It’s hard to keep track of all the ways our public schools are currently under attack, with Republican governors responsible for uplifting and preserving them leading the charge against them.
The most obvious of the attacks was Governor Lee’s #1 priority when he took office, which was to steer PUBLIC MONEY TO PRIVATE SCHOOLS through the voucher program he allegedly bribed members of his own party to pass, even offering military promotions.
The program was just expanded by Republicans from Memphis & Nashville to the Chattanooga area, where 12 private schools in Hamilton County are now in Gov. Lee & the GOP’s vouchers program, taking nearly $2 million from public schools.
11 of 12 the are Christian schools. The Lee/Devos privatization plan to steer public ed money to religious schools, “advancing God’s kingdom” as Devos openly put it, is working.
And they’re just getting started.
Then there’s the censorship. As teachers sue Tennessee over the “divisive concepts” law that has them scared to teach the truth, Florida has stepped up their attacks under Desantis, leading to a ban on AP psychology and now SHAKESPEARE BEING CUT.
Yes, Shakespeare. It was only a matter of time.
This is what these Republican censorship laws are doing to our schools. And the more our schools/kids suffer, and leave, the happier these privatizers are.
But it gets worse. As they accuse our public schools of brainwashing kids, it’s them who are engaged in the real INDOCTRINATION. Desantis/FLORIDA’s Ed Dept approved Prager U indoctrination videos to be taught with Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens as narrators- which teach kids slavery was better than the alternative, literally saying: “Being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no?”
Outrageous.
And then there’s the massive TEACHER SHORTAGE. We currently have 1000+ teacher openings in Tennessee… “alarming shortfalls every year” – while we sit on billions in surplus funds…
Low pay, low trust, little opportunity to change their situation – all this as Lee and the GOP give HUGE raises to the TN Highway Patrol and prison guards. Priorities.
We need y’all to realize hurting teachers/public schools is by design. This teacher shortage is a feature, not a bug for them. Lee, Desantis etc. are privatizers hiding behind the word “choice”.
And as they do all this they engage in OUTRAGEOUS GASLIGHTING – claiming to be at the top in teacher pay while we’re at the bottom. The TN House GOP either has no idea that Tennessee is at the bottom in teacher pay & per pupil spending, or hopes you have no idea.
Watch what they do, not what they say.
Meanwhile KIDS ARE BEING HELD BACK over one test that was not even designed to be used this way. As one mom put it: “It’s ridiculous… communication has been horrible… I’m probably going to pull her out and home school…”
MEMPHIS Parents are upset to learn their kids — WHO CAN READ — are held back based on 1 test, thanks to the new TN GOP/GOV. BILL LEE law.
Not to mention the book bans, the attacks on LGBTQ students… the list goes on. Everything that drives teachers and kids out of our schools using private school vouchers, charters, etc… is a win for Lee and the privatizers. Please see the situation for what it is.
We’ll continue to cover this, and we hope you’ll push other media outlets to cut through the propaganda and cover it this way also..
Please consider chipping in monthly to help us keep us Hollering the truth – make it $10/month or more and we’ll send you a holler hat.
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The Holler
We just got in a brand new shipment of Holler Hats, in various colors:
The head of TN Firearms Association compares parents who want gun reform to “people in Hell” —despite their own poll showing most Tennesseans agree with Gov Bill Lee that we need an ERPO law.
Ryan Camp)
This election shows their attacks on democracy will not go unchallenged… Republicans spent so much money trying to buy this election, but they could not beat people power.”
WILLIAMSON COUNTY: 
