Tennessee Lawmaker Wants to Tie Welfare Benefits to Good Grades
By: Fox News
Updated: January 28, 2013
A Tennessee lawmaker is pushing a controversial new bill that would tie welfare benefits to students' performance in school.
Republican state Sen. Stacey Campfield last week introduced the legislation, which calls for the state to cut welfare benefits to parents whose kids don't do well in class.
Critics are already panning the proposal as unfair, and one that could hurt students in the end -- but Campfield is defending his idea, which he says would force parents to take a more active role in their children's education.
"We're not asking children to re-write the Magna Carta," Campfield told FoxNews.com Monday. "A D-minus gets you through."
But state Senate Democratic Leader Jim Kyle told the Knoxville News Sentinel that the bill would "stack the deck against at-risk children."
"How does Sen. Campfield expect a child to do his homework when there is no food on the dinner table?" he said.
Currently, parents of children who receive welfare benefits through the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program can see their benefits cut by 20 percent if their child doesn't show up for school. Campfield's proposal goes a step further and requires students make "satisfactory academic progress."
If they don't, recipients could see their checks slashed by 30 percent.
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