Still Not Ready to Waiver

Anybody that has turned on the news this week or logged onto their social media account is aware that Carson-Newman University has been in the news for receiving a waiver for Title IX. For those that are not up on the particulars of Title IX, it addresses discrimination on the basis of sex, including those that are pregnant or unwed parents. Carson-Newman University requested and was granted the waiver based on religious convictions. I have thought a lot about this issue this week and talked to many people, some of them alumni of Carson-Newman, and the opinions run the gambit from full and unconditional support to disbelief and disgust-not all that surprising considering that this issue touched the very core of values.

As for me, I believe that any private institution has the right to follow their beliefs and convictions, as long as they are not outside the law. Please do not confuses that with my concurring with their convictions. Just as I find the University of Tennessee Office of Diversity and Inclusion to be two bricks shy of a full load when it comes to holidays and pronouns, I find Carson-Newman to be the flip side of the same coin. Both are extreme reactions, indeed over reactions, to issues that have become just another thread in our ever changing culture. Certainly, the choice to attend a college or university that wears its religious leanings and beliefs front and center is a personal one and the government has no place in the policy making of a private institution. But what if that institution receives Tennessee tax dollars? Is that a game changer and should it be? Or, as some contend, does it simply not matter?

Tennessee Promise is a program that uses Tennessee tax dollars for final dollar scholarships to students at approved schools. It was designed with the intent of improving employment opportunities through education and is a part of a larger Drive 55 program that was rolled out by Governor Haslam and supported by the majority of the Tennessee Legislature. Most of the schools on the approved list for Tennessee Promise are two year community colleges. However, a small list of private colleges and universities began offering two year programs and were given the stamp of approval from the state to be a Tennessee Promise school. Carson-Newman University was one of those schools and when they made the bid to become a Tennessee Promise approved school, they were still adhering to the policies outlined in Title IX. Now the question that should be on every policy maker’s mind is should Carson-Newman’s decision to change the playing field impact their status as a Tennessee Promise approved school. I have heard the argument that Tennessee Promise money follows the student and the student should be able to decide where they attend school. And that would be fine if every school were eligible to receive Tennessee Promise money but they are not. Only schools that meet state guidelines are on the approval list and the State of Tennessee adheres to Title IX. The state did not change its stance, Carson-Newman made the decision to change theirs.

I have listened intently to various opinions and have a great deal of respect for many of those that I have queried, even if we disagree. But, I just cannot be convinced that a private institution that makes a decision that is contrary to the intent of the Tennessee Promise, which is to provide for those that are at the highest risk of poor employment choices due to lack of education, is the ideal Tennessee Promise school. Who is more at risk than those that the wavier sets aside, unwed mothers, single parents and those in the LGBT community? In previous editorials I have made it clear that I am not really a proponent of the Tennessee Promise. Students should have a buy in to their own education and a hand out often does not constitute a hand up. There is something to be said for working toward a goal but that is neither here nor there. The Tennessee Promise exists and it is my guess, after playing phone tag with the State of Tennessee for much of Friday, that this was not an issue that anyone ever expected to come up with the Tennessee Promise. But, here it is. What happens to those unwed mothers that have already committed to Carson-Newman’s Tennessee Promise program of two year study. Can you grandfather in a moral choice that is against the policy of your school? And, what of all of those unwed mothers, pregnant single women and LGBT tax payers, that help pay the tab for the Tennessee Promise

but are unwelcome in a State of Tennessee approved Tennessee Promise school? Don’t even bother to apply, you aren’t welcome here but please leave your tax dollars in the collection plate on the way out the door. Believe what you want, your values are your own. But tax dollars belong to every tax payer and that should be the dividing line.