Tennessee gubernatorial candidate Senator Marsha Blackburn, R-TN, launched a new ad on Thursday with a campaign promise students won’t be able to swipe away.¶
“Bell-to-bell, no cell,” Blackburn says during the ad. “No excuses. No exceptions.”¶
Blackburn is proposing a cell phone ban from the first bell of the school day until the last. Students would check in their phones under the plan, and they wouldn’t be able to use them during instructional time, breaks, study halls, or even lunchtime.¶
Differences from 2025 Law
Blackburn’s proposal would build upon legislation the Tennessee General Assembly passed in 2025.¶
It compelled public school boards to adopt a policy that banned students from using wireless communication devices during instructional time, but districts could still allow cell phones during breaks and lunch. That flexibility created different rules for different school districts.¶
While the desire to grant districts flexibility is understandable, it can sometimes undermine the law's intent during implementation.¶
Williamson County Schools, for example, bans cell phones during instructional time but allows high school students to access their phones at lunch. Metro Nashville Public Schools allows students to use their phones at lunch and in between classes, while Rutherford County Schools bans cell phones for the entire school day, including breaks.¶
What the Research Says
The issue of allowing or prohibiting cell phones in class has been debated since their introduction, butresearch supports the potential benefits of bans like the one Blackburn is proposing.¶
According to the Phones In Focus national survey of more than 20,000 public school educators, stricter, school-wide phone restrictions are associated with less student phone use in class and higher teacher satisfaction due to a more focused learning environment.¶
Efforts to reduce or eliminate phone usage in class have gained support across political lines in much of the United States as well, with states including New York, Alabama, and Oklahoma already adopting statewide policies to restrict phone use in classrooms. In 2025 alone, at least 44 states considered new policies, and 29 have already adopted regulations.¶
In an interview with CNBC, Emily Boddy, a council member of Smartphone Free Childhood U.S., a national advocacy group supporting legislation limiting smartphone and social media use in schools, said that while smartphones can be a useful tool in class, the benefits do not outweigh the harm, especially when it comes to losing students’ attention spans to screens.¶
“If we were talking about tools that provided a simple function of giving educational tools, that would be one thing,” Boddy said. But these smartphones provide so much else, and because they are primarily used by students for social reasons and for gaming and for all myriad other things, it's very difficult to argue that a child is going to be able to filter out when they're using it as a tool and when they're using it socially.”¶
Blackburn faces Congressman John Rose, R-TN, and State Representative Monty Fritts, R-Kingston, in next month’s GOP primary. Fritts supported the 2025 instructional ban for cell phones.¶
The Tennessee Firefly was not able to find any statements Rose has made about cell phone use in the classroom.¶
