In a prebuttal to Gov. Bill Lee’s State of the State address on Monday, Tennessee Democrats excoriated the governor’s proposed voucher expansion plan as a “scam” designed to defund public schools to “subsidize private school tuition for wealthy families.”
Senate Democratic Caucus Chair London Lamar, D-Memphis, cited a favorite line of Lee’s — “Tennessee is leading the nation” — but said Republican policies in Tennessee are “leaving so many families behind” and instead leading the nation in “violent crime, personal bankruptcies and maternal deaths.”
“They’ve wasted years of our time and tax dollars in pursuit of a trickle-down agenda that serves billionaires and big corporations while literally undermining our personal prosperity, our safety and our freedom, but it doesn’t have to be this way,” Lamar said. “It’s time to end this race to the bottom and start focusing on an agenda that actually prioritizes freedom for working families.”
Democrats called for permanent end to Tennessee’s grocery tax, expansion of paid family leave and reduction in prescription drug costs.