Tinkerings

I just returned from the annual Professional Educators of Tennessee (PET) conference in Franklin, TN.  Since I have only been a member for a couple of weeks, I thought I would spend some time learning a little more about the state leadership, how they operate, what their agenda is, and so forth.  I’ll post more on that later (although I was not disappointed).

One of the highlights of the conference was the time spent hearing from the candidates for Governor.  Everyone except Mr. Haslam (R) and Mr. Kirkpatrick (R) attended the event.  Mr. Kirkpatrick had just announced that he was dropping out of the race.  No reason was given for Mr. Haslam’s absence.

Prior to the conference. J.C. Bowman, a friend of mine from Cleveland, had sent out a questionnaire to all the candidates regarding their stands on education in Tennessee.  Their answers to the questionnaires can be found on the PET website here.  I thought I would just post a few of my thoughts about each of the candidates on this blog.  I am not endorsing anyone.  In fact, I have not made up my mind about the election yet.  The notes below appear in the order in which the candidates spoke to the attendees.

Mike McWherter (D) – Mr. McWherter is a businessman with no political background other than being the son of a former Governor of TN, Ned McWherter.  He was a likable individual.  He has a strong business background.  His priority is job creation across all counties of the state.  To do that, he understands he needs a strong education system as well.  He is a member of the Tennessee Business Round Table.  He helped create the Diploma Project that has led to the strengthening of graduation requirements in the state.  While he is not a fan of NCLB (due to it being an unfunded mandate), he does support Race to the Top both for its ability to assess the effectiveness of teachers and the funding it brings to better train teachers through professional development opportunities.

Zach Wamp (R) - Mr. Wamp is really the only candidate I knew much about prior to this meeting.  I have met him on 3 occasions, mainly as part of my duties when I worked for GEARUP.  He has national political experience.  His mantra is to listen and learn.  He states that he has a teachable spirit, so he would be a governor that is approachable and looking for better ideas than his own.  He made the comment that, next to West Virginia, Tennessee has the worst health of any state in the union.  Over half of our citizens aged 17 to 29 are currently unable to join the military due to health reasons mainly caused from obesity.  This problem is breaking the back of our health care system in the state and draining funds from other priorities such as education.  Mr. Wamp was asked about his position on Pre-K education.  After five minutes of rambling around it was obvious he wasn’t really going to answer the question.

Ron Ramsey (R) – Mr. Ramsey is currently the Lt. Governor of TN.  He is the first Republican Lt Governor in 140 years.  He has experience working directly in the state legislature.  It is unclear to me yet if this is a positive or negative.  He still works part-time as a real estate auctioneer in Eastern Tennessee and surrounding states, so he has business experience as well.  At first glance, he reminded me of a television evangelist.  He is tall and fit with silvery gray hair slicked back away from his face.  Two things hit me negatively about Mr. Ramsey during his talk.  First, he kept using the word “physically” instead of “fiscally.”  That’s my English background raising its head I’m sure.  Second, when asked about Race to the Top he stated that if it comes with strings attached he doesn’t want it.  Come on, Mr. Ramsey.  All federal dollars come with strings attached.

Samuel Duck (I) – Mr. Duck holds a bachelor’s degree.  He has no political experience.  One of the first statements out of his mouth was that he believed in the literal interpretation of the Bible and the Constitution.  He actually carried a copy of the Federalist Papers with him and quoted from them often.  At one point he gave us his explanation about why education exists.  It is a quote from the Constitution (as it relates to the Patent Office).  He asked if anyone knew where it came from.  When no one volunteered an answer, we were chastised and told this is “one of the problems with education.”  I don’t think Mr. Duck scored any points with a group of teachers then.  Of course, my brain just thinks differently.  Can I really hold my head up high as a Tennessean when I have to talk about Governor Duck?

Bayron Binkley (I) – Mr. Binkly is a real estate broker.  By his own admission, he is a facilities guy.  When thinking about education, he is more comfortable talking about the buildings than the process of educating children.  He is learning.  To help offset budget problems he believes local school boards should take bids on the naming rights of buildings at schools from the athletic buildings to the science buildings.  A unique approach.  He is adamantly against Pre-K as part of the education system.  He stated that children should be at home being taken care of by their mothers and their Sunday school classes.  This even caused me to raise some eyebrows.  He also is an advocate for a Fast Track graduation system for those students who are motivated.  He angered one attendee (well, more than one, but she was the only one brave enough to call him out), when he insinuated that vocational education is a waste of money.  Our students ALL need to go to college.  When asked about who would be the garbage collectors and plumbers and contractors, he said that he wanted to grow the businesses in Tennessee so that those laborers would move here from other states, but he wants better for our kids.  Wow.

Dr. Brandon Dodds (I) – Dr. Dodds is an optometrist who has owned his own practice since 2004.  He is probably more aware of the problems with health care than the other candidates based on this fact.  He stated that both the Democratic and Republican parties are corrupt, so we really need an independent voice in the office of Governor.  He wants to create more jobs through the lowering of taxes.  As for education, he stated that he will refuse all federal dollars and give the governance of local schools back to local school boards.  His first education act would be to decline all Race to the Top dollars.

These are the things I came away with from our time with the candidates.  I really wish I had been able to hear from Mr. Haslam.  My sincere thanks to J.C. Bowman and the people at PET for putting this forum together. It was quite helpful to me.