Local Republican Party and Grassroots Organization Join Fight
Image Credit: Jefferson County Board of Education & Canva
The Tennessee Conservative [By David Seal] –
In a 7-0 slam-dunk vote, the Jefferson County School Board sent a strong message to the Tennessee General Assembly that its proposed Education Freedom Scholarship Act is unacceptable and should not be enacted.
Action was taken on the resolution Monday night, January 27th in a special called meeting. Several citizens, parents, and community activists joined the effort to support Jefferson County’s strongly stated resolution aimed at persuading the legislature to reject what they characterize as bad policy for all schools.
During the meeting, they took turns dissecting parts of the bill they determined to be detrimental to both public and private education.
Both liberals and hardline conservatives took turns bashing the proposed legislation at the podium during the citizen comment portion of the meeting agenda. Catastrophic expenditure of taxpayer money, displacement of public education funds away from public schools, bonus bribery payments to teachers, and linkage of disaster funds to passage of the act were cited as reasons to reject the proposed legislation.
Threats of primary challenges to legislators that oppose the bill by outside special interests were viewed as unfair and detrimental to the process of good government.
One onlooker stated that few political issues have ever brought political extremes together for one common cause like the voucher bill has. Another asked who his legislator was going to listen to, globalists from out of state with an agenda, or the people who pay the taxes and have kids in the school system. This seemed to be a common concern with those in attendance.
A group of conservative republicans in attendance characterized the bill as anti-conservative, which reflects a resolution made by the Jefferson County Republican Party, linked here.
Background information on the Jefferson County resolution and resources to track the bill are provided in the news report linked here.
A signed copy of the Jefferson County School Board Resolution is linked HERE.
Civic Grassroots Organization Opposes the Education Freedom Scholarship Act
Empowered Jefferson County is one of many grassroots organizations that oppose the Education Freedom Scholarship Act, a group of concerned citizens that wish to keep regulatory controls, bureaucratic rulemaking, and standardized testing out of private schools and homeschools.
Empowered Jefferson also opposes the expansion of government and the irresponsible spending that are part of the Education Freedom Scholarship Act.
Empowered Jefferson’s resolution to state lawmakers is linked HERE.
About the Author: David Seal is a retired Jefferson County educator, recognized artist, local businessman, 917 Society Volunteer, and current Chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party. He has also served Jefferson County as a County Commissioner and is a citizen lobbyist for the people on issues such as eminent domain, property rights, education, and broadband accessibility on the state level. David is also a 2024 winner of The Tennessee Conservative Flame Award & has received an accolade from the Institute For Justice for successfully lobbing the TN legislature to protect property rights. David can be reached at david@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
2 Responses
Of course they do! The government school trust (“GST”) knows what economic history teaches us again and again. Once the forces of free market capitalism and the competition that goes with it is unleashed, its benefits as compared to monopolies, especially sclerotic government monopolies become obvious.
Conservatives should support the current attempts to expand school choice with the same fervor that the GST is in opposition. The GST knows full well that whatever plan is passed by the General Assembly, it is the first step in the break-up of the GST.
WOW! You are so far off target. It’s about control of all education in this state. This bill provides for all private schools and home schools to follow all the rules and regulations that public schools must now. You wonder why even with all the testing public schools do there isn’t a better result. Even when the teachers know what to teach so students can pass the tests. We have illiterate students graduating from public schools. Now you want all private schools to follow.