What's the Senator's objective here?

1. Starve the poor.
2. Stop the poor from lowering overall TCAP scores.
3. Save the taxpayer money formerly used to feed poor dumb kids.
4. Adopt social engineering as the next "phase" of social conservatism.
5. Demonstrate why you have no business in the legislature.

This is the same guy that claimed he could live on unemployment by essentially abandoning his family and not paying his bills and moving into a cheap one-room apartment.

Here's a quote that shows Campfield's faith...

The Bible itself is intolerant, and true followers of God's word should be as well.
-- Bob Jones III, president of Bob Jones University
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My thoughts on Campfield and those of his ilk...

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
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Here's what Christianity should be about...

The Bible has been the Magna Carta of the poor and oppressed.
--Thomas Huxley

You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”
― Anne Lamott

All of the people who voted for him should be so proud.

All the people who voted for him are just as guilty as he is. Anybody who can read should have known what they were sending to Nashville.

Because nothing improves a child's academic performance like increasing his/her food insecurity.

What a tool.

What a stupid jerk! He never creases to amaze me with his stupidly.

"ceases"

Stacey Campfield is an idiot, and has awlays been an idiot. His mother must be SO proud of him. I also think that the people who keep returning him to office must be a little suspect, too.

How does one justify that? I am a mother who at one point had to turn to the government for help, and through prayer and hard work, I was able to turn things around. Had my daughter had bad grades under this proposal I wouldn't have been able to feed her. I am disgusted at those who hide behind a sick religion to excuse their deplorable actions. I thank God in instances like these that I won't have to answer for that. "Let the little children come to me. Don't stop them because the kingdom of Heaven belongs to people who are like these children. "

I'm not clear what Mr. Campfield is getting at saying that families who have a child "drop out" of high school should have food benefits reduced. In Tennessee, kids cannot drop out until they reach 18, at which point they are legally considered adults and their parents have no control over whether they complete high school. Some 17 year olds are able to withdraw permanently, but it requires parents to submit a compelling reason why it's better for the child, and if I am not mistaken, school officials have to agree to the petition by parents and sign off on it.

Mr. Campfield is tilting at windmills. Which parents of "dropouts" is he targeting? In the case of my eldest son, when we withdrew him from a TN public school at 17, we had to prove to school officials that he was enrolled in an accredited school (in this case it was private and out of state) within 30 days or we would have been subject to already existing statutory penalties as parents. At 18, he made the decision to switch gears, and he got his high school degree by obtaining his GED, which he received 6 months before the rest of his class graduated from traditional high school. So at what point in this process would Mr. Campfield target us as parents?

Tennessee educational law already has the dropout issue well in hand, which is why our rates of kids finishing a high school degree have gone way up in recent years. Thoughtful state legislators worked together with educators to create the laws that support kids finishing school. Perhaps Mr. Campfield should have checked in with his colleagues on this issue before going public with yet another bizarro piece of stunt legislation.

TANF is not the same thing as food stamps, which are administered by the federal government. TANF - aka, welfare - money would be more likely to be spent on rent, utilities, clothing, etc. So the underperforming children likely wouldn't starve, between food stamps - aka SNAP - and free meals at school, but they could end up homeless.

Being a Biblical literalist, Campfield probably uses jesus to justify his scheme. You know, the "Suffer the little children" part.

TANF still has federal funding, correct? Now I am seeing at least $198 million from the feds for the program as of Aug 2012. I am also reading the feds can take away their portion of the funding if a state or tribe does not follow the guidelines...

And what does this section of the bill really mean?

This subdivision (ii) relative to competency
on required state examinations or grade point averages shall not apply to students who have Individualized Educational Placements (IEPs) and who are not academically talented or gifted.

Thanks, Katie. I was going to look up that very background, so you saved me a minute.

Over at the KNS site, someone going by the screen name "originalintent" suggested it makes more sense to reward the family of a hardworking child receiving TANF--with say, an additional #30 per month--than to employ this "beatings will continue until morale improves" methodology.

I agree--although I still worry that the strong or weak academic performance of children as young as second grade (the first year they take TCAP exams) might dictate their families' income levels!

I don't think he mentioned his 'god' in this latest sham.
He has made it clear he hates women, especially child-bearing females (death certificates for loss of fetus even due to miscarriage).
He hates gay teens and wrote a bill saying it is ok to beat, bully and torment them.
He has NO family here and probably won't find any female to marry him, and will NOT be a parent, so he doesn't care about other peoples' children, like college students (guns on college campuses/ slum landlord, etc)
His high school in NY took his picture off the walls there because he embarassed them.
Why in the hell do the voters in his District keep sending him back to Nashville to park his car on the sidewalk, forcing us to pay our tax dollars for his per diem and ignorance? He has embarassed us around the country with his performances and juvenile behavior. There is NO WAY he can justify punishing poor families because their children are not learning like HE thinks they should.

Katie has more: (link...)

should have remained a virgin... sheesh!

My first thought when reading about this New York raised ginger's latest idiocy was this:

(link...)

Summary

The full title of Swift's pamphlet is "A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick." The tract is an ironically conceived attempt to "find out a fair, cheap, and easy Method" for converting the starving children of Ireland into "sound and useful members of the Commonwealth." Across the country poor children, predominantly Catholics, are living in squalor because their families are too poor to keep them fed and clothed....

[9] I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy Child well Nursed is at a year Old, a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome Food, whether Stewed, Roasted, Baked, or Boyled, and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a Fricasie, or Ragoust. 12

And there is always this point too:

[5] There is likewise another great Advantage in my Scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary Abortions, and that horrid practice of Women murdering their Bastard Children, alas! too frequent among us, Sacrificing the poor innocent Babes, I doubt, 8 more to avoid the Expence, than the Shame, which would move Tears and Pity in the most Savage and inhuman breast.

WATE is reporting on facebook that Stacey Campfield and Gloria Johnson will be on to talk about Stacey's new bill... at 11 pm.

OMG, I can't wait for this one....

"OMG" is right! Thanks for the heads up!

It wasn't the nose-to-nose confrontation I'd hoped for but yes, she did dispose of him tidily in that clip, didn't she?!

He stayed up all night Friday posting at the KNS site for naught. Hah!

I doubt Stacie would ever show up for a face to face with Gloria...

The whole problem with this stuff is it's made to press the right buttons on the right groups. Offended? Good.

Unfortunately, the core idea is correct. If you believe education is the key to opening the door out of poverty.

But since state welfare programs are run to meet the "numbers" put out by the feds to get the fed dollars, very little counseling, advising, helping goes on anymore.

A good deal of those needing programs want help and are willing to listen to advice with helpful information.

But caseworkers and their bosses don't feel they have the time, or the authorization, to give it. They just run 'em through.

Most parents dependent on programs do not have the abilities necessary to give their kids the kind of help they need. The home environment is sometimes not conducive, and the parents are usually just not capable of helping their kids, if they're having trouble in school.

"The beatings will continue until moral improves"

That's putting a lot of pressure on kids, that are probably already in a situation out of their control.

Maybe rewarding kids for levels of better performance, and parents for higher levels of school involvement.

Stacy's bill was the brunt of Jay Leno's opening monologue last night. He showed the clip of Stacy talking about a "rocket surgeon."