Tennessee’s "Success Sequence" law ignores what really makes kids successful

Republican lawmakers want kids to believe success is a checklist. Reality is a lot more complicated.

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Tennessee Republicans have passed a law requiring high school health teachers to tell students there’s a proper order for a successful life. It now awaits the governor’s signature.

Senate Bill 471 says kids must be taught that “Success Sequence” involves doing the following four things chronologically:

(A) Obtains a high school diploma or high school equivalency credential;

(B) Enters into the workforce or pursues a postsecondary degree or credential;

(C) Enters into marriage; and

(D) Has children

The implication is that not doing these things, or doing them out of order, is some kind of problem that sets you up for failure.

The bill was drafted by the Heritage Foundation, the group behind Project 2025, and it was sponsored by State Sen. Janice Bowling and State Rep. Gino Bulso, who have no ability to understand the nuance here. They’re just going off of vibes. (Bowling, by the way, is one of those right-wing conspiracy theorists who falsely claimed kids were dressing up as “furries” and using litter boxes in classrooms.)

State Sen. Janice Bowling (screenshot via WREG)

“Some children are not privileged to recognize that or live within that,” said the bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Janice Bowling of Tullahoma. “And so in these classes, these children will be given this key to success.”

Republican proponents argued the so-called success sequence could help lift people out of poverty by delaying life events, such as getting married before having children…

But none of this is a key to success. They are ingredients that might help, but obviously, plenty of people skip or re-order multiple steps and do just great in life, and plenty of people do exactly these things in this order and have miserable lives.

That’s why this is so misguided. It’s not that going to college, getting married, and having children are bad. It’s that not doing those things isn’t why you might not make as much money or be as healthy. The root causes are completely ignored here.

For example, someone who graduates high school, gets an apprenticeship, marries his high school girlfriend, then impregnates her when they’re both 19 are following the formula perfectly. But they may not have much life experience, they barely know themselves, they don’t have money saved up in case of emergencies, they don’t know if the jobs they have now are the ones they’ll want down the road, etc.

Someone who stays single and focuses on her career, spends her twenties dating and traveling and saving money, then gets married to someone with a child from a previous marriage is arguably better positioned to have a successful future because some of the biggest concerns in life (money, health, self-awareness) are satisfied.

There are obviously exceptions in all directions. A lot of this depends on how much support you have from your extended family, what the job market is like, what hopes and dreams you have for the future, etc. But that’s the point! There isn’t one pathway to success, yet this bill suggests there is and lays out in numerical order how it should be achieved.

Along the way, the text of the bill ignores the root causes for why someone may or may not be successful.

For example, it says married couples who then have children “have higher family incomes and lower poverty rates than their unmarried counterparts.” It says kids in “stable, married-parent families are more likely to excel in school.” All of that ignores how people with stability in their lives in other ways have the luxury of getting married when they’re emotionally ready for it, having kids only when they’re prepared to take care of them, and able to provide an environment for their kids where they can focus on school rather than taking care of other problems.

Similarly, the bill says kids who are not raised in a home with married parents are “twice as likely to end up in jail or prison before reaching thirty years of age.” That again goes to stability. Living in a home where married parents argue constantly, or have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, is far worse for kids than living in a home with a single parent who’s available for them in the evenings.

But instead of creating conditions for all children to have the best chance of success, however they define it, later in life, these Republicans are merely passing a checklist for kids to follow. They’re patting themselves on the back for doing the bare minimum while ignoring all the conditions that put people in harm’s way. If you’re not successful, they’re basically saying, it’s because you didn’t follow the list, not because they failed to create an environment where you could thrive. It’s your fault, not theirs.

They don’t want people to know that the simplest path to guaranteed financial success later in life is to be born into a wealthy family.

(Policy analyst Matt Bruenig has a very comprehensive takedown of this mindless “success” formula over here. It’s worth your time to read.)

You know what would help all people be more successful in life? Having access to free health care and child care. Having access to birth control. Having a guaranteed income. But Republicans don’t want any of that because they’re not actually interested in your success. They passed this bill because it makes them feel better, not because it’ll improve kids’ lives. Hell, during this very session, the same lawmakers shot down a bill that would have provided universal pre-K for kids.

Democratic State Rep. Aftyn Behn actually tried to amend the bill to address these concerns. It wouldn’t eliminate the four-step sequence, but it would have addressed many of these concerns I’m raising by substituting more honest language. It’s so damn good, I’m reproducing it in full:

WHEREAS, millennial women have come of age in an era marked by wage stagnation, skyrocketing student debt, unaffordable housing, and the rising costs of child care and health care, all of which make marriage and family formation increasingly out of reach; and

WHEREAS, over the past forty-five years, the decline in children living with married parents reflects not a rejection of family values, but the growing economic instability that delays or deters marriage and childbearing; and

WHEREAS, nearly a quarter of children today are raised outside of marriage, a statistic driven less by personal choice and more by structural barriers that make partnership and parenting financially precarious; and

WHEREAS, while children raised in stable, well-supported families tend to thrive, our focus must be on creating conditions where all families, regardless of marital status, have access to opportunity, security, and community support; and

WHEREAS, millennial women understand that marriage alone does not guarantee economic stability, especially in a landscape of wage inequality, rising medical costs, and inadequate family leave policies; and

WHEREAS, millennial women face a workforce that too often punishes caregiving and undervalues women's labor, making the prospect of balancing work, marriage, and parenting an overwhelming challenge; and

WHEREAS, millennials carry more student loan debt than any previous generation, delaying milestones like homeownership, marriage, and childbearing well into their thirties and beyond; and

WHEREAS, the high cost of child care, lack of affordable health care, and insufficient parental support policies have led many women to delay or forgo having children entirely; and

WHEREAS, despite narratives that tie personal success to marriage and childbearing, millennial women are redefining what it means to flourish, prioritizing financial independence, community connection, and personal fulfillment; and

WHEREAS, building a society where family formation is a real choice, not an economic gamble, requires addressing the root causes of inequality, investing in paid leave, child care, health care, and housing, and creating fair economic conditions for all; now, therefore,

That sensible realistic preamble was defeated 72-22. Not surprising but further proof that Republicans don’t want to fix the real problems. They just want to redefine them and act like they have simple solutions to everything.

Maybe the most surprising thing about this bill is that the “Success Sequence” doesn’t include a line about how you have to go to church. Because plenty of conservatives have promoted studies that say people who attend church tend to make more money or suffer fewer health problems. Those studies suffer from the same ignorance as this bill: They act like “job + marriage + kids = success” when it’s more about having stability and a social safety net.

Going to church isn’t the reason you’re successful. Marriage isn’t the reason you’re successful. Having kids isn’t the reason you’re successful. But if you’re healthy and educated and have the luxury of time, you might be interested in those things. (Some people never learn that famous lesson from statistics class.)

It shouldn’t be lost on anyone that the leader of the Republican Party is a person who allegedly paid someone to take his SATs for him, is currently on his third marriage, and ignored his children when they were younger. And the shadow Republican president is someone who has at least 14 kids with at least four different women. Are they the family men the Republican Party want to promote as role models here?

It’s also deeply ironic that, for all the talk from conservatives about how we can’t teach comprehensive American history (with an emphasis on slavery) because it might make white kids feel bad about themselves, they have no problem telling children of single parents that they’re probably screwed.

The Associated Press reports that similar bills have been proposed in other red states (like Texas, Kentucky, and Ohio) and one has been signed into law in Utah.

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