The second year of the 107^th General Assembly was gaveled in last Tuesday. As we get down to work this week, following days of passing redistricting legislation, there are several laws that I plan to address which have been very damaging to our seniors, teachers and voters across the state.

I plan to call for a repeal of the law that has undermined our teachers and will negatively impact our students. The Republican term “Education Reform” was used as a keyword for abolishing collective bargaining, which was used by teachers to improve classrooms for our students.

The law stripped teachers of their ability to professionally negotiate their salaries, benefits,  school safety, class size, access to textbooks and other resources, planning time, time to teach, length of the school day, scheduling, and before- and after-school duties.

All these issues affect not only the conditions under which teachers teach but, obviously, the conditions under which students learn, as well.

This law has without a doubt affected the quality of life of more than 63,000 teachers, their homes, families, children and students.

A poll released by Vanderbilt University said that 60 percent of Tennesseans opposed the efforts of the new Republican majority in the state house to strip the rights of our teachers to negotiate.

The job approval rating of the state legislature, due to this law stripping collective bargaining rights from our teachers, dropped from 65.6 percent to 45.8 percent – about 20 percent.

This right was taken away from our teachers by only five votes in the House of Representatives. It was opposed by Democrats and Republicans alike. However, the power structure of the Senate and House prevailed.

I also plan to call for a delay in teacher evaluations, which have been implemented by the Haslam administration. It is clear that our teachers are concerned about the time consuming nature of new planning requirements and the uneven application of standards across school districts.

Principals are overwhelmed by the number of conferences and evaluations they must complete each year, in addition to the multitude of other duties. Even superintendents have concerns about the new standards, citing a lack of adequate training for evaluators.

One of the most common complaints I’m receiving, especially from our senior citizens, is the requirement that photo identification must be presented in order for a Tennessean to vote. This new law is one of the worst that I’ve seen during my time in the legislature. It needs to be repealed because it puts an undue burden on voters, especially those who don’t have access to transportation to get to the driver license station to acquire an I.D. Not only this, but, there are counties across the state that don’t even have stations. In other words, many of our seniors or others who do not have a photo I.D. will have to travel long distances just to get eligible to vote.

We must protect the rights of our teachers, their students and our senior citizens. To do anything less is to fail as a governing body.

If you would like more information, please don’t hesitate to contact me. My telephone number is 741-1980, and email address is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

State Representative Mike McDonald (D-Portland) represents the 44^th District in the State House of Representatives.