Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. | (Photo: Facebook)
Students and faculty at Watkins College of Art in Nashville are suing to stop the school from being absorbed by the nearby Christian nondenominational Belmont University.
On March 10, two students who are members of the LGBT community and one instructor filed legal actions in Davidson County Chancery Court to stop Belmont’s acquisition of the secular, four-year art college, which has faced declining enrollment and financial uncertainty in recent years.
The merger drew concern from community members and a legislator who accused the Watkins’ board of trustees of acting in secrecy to complete the deal with Belmont without government oversight or the public being informed.
In the dwindling hours of this year s legislative session, Tennessee lawmakers reached consensus on a deal to overhaul the state s unemployment benefit system.
The bill, which cleared the Senate 26-7 and the House 71-19 on Wednesday afternoon, caps the maximum payout period at as low as 12 weeks the lowest in the nation. It also would boost the weekly benefits for all eligible Tennesseans by as much as $50.
The House originally proposed a $25 increase, but ultimately matched the Senate proposal, which was approved by lawmakers Wednesday. The bill will now head to Gov. Bill Lee s desk for his signature.
The bill would tie the maximum payout period to the state s unemployment rate. The benefits would be extended as the rate rises and eventually would be capped at 20 weeks if the rate balloons beyond 9%.
May 5, 2021
Tennessee teachers will be restricted from discussing systemic racism with their students or lose state funding if legislation approved Wednesday becomes law.
Subscribe
The Senate voted 25-7 for the ban one day after the House easily passed the bill along partisan lines in Tennessee s GOP-controlled legislature, following several days of fiery debate.
A spokeswoman for Republican Gov. Bill Lee did not immediately respond when asked if he would sign the bill into law.
Subscribe
Tennessee becomes the latest state on the verge of limiting the depth of classroom discussions about inequality and concepts such as white privilege as part of a conservative backlash to America s reckoning over racism.
Tennessee Legislature Bans Critical Race Theory in Public Schools
The Tennessee Legislature approved a measure that bans the Marxist-inspired critical race theory from being taught in the state’s public and charter schools.
The legislation prohibits teaching students that any race or sex is superior to any other or that an individual is “inherently privileged, racist, sexist, or oppressive” due to their race or sex. It also forbids teachers from instructing students that the United States is inherently sexist or racist, and it also bans teaching that the U.S. government should be violently overthrown.
Generally, critical race theory redefines U.S. history by claiming that the nation was built through the struggle between “oppressors,” typically white people, and the “oppressed,” or various minorities similarly to Marxism’s reduction of human history to a struggle between the “bourgeoisie” and the “proletariat.”