TULLAHOMA (AP) — Republican Gov. Bill Haslam is prepared to push through his education proposals even if they don't get support from Democratic lawmakers.
Speaking after a tour of storm damage near Tullahoma on Wednesday evening, Haslam said his proposals on teacher tenure and charter schools are important enough to enact even if they don't gain any bipartisan support.
"Any time you have a bill you'd like to get as many folks voting for it to build that consensus as you can," Haslam said. "But in the end, the main thing that's important to us is to get it passed."
Haslam's bill to extend by two years the probationary period before teachers can get tenure — and to create a mechanism for teachers to lose that status if they perform poorly — was advanced to a full Senate vote earlier Wednesday on a 6-3 vote by the Senate Education Committee. Each of the panel's Democrats voted against the measure.
Sen. Eric Stewart, D-Belvidere, said Haslam's proposals are losing support from Democrats because of other Republicans' efforts to strip teachers' collective bargaining rights with local school districts. Haslam has taken a neutral stance on that proposal, but Stewart said the measure has cast doubt on all GOP education bills.
"Some folks on his side of the aisle jumped out maybe a little too quick, and muddied the waters for him," Stewart said after joining Haslam on the tour of the destroyed homes in his district. "Unfortunately the tone has been taken — not by the governor, but other members of the Republican party — to push teachers away."
Haslam acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press that his agenda could be influenced by bills proposed by fellow Republicans.
"Nothing happens in a vacuum," he said. "And it's part of the work we have to do to make certain that things that we think are really important get done, so we're going to keep focusing on those things."
The governor said he "there's still a long way to go" on the collective bargaining measure.
Stewart acknowledged that nothing prevents Republicans, who have wide majorities in both chambers of the Legislature, to pass any education measure they want without Democratic votes.
"They can, absolutely," he said. "But that's why we have elections every couple years."
Republican Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey of Blountville said he was not surprised to see the party-line vote on Haslam's tenure bill, citing the traditionally close relationship between Democrats and the state's largest teacher's union, the Tennessee Education Association.
"It seems to me that the Democrats are bought and paid for by the unions, and they fight even the most commonsense reforms in education," he said.