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A Tennessee lawmaker has relented and agreed to drop his bill linking academic performance to the family's welfare benefits after an 8-year-old girl shamed him by following him around the state Capitol.

On his way to vote on Thursday, state Sen. Stacey Campfield (R) was confronted by 8-year-old homeschooler Aamira Fetuga, who presented him with a petition signed by people opposing his welfare bill, according to the Tennessean. Nearby, a choir of about 60 activists sang “Jesus Loves the Little Children.”

"You are so weak, to not listen to a child," a parent said as Campfield walked away with the girl following.

"Why do you want to cut benefits for people?" 8-year-old Fetuga asked after she caught up with him on a Capitol escalator.

"Well, I wouldn't as long as the parent shows up to school and goes to two parent-teacher conferences and they're exempt," the state Senator explained.

The confrontation continued during what appeared to be long, uncomfortable walk to the Senate floor for Campfield.

"Using children as props is shameful," he grumbled at one point.

But the protest tactics may have worked because Campfield decided to withdraw the bill before Thursday's vote after several other former supporters began to express doubts.

"You can say that withholding the money from the parents doesn’t harm the child, but you’re fooling yourself," Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris (R) pointed out.

Under Campfield's bill, families could have lost up to 30 percent of welfare benefits from the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program if a child did not attend school regularly and make "satisfactory academic progress."

Campfield, however, said he was not giving up on the idea. He asked the state Senate to further study the bill, giving him the opportunity to bring it back up next year.

"To me, it’s not a dead issue at all," he told reporters. “This may be a slight detour, but honestly I think this could hopefully make it even better.”

As for the protests, Campfield remarked, "It is what it is."

“There’s always going to be detractors.”

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Melissa Harris-Perry let the lawmakers in Tennessee know what she thought of the bill they introduced, which is advancing this week, that would tie welfare benefits to children's grades:

Two Tennessee lawmakers introduced legislation that would tie welfare assistance under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to the educational performance of students who benefit from it, and the legislation was approved by committees in both the state House and Senate last week.

Under the legislation brought by two Republicans, a student who doesn’t not make “satisfactory progress” in school would cost his or her family up to 30 percent of its welfare assistance, the Knoxville News and Sentinel reported: [...]

When Campfield introduced the legislation in January, he said parents have “gotten away with doing absolutely nothing to help their children” in school. “That’s child abuse to me,” he added. Tennessee already ties welfare to education by mandating a 20 percent cut in benefits if students do not meet attendance standards, but this change would place the burden of maintaining benefits squarely on children, who would face costing their family much-needed assistance if they don’t keep up in school.

Here's more from Harris-Perry's blog: Tying welfare benefits to school grades teaches the wrong lesson:

Continue reading »

It seems this wingnut from Tennessee isn't done embarrassing his state yet: ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Sponsor Compares Homosexuality To Injecting Heroin:

Tennessee state Sen. Stacey Campfield (R) is making the press rounds to stump for the new and worsened version of his odious “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which prohibits teachers in grades K-8 from acknowledging the existence of homosexuality and also requires school officials to out gay students to their families. He has already made it clear he believes homosexuality itself is dangerous, and in an interview with TMZ, he doubled down on that absurd belief. After explaining the AIDS epidemic in Africa by claiming that sodomy was more common there among heterosexuals, Campfield went on to compare being gay to using heroin:

TMZ: If they’re going to engage in homosexual acts anyway, why not teach them how to protect themselves from [HIV]?

CAMPFIELD: You know, you could say the same thing about kids who are shooting heroin. We need to show them the best ways to shoot up. No, we don’t. Why do we have to hypersexualize little children? Why can’t we just let little kids be little kids for a while? Why do we have to have little kids be…?

TMZ: Do you believe in sex education period?

CAMPFIELD: …If you can show me where it works, great.

[...] Sex education actually works when a comprehensive safe sex curriculum is taught, and fails in states that only teach abstinence. Southern states like Mississippi, which has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the country, are starting to realize this. It’s doubtful, however, that Campfield would be interested in such facts. Read on...

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It looks like "compassionate conservatism" is alive and well in Tennessee: Stacey Campfield, Tennessee GOP Lawmaker, Wants To Tie Welfare Benefits To Children's Grades :

Tennessee state Rep. Stacey Campfield (R) introduced a bill this week seeking to make welfare benefits contingent upon the grades of a would-be recipient's children.

Campfield's legislation, filed Thursday, would "require the reduction of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) payments for parents or caretakers of TANF recipients whose children fail to maintain satisfactory progress in school." TANF is more commonly referred to as welfare.

Under Campfield's bill, welfare recipients would face a loss of benefits if their children showed poor academic performance. It's unclear how these factors would be tied to one another, or how the children's performance would be assessed.

In a blog addressing his proposal, Campfield calls his bill a measure to "break the cycle of poverty." According to Campfield, education is a "three legged stool" comprised of schools, teachers and parents. He claims the state has adequately held the first two legs of the school accountable, but argues that it should apply more pressure on the third.

"The third leg of the stool (probably the most important leg) is the parents," Campfield writes. "We have done little to hold them accountable for their child's performance. What my bill would do is put some responsibility on parents for their child's performance."

This wingnut has been making a name for himself for quite some time now. You can read more about him at the links below:

The company you keep

Rep. Campfield (R) Linked to Racism

Tennessee State Senator Falsely Claims HIV Came From The Gay Community, Cites Advice Column From 1988 As Evidence

Campfield calls for drug testing for taxpayer-funded benefits

So what do you do if you see a notorious bigot (and state senator) come into your bistro for Sunday brunch? If you've got the moxy of Martha Boggs you tell him to take a hike, that his business just isn't welcome at your restaurant.

via Towle Road:

Knoxville, Tennessee restaurant Bistro at the Bijou is receiving boatloads of support on Facebook after reports began surfacing that it refused service to state Senator Stacey Campfield out and asked him to leave.

Campfield is also getting blowback from local news outlets in Tennessee over his remarks.

Campfield, who has been in the news again recently because he's still trying to push his heinous homophobic "don't say gay" bill in Tennessee, gave an interview last week to Michelangelo Signorile in which he asserted that bullying of gay kids "is a lark", compared homosexuality to sex with animals, asserted that homosexuality is "glorified" in the media, and that it's "virtually impossible" for heterosexuals to contract AIDS.

And more at the Knoxville News Sentinel where many in the community are applauding Boggs' actions.

Martha Boggs, owner of the Bistro at the Bijou, says she ordered state Sen. Stacey Campfield out of her Gay Street restaurant and banned him from brunch Sunday in disgust over his recent remarks about gays and the origin of the AIDS virus.

"When I saw him at the front door, I told him to leave," Boggs said Monday. "It's just my way to show support for the gay community and stand up to somebody I think is a bully. He's really gone from being stupid to dangerous. I think he needs to know what it feels like to be discriminated against."

Campfield responded with a blog post comparing himself to Jesus Christ and to the civil-rights demonstrators of the 1960s.