US EditionTennessee Senate passes bill that requires teaching 'success sequence' in family life classes
- The Tennessee Senate passed legislation on Thursday with a 25-5 vote, requiring public schools to teach a specific sequence of life events: high school, job or higher education, marriage, and then children.
- This proposal, sponsored by Republican Sen. Janice Bowling, is part of a broader trend of similar bills advancing in Republican-dominated legislatures across several states, including Kentucky, Mississippi, and Utah, with advocacy groups like the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation pushing for the policy change.
- The Tennessee proposal mandates a family life curriculum in K-12 schools that includes age-appropriate teaching about the positive personal and societal outcomes of following the specified life sequence, while allowing parents to opt their children out of the family planning portion.
- Republican proponents argue that following the 'success sequence' could help lift people out of poverty, while Democratic opponents, like Sen. London Lamar, raised concerns that the instruction could indoctrinate students, make those with single parents feel inadequate, and oversimplify the factors contributing to poverty, with Lamar stating, "I think this bill is misguided, it's very offensive, and I'm living proof that this bill has no merit."
- The bill, also known as the 'Success Sequence Act', is now headed to the House Education Committee and may be amended to take effect in the 2026-2027 school year, with the curriculum intended to provide instruction and evidence of positive outcomes resulting from the 'success sequence' but without citing specific data sources, although most of the data appears to have been pulled from model legislation from The Heritage Foundation.
16 Articles
16 Articles
Tennessee bill to require schools to teach ‘success sequence’ of life path passes Senate
The “Success Sequence Act” would require schools to teach the positive outcomes associated with completing the following in the following order: graduate high school, enter the workforc…
Associated Press News
Under Tennessee bill, students would be taught marriage before kids as one key to success
Tennessee’s public schools could soon be required to teach that the keys to a successful life include following a proper sequence of events: high school, job or higher education degree, marriage and then children.
An American state would teach children what a successful career path looks like: graduation, marriage, children
Tennessee public schools will soon have to teach students that the key to success is following a traditional sequence of life events, including avoiding having children outside of marriage. The “Success Sequence Act,” which has already passed the state Senate, would teach — assuming the upper house of the legislature votes on the legislation — that a specific sequence of life events has “positive personal and social outcomes.” And what is that s…
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