Tennessee public schools may soon be required to teach students that a key to success is following a traditional sequence of life events, including marriage before children, as part of a new bill that passed the state Senate.
If passed in the state House, the “Success Sequence Act” would teach students about the “positive personal and societal outcomes” of completing a specific sequence of life events: obtaining a high school diploma or equivalent credential, entering the workforce or pursuing college, getting married and having children.
The bill, sponsored by state Senator Janice Bowling, asserts that evidence shows those who follow the sequence of life events experience rates of higher family income, grade point averages and graduation.
Bowling said children raised by single parents are “three times as likely” to live in poverty than those raised with married parents and children raised in a home without married parents are “twice as likely” to end up in jail or prison before the age of 30.
However, Democrats in the Tennessee legislature have pushed back on the bill calling it a form of “indoctrination.”
“This is a step too far,” state Senator Raumesh Akbari said. “Because I graduated from high school, obtained my degree, entered the workforce, did not complete the last two steps, marriage or children, and I still think I’m a success. So I don’t understand why it is important to incorporate this level of indoctrination into our schools.”
State Senator London Lamar said the bill would teach a curriculum that people are “less than” if they are a single parent.
“That doesn’t make my mother less than because she raised a current sitting senator when she became a single parent,” Lamar said. She argued that it was not the legislators’ job to dictate how children should view marriage or parenthood.
“If you are not married, it does not mean that you are less than anybody else. I think this bill is misguided, it’s very offensive and I’m living proof that this bill has no merit,” Lamar said.
But Republicans have pushed back, pointing to evidence that shows delaying certain life events, such as having children, can set people up for a more successful financial future.
“I know people that are very dear that went to college, got their degree, never married, and they live very successful, happy lives,” Bowling said. “But if it’s in your purview to get married, then you need to get married and then have children.”
The bill passed the Tennessee Senate Thursday and is now headed to the House. If approved it would head to the governor’s desk for signing and start in the 2025-2026 school year.
Similar bills have been introduced in Texas, Kentucky, Ohio and Mississippi.
