Empower Every Student: A Call to Tennessee Education Leaders to Protect and Affirm Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Collective advocacy focused on censorship is critical, as Tennessee has passed the highest number of restrictions in the country that limit the actions of students, teachers, librarians, and administrators. Throughout time, we’ve seen the definition of “censorship” dramatically shifted over time including expanding to higher education and threatening diversity, equity and inclusion.  

Education advocates — particularly students — must be deeply engaged with developments in their schools and institutions around programs, activities, and support systems that play a critical role in ensuring all Tennesseans are welcomed and supported on their campuses. 

This toolkit focuses on driving both engagement with the Tennessee legislature, as well as engagement directly with education leaders to navigate a complex and evolving policy landscape. Including a state and federal policy overview, key questions to ask education leaders, action guides, and a legislative contact list, this toolkit will equip advocates to engage with leaders to ensure that campuses maintain their commitments to supporting each student, even amidst the range of proposals seeking to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Our EmpowerED Youth Advocacy Network recognized how the language of  diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has been deliberately manipulated, portrayed as preferential treatment or a a threat to merit, to justify the removal of DEI from schools. Rather than wait for these harmful policies to take effect and harm them and their classmates, they took action. They drafted an advocacy letter addressed to education leaders, calling for school environments that recognize the individuality of their students and give each student a fair chance to learn and grow.

Now, they need you — Tennessee residents from across the state — to sign on.