Tennessee schools may soon be required to include a four-step plan for success in family life education classes.
The plan? In this order: graduate high school, get a job or pursue postsecondary education, get married, and have kids.
Rep. Gino Bulso, the bill’s sponsor, said on the House floor on Monday that data supports the bill’s purpose. He cited a 2021 report from the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute that said 76% of parents support teaching the success sequence, based on a survey conducted by the Survey Center on American Life at AEI.
The Department of Health and Human Services also released a 60-page report in 2020 on the success sequence. The report said that research suggests finishing high school, getting a job, and getting married before having children “can increase the odds of escaping poverty and reaching the middle class as an adult.”
Some Democratic lawmakers in Tennessee say it’s not that simple and pushed back against the bill’s passage. Rep. Aftyn Behn said during remarks on the House floor that the bill “ignores and blames the real barriers that people face.”
“I just wanted to add a few clauses that consider the economic barriers, such as student debt, rising costs of child care and adequate paid family leave and all their policies that prevent the continuum that you are expressing in this bill,” Behn said.
Over 40 million Americans hold $1.7 trillion in student debt, which has been a barrier to college for some high school graduates. Business Insider also previously spoke to millennial moms who want kids but can’t afford them due to student debt and rising childcare costs.
Another Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson said: “As an educator, I think it’s really important that we teach the characteristics and the skills that kids are going to need to be successful. We can’t teach them to be privileged. We can’t teach them that they have to bend these circumstances to be successful.”
Tennessee Sen. Janice Bowling, who sponsored the Senate version of the bill that passed last week, said on the Senate floor that she’s aware that not everyone gets married.
“I know people that are very dear that went to college, got their degree, never married, and they live very successful, happy lives, but if it’s in your purview to get married, then you need to get married and then have children,” she said.
Tennessee’s bill now heads to the governor’s desk to be signed into law and will take effect for the 2026-27 school year. Other states have also introduced similar bills — Ohio, Utah, Kentucky, and Mississippi are among the states pushing to get the success sequence taught in classrooms.
What do you think about the success sequence? Share your thoughts with this reporter at asheffey@businessinsider.com.
