seeing some real concerns in terms of just. what were the funding shifts from one to the other?"
A bill that would allow 18-year-olds to get a handgun carry permit passed several House and Senate committees. Tennessee law currently requires applicants for permits to be at least 21 years old.
The same bill would also allow people to openly carry long rifles such as AR-15s, but still needs a full vote from both the House and the Senate.
Second Amendment rights and the right to bear arms are usually thought of in terms of a handgun, O'Gorman said. But now, legislation might expand that to carrying long rifles, including hunting rifles and AR-15-styled weapons.
"What's going on there is the fact that if we're seeing this kind of expansive carrying, it's going to be, you're gonna see people on the street really reacting in very different ways," O'Gorman said. "Some people shrugging their shoulders saying, 'Okay.' Other people going, 'That's too much.' And I think that might be where you see citizens having very strong opinions one way or the other. But if we get to a place where it's open carry for assault weapons, that'll be very interesting. And Tennessee will be on the shortlist of folks expanding those kinds of laws."