Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, announced Thursday that he’s moving Representative Justin Jones, D-Nashville, off a key education committee.
Sexton appointed Jones to the Education Administration Committee during last summer’s special session on public safety but Jones will not serve on that committee during this year’s session. He’ll instead serve on the House Government Operations Committee along with continuing to serve on the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee and its subcommittee.
Jones blasted the switch on social media platform X, claiming the decision is an attempt to keep him from playing a committee role in the Education Freedom Scholarship Act. Jones has been an outspoken critic of the proposed bill that will allow families to use taxpayer dollars to send their children to private school.
Passage in the Education Administration Committee will be a critical step for the legislation.
“Conveniently and coincidentally, the year that their number one issue is going to be their push to try to privatize education, the speaker has announced that now I will be stripped from that committee and not be returned as other, you know, my colleagues have been returned to their regular committee,” said Jones. “This is just another attempt to try and stack the process and silence voices of dissent against their harmful policies here in Tennessee.”
Speaker Sexton appointed all three Democratic legislators who served in last year’s full session back to the Education Administration Committee, including Representatives Harold Love, D-Nashville, Sam McKenzie, D-Knoxville, and Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis.
The move to remove Jones from the Education Administration Committee is the latest in a series of public disputes between the Nashville Representative and Speaker Sexton and Republican leaders. In April, House Republicans expelled Jones for protesting gun laws in the well of House chambers with a bullhorn. Leaders in Nashville reappointed him less than a week later and Jones proceeded to win reelection to his seat.
House Republicans voted to silence Jones during the special session on public safety for speaking out of order and the following day he publicly expressed interest in calling for a vote of no-confidence for Speaker Sexton. This week Jones called the speaker “drunk with power” on the House floor.
Speaker Sexton also announced newly elected Representative Aftyn Behn will serve on the Education Instruction and its subcommittee. Like Jones, Behn also has an activist background and has expressed opposition to providing parents with more school choice.
“I’m anti-new charters and anti-privatization for all public services,” wrote Behn in an email to the Tennessee Firefly last year.
