As the Tennessee General Assembly prepares to gavel back into session next week, State Representative Jody Barrett appeared on Tuesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to reflect on the lessons learned during his first term in the Tennessee General Assembly and discuss his key legislative matters including red lag laws and school choice reform.
TRANSCRIPT
Michael Patrick Leahy: It’s 11:33 a.m. We are broadcasting live from our studios in downtown Nashville.
We are delighted to welcome to our newsmaker line right now State Representative Jody Barrett who represents the 69th District of the Tennessee House of Representatives – Hickman, Lewis, and Dixon counties.
Good morning, Jody.
Jody Barrett: Hello, sir. How are you today?
Michael Patrick Leahy: Well, I’m curious what you think 2024 has in store for the Tennessee General Assembly.
Jody Barrett: Oh, gosh, if I knew that after last year and how crazy and sideways things got, if I knew I could predict exactly what was going to happen in ’24 I could probably do pretty well for the rest of this session.
I would say that, you know, we’re going to see maybe a little bit of the same with our friends on the other side of the aisle and some more theatrics and whatnot, but hopefully, at the end of the day, we get a lot of good things done for the people of Tennessee.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Now, last year was your first term? And the first session of the Tennessee General Assembly. It was eventful, shall we say.
Jody Barrett: Nothing short of entertaining, that’s for sure.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Yeah. And so now. This will be your second session of the, well, second full session of the Tennessee General Assembly.
What did you learn in your first session there that might be helpful to you in this next session?
Jody Barrett: Well, I think the biggest thing that a first-time freshman legislator can do in the first year is really spend that time trying to build relationships and get a lay of the land.
It’s kind of hard to come in and take over the world and change everything in the first year, but you’ve got to learn who your partners are that you can work with, who the people are that you can trust – the people that you know, we’re going to tell you the truth and shoot you straight, and that’s what I will take into this second session, is that information and knowledge and hopefully we’ll make things a little bit more efficient for me as I try to push some of my legislation through.
Michael Patrick Leahy: So you are an attorney. You’re a graduate of Ole Miss Law School, right, you and John Grisham.
Jody Barrett: Yes.
Michael Patrick Leahy: And if, by the way, congratulations. Your alma mater, your law school alma mater, stomped Penn State in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. What was it, 38-25, something like that?
Jody Barrett: Well, you know, I’d like to tell all our Alabama fans out there that at least Ole Miss was able to handle a Big Ten team.
Michael Patrick Leahy: You know, now that’s funny. Yeah, last night, of course, in overtime – well, Alabama was leading late in the fourth quarter against Michigan in the national semifinal 20 to 13, but Michigan came back, tied it up, and then in overtime scored a touchdown. Alabama had a fourth and three at the three-yard line. And for some reason, they decided that they thought a quarterback draw would be the way to go, and it didn’t go anywhere, and Michigan won.
Jody Barrett: Fun game to watch, and great athletes on both sides. So, it should be a great national championship coming up. Yeah, we don’t have any, there’s nobody in the SEC there, right? Or even future SEC.
Michael Patrick Leahy: No, I mean, I thought we were gonna make, maybe be able to at least claim Texas as an SEC surrogate. But even they weren’t able to get through. Well, they were down 37-31. They had the ball, what, on the 12-yard line with 15 seconds left and couldn’t put it over and couldn’t score. It was very dramatic.
So it’s Michigan versus Washington – no SEC teams for the first time in, what, a decade or so?
Jody Barrett: I know, much to our chagrin, a couple of blue states going at it in the national championship.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Well, we’ll see. It’ll be, it should be entertaining.
Meanwhile, you mentioned earlier, State Representative Barrett, that you have your own personal legislative agenda. Let’s talk about that first, then we’ll get to the governor’s agenda.
What’s on your agenda?
Jody Barrett: Well, you know, I’ve got a couple of big things I think that are going to get quite a bit of attention. We just got through dealing with a special session looking at red flag laws, and I suspect that that’s still going to be a topic of discussion moving forward – although I know the governor is not pushing that anymore, at least in this session.
I’m sure some of the Democrats are going to continue to file those bills.
I have a bill that is very similar to Oklahoma’s law that basically preempts that part of the law at the state level and prohibits any municipalities or subdivisions of the state from adopting their own ordinance of any type relating to red flags or ERPOs.
Michael Patrick Leahy: When you say ERPO, why don’t you explain what an ERPO is?
Jody Barrett: An “extreme risk protection order,” sorry.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Well, you’re the attorney, right? So you’re familiar with this.
Why don’t you explain an extreme risk protection order?
Jody Barrett: An “extreme risk protection order” is a mechanism in the law where law enforcement can go in and determine that someone is a risk to society or the public around them, or maybe even themselves and go in and use that process to get an order from a judge to remove that person’s rights, whether it’s the right to bear arms or other issues.
And so the idea behind my bill is to prohibit or prevent a situation where some of our more progressive cities try to take the matter into their own hands because they’re not happy with the legislature not acting in a manner that they see fit in creating multiple different types of laws across the state that make it very confusing and difficult for citizens of the State of Tennessee to understand what the law is when they cross the county line or a city limit sign. And so it allows the state to continue to work on these issues without, again, creating a situation where law-abiding citizens are caught in a, almost like a speed trap. We don’t need that across the State of Tennessee.
Michael Patrick Leahy: What are the prospects for that bill, in your view?
Jody Barrett: Well, I think there’s obviously, we didn’t have any support for red flag laws during the special session. And so I think there’s certainly a healthy number of people that are skeptical about these types of laws. And I think it’s just good common-sense legislation that the state preempts this area of the law so that we make sure that it’s consistent from Bristol to Memphis, that everybody can expect to be treated the same way.
Michael Patrick Leahy: Well, that’s a good idea.
Let’s talk now about the governor’s agenda. He’s got one big bill that he wants to get passed. It’s the Education Freedom Scholarship Act, which would by the second year of its implementation, make education savings accounts or scholarships of $7,000 or so available to every Tennessee family. What’s your take on that bill?
Jody Barrett: I mean, I haven’t seen the language yet. So that’s the first caveat as a lawyer. I’m always gonna put a caveat in there. So, until I see the language, it’s hard for me to talk about it in detail. I can speak in generalities based on statements that the governor’s made and what his intentions are.
You know, I understand that the intent is to open this application process up to about 20,000 students in the first year, but eventually to make this available across the state to all students, regardless of any type of limitation for a need or otherwise. And so, you know, my first concern is – as a conservative – is the fiscal impact on the budget and where the money is going to come from.
And so I’m patiently but anxiously awaiting some details to see the language to find out what the proposal is for how much this is going to cost and where the revenue is going to come from to cover it.
Michael Patrick Leahy: What we’re hearing is that this bill will pass easily in the State Senate may have some difficulties in the House. Of course, the Senate has 33 members, the House has 99.
The other argument that we’re hearing among Republicans in the State House, particularly those in rural areas, is that many of the local school systems – teachers, administrators, etc. – are going to oppose this bill because they think it might hurt their local schools.
Now, Hickman, Lewis, Dixon, those are primarily rural counties, aren’t they?
Jody Barrett: They are, particularly Hickman and Lewis County. There are no private schools in those two counties. So that’s one of the concerns that I have. We create this program for students across the state to give them options for where to go to school. But if those options don’t exist in the county in which they live, I’m not sure that it’s going to have the impact that is intended.
Michael Patrick Leahy: When you talk to teachers and administrators who work for Hickman County schools, Lewis County schools, Dixon County schools, what do they say about the governor’s bill?
Jody Barrett: Well, I think there’s, certainly, a number of folks that are concerned with redirecting public money to private schools. Certainly, there’s concern about private schools not being, maybe not playing on the same playing field as the public schools when it relates to testing and regulations and other mandates that the public schools have that private schools don’t have to comply with.
And so, certainly, the biggest community that I hear from with concerns is the special education community and folks that have students with special needs that, you know, the public school system has to accept and provide an educational opportunity to. The private schools do not. And so there’s just a lot of questions for how this is going to affect and be fair for all students out there.
Michael Patrick Leahy: What do you think the governor could add to this proposal that would make it more amenable to rural counties and people who live in rural counties like Hickman and Lewis County?
Jody Barrett: Well, look, when you start talking about educational freedom, that means something different in the urban areas than it does in the rural areas. I think one of the things that we could look at and talk about is open zoning, removing the restrictions for children to go to schools only in an area that they’re zoned for, or maybe even in a district that they live in.
So, for instance, Hickman County and Dixon County, there’s a population base that’s on that border between those two counties that I would say that there’s probably a desire for some families to be able to send their kids to school in Dixon County, or maybe over in the Williamson County that neighbors Hickman County on the east, send their kids to Fairview or Dixon instead of Hickman County schools. And I think that situation is going to be similar in a lot of rural areas around the state.
And if we want to really open up opportunities and choices for students and families in those areas where there may not necessarily be a private school or a desirable private school that they want to go to, but there’s a public school option that would be better for them.
I think that’s something that we could do that doesn’t cost the state anything.
Michael Patrick Leahy: State Representative Jody Barrett from the 69th District, Hickman, Lewis, Dixon counties.
Thank you for joining us.
Jody Barrett: Congratulations on your new gig and good luck in the new year.
That’s State Representative Jody Barrett.
More when we get back.
This is The Tennessee Star Report. I’m Michael Patrick Leahy.
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