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The mission of the Child and Family Policy Center is to develop, promote and implement public policy and community strategies that strengthen children and families through research, advocacy and education. |
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Protecting Children from Misguided Intentions by James Moore
This January, after deciding to take some time off of my undergraduate education, I traded the classrooms of the University of Chicago for the halls of the Tennessee State Legislature. By working as a legislative intern for the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth (TCCY) I was able to get a first hand look at the state's political process. Coming in, I had assumed that most of TCCY's legislative energy would be spent promoting bills and programs that it supported. However, often the commission would find itself amending and attempting to defeat legislation that is potentially harmful to the interest of children. At first this seemed so strange to me. Who would draft legislation harmful for children? However, I soon learned that it was not so much an issue of malicious intent, but an issue of legislators with other priorities or whose bills had consequences they were not necessarily aware of. At the beginning of the legislative session, bills flooded in from almost all the legislators. TCCY took a good look at every bill that would potentially affect children and started to flag the ones on which they thought a position should be taken. A commission meeting is then held so that the members can vote on which bills TCCY will support or oppose. Though there were several bills the commission voted to support, there were just as many if not more that the commission decided to oppose. It was then that I started to realize that the advocacy role of TCCY involves just as much negotiation and elimination of bad ideas as it involves promotion of good ideas. One of the bills that the TCCY opposed was a bill intended to suppress gang fighting in schools. “How could they oppose this?” I wondered to myself as soon as I read the bill summary. However, after taking a closer look at the bill, it became apparent that if passed, the bill would be detrimental to the welfare of children. It would have expelled any children involved in a “gang fight” for one year. The bill's definitions were so vague, it would have put kids in a number of non-gang related situations at risk for expulsion. Also, the idea of expelling the child for one year would offer no constructive discipline. It would only place the child further behind and decrease their chances of succeeding at life. TCCY recognized this and sought to work with the sponsor on his bill. Both Steve Petty and Linda O'Neal talked with the sponsor several times about ways that he could amend his bill. Making sure to emphasize that both TCCY and the sponsor wanted the same thing (less gang fighting in schools), they tried to help the sponsor understand why his bill might hurt children. However, the sponsor did not end up amending his bill to the full satisfaction of the commission, insisting that some parts of the bill remain. When amending the bill did not achieve the desired outcome, the TCCY started to work with members in the subcommittees and committees that would be discussing the bill. The sponsor ended up having to take the bill off notice because he did not have enough support to pass it through committee. Unlike the populations of many advocacy groups, children cannot participate in the political process. Therefore it is of critical importance to have a group operating in the political process, such as TCCY, who can speak for the children. Many legislators think they know what is best for children, but they sometimes arrive at their conclusions with partial information. I am proud that I was able to work with a group that provides well researched information and protects the welfare of children in Tennessee .
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