Originally posted to Facebook by JenOwen on March 5, 2019
It was March 5, 2011 (my Birthday). Three Thousand people gathered in the Nashville rain to protest the influx of bad legislation being sent from outside of TN to destroy public education.
By 2014 Tennessee had lost thousands of excellent teachers, due process rights, the right to negotiate with school boards to improve learning conditions for students, and our teachers’ ability to advocate for student needs…
Our legislators literally laughed, called it a “very small group” and continued on. By 2014 Tennessee had lost thousands of excellent teachers, due process rights, the right to negotiate with school boards to improve learning conditions for students, and our teachers’ ability to advocate for student needs, but the bad legislation just kept coming.
Mid-2016 was mistaken as a time to celebrate, as the public began to hold elected officials accountable and legislators finally began recognizing and rejecting privatization schemes. Voters replaced many senators and state representatives by 2018. Here we are in 2019: 45th in the nation for teacher compensation and one of the fastest moving to take even more funding away from public schools and divert it to voucher schemes that have been proven to fail, have exorbitant costs, and harm children. Last night, the governor doubled-down on plans to take even more from kids to give it to corporations via charter construction, vouchers, and the new voucher nom de plume: ESA’s.
What are you doing to educate your fellow Tennesseans that can help us end this new wave of public school destruction?
Photo: JenOwen