Chalkbeat has the story of PAC spending in races for Memphis/Shelby County School Board.
A Memphis political action committee dedicated to improving economic and social mobility in Shelby County and across Tennessee poured nearly $40,000 into four Memphis-Shelby County Schools board races.
Candidates Rachael Spriggs in District 1, Tim Green in District 6, Amber Huett-Garcia in District 8, and Rebecca Edwards in District 9 each received an $8,300 donation from TN Prosperity PAC, according to recent campaign finance filings. The other two candidates for District 1, current board Chair Michelle McKissack and former Chair Chris Caldwell, each received $2,500.
The story notes other significant donors in the school board races:
Memphis PACE, which is the political action committee for the Memphis Shelby County Education Association, the larger of two MSCS teachers unions.
The Leadership for Educational Equity PAC, a national nonprofit leadership development organization “inspiring and supporting a network of civic leaders to end the injustice of educational inequity,” according to its website.
Here’s a great breakdown of the Knox County School Board races from a local blogger. In it, he explains why he thinks school board races are so important this year:
Probably the biggest threat to public education is the charter school movement. Designed at its heart to divert funding from public schools to private, often religious, schools, it serves as an existential threat to a free and equal public education in the United States. While “school choice” is an appealing phrase, the reality is that these schools diminish funding where most middle and lower socio-economic status children attend to give a tailored, often much less regulated, experience for those who desire their children to be segregated.
When it comes to endorsements, here are the recommendations:
District 1 – John Butler
District 4 – Katherine Bike
District 6 – Phillip Sherman
District 7 – Dominique Oakley
District 9 – Annabel Henley
Reasons for the endorsements are offered in each case along with a plea to restore some sanity to the overall operation of the School Board.
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
Your support – $5 or more – makes publishing education news possible.
That’s how one incumbent Republican House member describes Gov. Bill Lee’s conduct in the face of comments from a key education advisor disparaging teachers.
Other candidates joined in and suggested the Lee should have taken action rather than sit silently while teachers were attacked. Since the comments were made, Hillsdale President Larry Arnn has doubled down:
Tennessee Lookout has a story out about the first partisan school board races in the state. The piece examines the issue through the lens of races in Williamson County.
The responses in the District 10 race are pretty interesting. That race features incumbent Eric Welch and challengers Doc Holladay and Jennifer Haile.
In summarizing the race, Welch offers this comparison between his candidacy and that of Holladay:
I’m focused on students, and what needs to be done to provide them a world-class education that they can build a successful future on. Holladay is focused on social media hot-button issues that really aren’t applicable to Williamson County Schools.
Here’s how Holladay sums things up:
The polarization of political views has especially created a divide in how we want to educate and raise our children. The left has held the steering wheel of public education for decades now, and look at what that has produced in our schools: Marxism, socialism, grooming our kids in gender ideology, pornographic material in our libraries, divisive & racist curriculums like (Critical Race Theory), “white privilege,” “guilt training,” vilifying our founding fathers and our country, untold psychological and developmental damage from useless masking, a massive push to jab them with potentially harmful experimental gene therapy drugs and an effort to divide them ideologically from their parents.
And Haile has this to say:
Race, gender and inequality, “CRT” as I understand it, simply does not exist in the K-12 curriculum. What we are talking about is the discussion of the human experience. I think if we approach discussions of race, gender and equality as an issue involving fairness, kindness and understanding, we remove political agendas. Of course, any curriculum must be age-appropriate and reviewed by parties who are knowledgeable about the subject; but the answer is not to pretend it does not exist and/or fail to adequately prepare our students for a diverse world.
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
Thank you for your support – $5 or more helps make publishing education news possible.
Williamson County School Board Chair Nancy Garrett recently announced a slew of endorsements for her re-election bid.
More from a story originally published at NewsBreak:
District 12 School Board candidate Nancy Garrett announced today that her campaign has the support of more than 100 public education leaders as the incumbent board member seeks re-election in August.
In a statement, Garrett said:
“I’m honored to have the support of these school leaders who are the backbone of our community. These citizens have worked together to build the positive national reputation of WCS schools in the arts, athletics, and academics.”
These endorsements include current and former parent volunteers from many school support organizations, former and retired local teachers, and former WCS and FSSD school board members and administrators.
Garrett, the incumbent District 12 representative for the Williamson County Board of Education, has also been elected by her fellow Board Members to serve as Board Chair since 2020. Prior to that, she served two terms as Vice Chair. A Williamson County Schools graduate, and daughter of a WCS teacher, she was appointed to the Board in November of 2016, and elected to the Board in 2018. She was a PTO leader every year of her son’s school career and has had 15 family members graduate from WCS.
Among the endorses is Lauren Sullivan, a former PTO President at Oakview Elementary, who said:
“Nancy Garrett loves her community and its citizens. She has a passion for our schools and children. I trust her to keep our students and teachers at the forefront of her decision-making process, and I enthusiastically endorse her for the District 12 school board seat.”
Kent McNish, a former Franklin Special School District (FSSD) Board Member said of Garrett:
“The voters of FSSD elected me to the Board of Education five times between 1994 and 2012. I was privileged to know and work with Nancy Garrett. She has a strong commitment to the children of the WCS. Her record of service is outstanding. I hope the voters of the 12th District will return her for another term. A good Board member brings no bias to the work of a school board–only what is in the best interest of children. She supports principals, teachers, and she supports families. I am proud to support Nancy Garrett for another term on the Williamson County Board of Education.”
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
Your support – $5 or more – makes publishing education news possible.
Knox County School Board candidate Kat Bike issued a statement today calling out a deceptive campaign tactic known as “push polling” which she suggests is spreading misleading information about her to voters.
Here’s the campaign’s statement:
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
Your support – $5 or more – makes publishing education news possible.
Back in July, I wrote a post about a newly-created political action committee (PAC) that seemed to be formed by Tennesseans for Student Success. You may recall that Tennesseans for Student Success is the dark money group behind a serious of insidious attacks on any legislator who opposes school privatization.
So, anyway, now they have a cheerily named PAC. Team Kid PAC, they’re calling it. Here’s more from the email they sent announcing this new venture:
Our state has made historic gains in education – twice being named the fastest improving in the nation – but you and our network of parents, teachers, community leaders, and volunteers know we can do better. If we want a better future for our children, we have to elect better leaders. That’s why we formed Team Kid PAC.
The political action committee of Tennesseans for Student Success, we will serve as the ONLY organization that can and will effectively challenge any elected official or candidate who fails to put Tennessee’s students first –regardless of their political party.
Sounds pretty great, right? I mean, they start out the email with a pretty awesome question:
Do you want to secure effective education for all Tennessee students?
I mean, who is saying no to that? Even Gov. Bill Lee claims to want to secure an effective education for all Tennessee students. Heck, the team over at SCORE often claims they want effective education despite any evidence their presence in our state (or policy advocacy) has improved anything except for their payroll.
Here’s the reality: Tennesseans for Student Success spends their time and money attacking lawmakers who stand up for public schools. If you are not on the pro-privatization train, Tennesseans for Student Success is coming after you. Now, they’ll be doing it under the auspices of Team Kid.
Here’s the other reality: Tennessee needs at least $1.7 billion to make our school funding formula adequate. Tennessee has a huge surplus with even more money on the way. Tennessee has a governor who has no plans to use the current surplus to invest in schools.
So, what’s Team Kid PAC/Tennesseans for Student Success saying about Lee’s policy agenda?
Here are some tweets from them (and a bonus from SCORE CEO Dave Mansouri, a teammate of the Team Kid PAC team):
“During the special session we allocated almost $43M for teacher pay raises. This was a step in the right direction, and the budget I’m submitting for your consideration this week recommends an additional $120M be set aside for teacher compensation." – @GovBillLee#TNSOTS
On the heels of historic accomplishments that addressed TN’s literacy crisis and took steps to ensure a quality public education for every student, @GovBillLee set a vision for what it means to prepare our students for life beyond the classroom. #TNSOTShttps://t.co/Onabu5AhW7
When Lee proposed an underwhelming raise for teachers:
By proposing an extra $120M in teacher pay, @GovBillLee is working to provide stability for our teachers, promote Tennessee’s ability to attract & retain the best educators, & work to give all students the committed, effective teacher they deserve. #TNSOTShttps://t.co/Onabu5AhW7
And here’s Mansouri, acting like a happy cheerleader after his team scores a touchdown even though they’re still down by 50 points:
Watching @GovBillLee give this year's State of the State address. Great to hear Governor Lee's commitment to continued investment in both K-12 and higher education and increases in educator compensation. #tnedu
So, just watch out for Team Kid PAC and their gang of seemingly happy marauders out to derail the legislative career of anyone who dares stand and fight for Tennessee’s public schools.
State Senate candidate Ronnie Glynn is taking incumbent Bill Powers to task, calling Powers out for his votes in favor of vouchers and against teacher pay raises.
Readers may remember that although Powers promised he’d oppose school vouchers during his campaign, he broke that promise within hours of being sworn-in:
In a race for a seat on the Knox County School Board, the Knox County Political Action Committee for Education (K-PACE) has endorsed Hannah Kirby, per a Facebook post.
While Kirby is a staunch supporter of public schools, her two opponents for the seat have both expressed support for school vouchers.
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
Your support – $5 or more — makes publishing education news possible.
