Image Credit: Williamson Inc / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative [By Kelly M. Jackson] –
This past week, four candidates for the State Representative for District 65 sat before a crowd of constituents at Columbia State Community College to plead their case and ask for the votes of those who live in District 65.
Michelle Foreman, Brian Beathard, and Lee Reeves the three Republicans and the lone Democrat, LarHonda Williams answered constituents’ questions regarding several issues.
Here we will cover two of the more controversial topics, school vouchers, and gun control legislation.
School Vouchers
On the school voucher issue, the question presented by the moderator of the forum was “what is your position on school vouchers in Tennessee, and how do you believe that will impact public education?”
Brian Beathard was the first to answer the question, and his initial response was “the current voucher program as it is written is unfair to Williamson County. It will harm our schools and of all the things I’ve heard so far, that could cause a property tax increase, this one most definitely would”.
Beathard concluded that because the voucher legislation as it is written is unequitable to Williamson County he would not support it as written.
Michelle Foreman recited from the Tennessee state constitution, the portion that obligates the general assembly to provide “the maintenance, support, and eligibility standards of a system of free public school, and that a voucher system “disavows that”.
She continued, “I am not in favor of vouchers..” because vouchers fail to help an overwhelming number of those children in failing public schools, because most of the kids in her district would not qualify for the program due to income caps.
Foreman recommended that the general assembly has the authority to address the “root of the problem” instead of just trying to move the kids around it. Foreman ended resolutely stating, “vouchers will not help, I am against them, let’s fix the problem.”
Lee Reeves, endorsed by Governor Lee specifically because of his pro-voucher stance, stated without surprise, “I am for school choice, and I have been from day one.”
Reeves continued that vouchers would compel the schools to have to compete with private and homeschools, and that “competition is a good thing”.
Critics of the voucher program have asserted that vouchers don’t create competition as much as they inflate demand of private schools, (like the case is AZ where costs of private school have soared) who would then be taking public money, which by virtue of the legal definition turns them into public schools.
Grassroots organizations express continued concern that once the public money has been introduced to private and homeschool education, it then gives the government an ability to control what is currently an alternative for parents who do not want a public education for their children.
Red Flag Laws/Gun Control Legislation
This past session, there were roughly 200 new bills introduced by members of the state legislature on both sides. Some of the more controversial bills pertained to those which have been called Red Flag or ERPO (Extreme Risk Protection Orders).
These types of laws require that there be a database kept of people who, based on either a mental illness diagnosis, or a criminal encounter, have their weapons temporarily removed from their custody, based on the report of a citizen.
That citizen’s report would then be relayed through law enforcement to a judge who could then strip a person of their 2nd Amendment rights without the benefit of due process.
The candidates were asked, “what is your position on gun safety and the best way to protect the children in our schools?”
Of the republican candidates, Brian Beathard was the first to answer the question, and after he expressed a disagreement with guns being allowed on airplanes as well as the legalization of fully automatic weapons, he shared that he is a member of the NRA, supports the 2nd Amendment and that the gun laws we currently have in place in Tennessee are good, and he is not inclined to make any changes.
Michelle Foreman expressed that the state of mental health in Tennessee has been neglected and needs to be addressed. For the protection of the students in schools, she supports teacher’s 2nd Amendment rights to carry a gun in their school and that right as the Constitution says shall not be infringed upon.
Lee Reeves stated he is a 2nd Amendment supporter but expressed an ardent opinion that the problem is weapons in the hands of those who should not legally be able to have them.
Specifically, Reeves named “felons, those convicted of domestic violence, those who are subject to a restraining order, in other words those people who have been afforded due process, in a limited number of situations…” should not be given or allowed to maintain access to firearms.
Reeves then stated that he believes in a “duty to report law in Tennessee, that has teeth”, and that something like that would have possibly made a difference in the events of the shooting at Covenant School last spring.
While mental illness, those who suffer from it, and their access to firearms have been a subject of much scrutiny in both the regular and special sessions of 2023 in the Tennessee General Assembly, 2nd Amendment advocates discourage “duty to report laws” precisely because they lack proper due process, instead relying on a test of mental fitness to determine a person’s ability to access their firearms.
The addition of such a law in Tennessee could possibly violate the Bruen precedent from the Supreme Court in 2022 which held that citizens cannot be subject to a test that would keep them from having access to their Constitutional rights, including the 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
All the candidates were allowed a couple of minutes to give a closing statement, and it is worth noting some of the comments made by Reeves as they alluded to a story that was broken by The Tennessee Conservative that detailed his ownership of a property in Texas that houses illegal aliens, while his primary campaign platform espouses the scourge of illegal immigration.
Reeves said, “You know you’re doing well when your opponent’s come after you. You’re likely doing even better when they make it up”.
The Tennessee Conservative stands by their factual reporting on Reeves, all facts and sources can be found in that article, which can be found here.
Readers can screen the entire forum here, where several other topics were covered and discussed.
Early voting started last week and will run through July 27th, with Election Day being August 1st.
About the Author: Kelly Jackson is an escapee from corporate America, and a California refugee to Tennessee. Christ follower, Wife and Mom of three amazing teenagers, she has a BA in Comm from Point Loma Nazarene University, and has a background in law enforcement and human resources. Since the summer of 2020, she has spent any and all free time in the trenches with local grassroots orgs, including Mom’s for Liberty Williamson County and Tennessee Stands as a core member. An outspoken advocate for parents rights, medical freedom, and individual liberty, Kelly also has a YouTube channel @Tennessee_Truth_Teller and is planning on expanding out to other channels soon. Kelly can be reached at kelly@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
4 Responses
So let me get this straight. Conservatives have long sought to break the monopoly of government schools and leftist indoctrination centers in education through vouchers. Once a way out of government schools is achieved, private/religious schools are so obviously superior that the demand for them increases as does the price just as we free market capitalists would predict. This increased competition will almost inevitably make government schools better as well. That’s why conservatives have long sought vouchers because we believe that competition in any industry makes the entire industry better to the benefit of those it serves as against monopolies, especially government monopolies.
Brian Beathard as an endorsee of the retiring Worthless Sam Whitson (TLRC-60/F) as his successor can be relied on to protect the Government Schools Trust against any trust-busting attempts. Michelle Foreman, for a conservative, has an odd devotion to the government school monopoly as well. Thus, it is only Lee Reeves who presents the voters of District 65 with a chance to send someone to the legislature who is prepared to tear us away from the sclerotic government school monopoly.
VOTO REEVES!
What the government funds it runs. As a conservative, I do not want public dollars in private or homeschools. This will come with future regulations. Rules will be promulgated once the law is passed and then it’ll be too late. Michelle also stated in a past forum that we should get federal dollars out of our schools and fix the problems. We can start by not appointing woke commissioners of education.
Stuart, I had the same reaction to Michelle Foreman’s stance regarding vouchers. I don’t like however that Reeves has a housing property in TX that houses illegal aliens. I am also suspect of Reeves connection to Bill Lee. I’m in a dilemma at the moment. Beathard isn’t even a consideration for me and never has been.
LarHonda?
LOL!
Her parents must have been buying a car when she was born. Dad wanted a Large car, mom wanted a Honda.