Gotcha!
“We’re from where we’re from,” she says back. “Scars are part of the deal, aren’t they?”
― Stephen Graham Jones, The Only Good Indians
It's amazing, how sometimes I write something, and then just days later an incident arises that serves to illustrate my point. It's happened again.
On Friday, I wrote about how when it comes to education policy, we don't do nuance well. It's all hyperbole, straw men, and sweeping generalizations.
Sure enough, Monday arrives with several quick examples.
Tennessee is again embroiled in a debate over whether teachers should be allowed to carry on school property. I find it ironic that we can't find enough teachers, yet what gets us worked up is whether the ones we do have are allowed to be armed on campus.
Sure, that's the priority.
The Nashville Scene has an article written by Betsy Phillip on how the conservative argument for teachers makes no sense. You know it's going to be a good one when it opens with:
Y’all, I try to understand conservatives. I truly do. But how — if, according to conservatives, men are naturally the protectors and women are naturally the caregivers — does it make any goddamn sense to arm teachers and expect them to exchange fire with school shooters? Teaching is a female-dominated profession. The people packing heat in schools, if teachers are armed, are therefore going to be women.
First off, no you don't. Anyone at the Scene saying that they try to understand conservatives is as full of shit as Governor Lee saying that he tries to understand liberals - wait, that's a bad example - it's like Andy Ogles saying he tries to understand liberals.
Let's be honest here, neither side is making a good-faith effort to understand the folks on the other side. What they are doing is trying to understand the opposition based on the caricatures they've created in their heads to promote an agenda. Not the same thing.
Philip's argument is no different, it tries to build on the myth of the uber-macho male who is now depending on what they consider the weaker sex to protect children. The author tries to create an image that is just not rooted in the reality of the bill, let alone life.
They write, "But the very same women who can’t be trusted with politics can be trusted with guns? Can be trusted to discern who should be shot and killed at a school full of children?"
Read the article and it seems, that the goal of the the bill is to just randomly hand out guns to the chicks as they walk in the schoolhouse door. A Glock for you. A .45 for you. Two derringers for you.
None for the fellas, this armory distribution is ladies only.
Unfortunately, that is not a picture reflective of the proposed legislation.
The training participating teachers receive is the equivalent of that given to an armed student resource officer. The guidelines drafted in the bill were taken directly from the requirements for an SRO. There is also a mental health component that must be passed.
Before a teacher can carry on campus, they must get sign-off from the principal, the district superintendent, and the police chief.
The supposition is that the teachers who wish to carry will be drawn from the ranks of ex-military or law enforcement.
News Flash Nashville Scene: Women have been serving in combat and law enforcement for quite some time now, and have proven themselves to be equal to, or better than, their male counterparts.
I think, and again I can't speak for them, they would take offense to this statement from the Scene:
But the very same women who can’t be trusted with politics can be trusted with guns? Can be trusted to discern who should be shot and killed at a school full of children?
Women get all the responsibility but none of the power.
I know several women teachers who already carry, and while I would never feel comfortable with the idea of bringing those guns on school grounds, I can understand it.
The reality is, that this bill is not going to serve as some open spigot flooding schools with guns. At best, a few rural teachers are going to participate.
Is even a handful of new guns on campus too many?
Absolutely.
Do I think it's a great idea?
Absolutely not.
Unfortunately, as a parent, I don't rule by absolutes, and neither do I in this case.
Parenting includes a lot of listening, weighing, compromising, and sometimes the acceptance, due to circumstances, of things I'm not wholly comfortable with. Sometimes I have to step out of my comfort zone and accept that life doesn't come with absolute.
As usual, we spend 95% of the time talking about something that only makes up 5% of the problem. Yes, Covent school was a huge tragedy. Mass school shootings are horrific, but they only represent a minuscule part of the problem.
The bigger threat, and we are just lucky that something more serious hasn't happened, is guns brought to school by students. Handguns, not semiautomatic weapons. It happens all too frequently.
Raise your hand if you knew that four guns have already been recovered at Metro Nashville Public Schools since January.
Hmmm...let's see, is that one in the back?
Luckily in all incidents, officials acted with prudence, and the guns were recovered without an incident.
Kudos to those professionals, but any of those incidents could have turned tragic with one misstep. By the grace of god, they didn't.
Personally, I've never seen the need for a handgun. But I've also never put much stock in denying reality either.
Decisions are always framed as being good versus bad. As an adult, I've learned that sometimes life makes us choose between bad and bad.
Sometimes you just have to consider things you never thought you would consider and try to choose one that maybe does the least harm.
That decision might not be the same in Nashville as it is in Trousdale.
But being that it is state law, it needs to serve Trousdale County as well as Nashville.
- - -
Monday morning also brings another dose of "Gotcha TV!". News 5 reporter Phil Williams is out with another hidden recording revealing the depths of depravity our state leaders are willing to travel. Or so he'd have you believe.
This time it's State Representative Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka) who is the evil villain caught tying the innocent damsel, played by public schools, to the railroad tracks.
The article leads with the following:
The lead sponsor pushing school vouchers in the Tennessee state House says his goal with Tennessee’s public education system is to “throw the whole freaking system in the trash,” according to a recording obtained by NewsChannel 5.
Rep. Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka, whose children attend a private religious school in Columbia, said he believes that "blow[ing] it all back up" is the only way to "fix" the state's public schools, which he describes as "terrible."
Oh lord, how awful. I'm sure my social media feed will be clogged with the clutching of the pearls by public school acolytes all week long, especially seeing as Lee's voucher bill is already on the ropes.
While Cepicky's choice of words is questionable, there are times that I feel - gasp - exactly the same.
I've spent the last 10 years fighting to defend public education while watching the system underserve a growing number of kids and drive some of its most dedicated practitioners out of the classroom.
I've watched politicians demand fidelity to a system while sending their children to a private system, effectively providing them with a future advantage. Shaming those who try to provide greater access only serves to protect their own privilege.
I've seen the public system do everything it can't to limit public participation while bragging about its inclusionary practices.
I've personally felt the frustration of trying to find an option for my child that will provide the opportunity for them to complete in the field of his desire on equal footing, and not have any great options.
I've witnessed a public system where teachers thrive not because of the system, but despite it. Hence some of the really great success stories.
So I'll say it aloud, there are days that I think the whole system needs to be trashed and rebuilt.
That's not a shot a teachers or principals, but rather a shot at the system itself, as I've experienced it.
The keywords there are, as I've experienced it.
We continually treat public education as some homogeneous entity, which is a disingenuous picture.
Public schools in Trousdale are way different than those in Nashville, which are worlds apart from those in the wealthier Williamson County district.
Sometimes there are dramatic differences between schools in the same county.
In Tennessee's Sumner County, they have a new school at Libert Creek. It's a state-of-the-art high school that can rival any private school, while down the road in Gallatin, the facilities need updating and there is no relief in sight.
Public education has not been bestowed a heavenly stature based on the whims of Allah, Jehovah, or God simply because it exists. It enjoys its privileged status because of the professional educators who inhabit the buildings and the resources provided to facilitate their work.
I don't believe that Cepicky would argue with that statement, and his mission for the last six years has been an imperfect quest to augment the two.
In frequently speaking with him, I find what he says in public closely aligns with what he says in private. I don't always agree, but he does his homework, more than most.
Furthermore, he's both assessable and transparent. I value those qualities over alignment.
Let's hope that he continues to be assessable and transparent. Winning the voucher fight at that expense would be a cost too high for me.
Voucher opponents have shown a desire to win at any cost, which is understandable, but I've long maintained that how you win, is every bit as important as winning.
Now let's take a look at the rest of the tape as shared by Phil Williams.
A leading argument against vouchers has been their financial implications for individual states. Arizona and Arkansas are frequently cited as examples of how policy can lead to a plunge off the fiscal cliff.
Cepicky recognizes that and addresses it.
“The myriad of pitfalls of school choice across this country is well documented,” Cepicky said.
“Those two other ones are train wrecks. They are fraught with all the pitfalls that have happened across the country…. If school choice is going to pass, it cannot be the governor’s or the Senate’s version.
"It cannot — or else, guess what, it will be a billion dollars in two years.”
Both the Senate and the House plans provide for 20,000 school voucher scholarships in the 2024-2025 school year, but the governor and Senate are looking to create a universal school voucher plan in the second year, subject to state funding.
Under the House plan, the program could only grow by 20 percent each year.
No issue there.
Cepicky recognizes and admits that vouchers won't immediately allow substantial numbers of students to transfer to private schools. He's heard on the recording saying:
“We figured across the state of Tennessee, by kind of doing an informal poll, we think there’s a maximum of three-to-four thousand open seats in private schools across the state. That’s it.” In his own area, “There’s no capacity in Maury County. They are stuck.”
But is that the lens we are focusing through? Is immediacy the only thing that matters?
If there is demand, growth will come. The hope is that public schools implement some change, starting with transparency and responsiveness, and Tennessee doesn't need any more private schools.
The impetus to change doesn't come without pain. Nobody is comfortable and thinking, you know I ought to change a few things.
I look at my own personal journey. Twenty-four years ago I got sober, but that only happened after I got booted from the house and relationship I was in.
Now I would've fervently argued against giving me the shoe, but I can testify, that without that action, I wouldn't be enjoying the life I enjoy now. I'd either be dead, in jail, or meandering through life from one crisis to another.
I take no exception with Cepicky here either.
Now we get to testing, Here is where Cepicky says the quiet part out loud:
“SCORE and all the lobbyists HATE the testing part of our bill – not dislike – yelling at me in my office, hating this part,” Cepicky said.
He added, “Ok, so I know I am on the right path then.”
Under the House bill, private school children receiving taxpayer funds would not be subject to the same testing required for those enrolled in public schools. It also reduces some testing requirements for public school students. That's not good enough.
Let me see if I got this straight, we regularly bemoan TCAP as being a colossal waste of time, yet we want everyone to be subject to it under some kind of guise of accountability. Even as we argue it's only adept at recognizing student social status. That makes sense how?
That's the old, I-went-through-crap-now-you-gotta-go-through-crap argument. Always a losing proposition.
This brings us to all the other benefits included in the House bill. These benefits include proposals sought by public school advocates, reducing standardized testing, phasing out the failed Achievement School District that had taken over troubled schools, adjusting the frequency of teacher evaluations, ending mandatory fourth-grade retention, and providing additional funding for medical insurance for teachers and staff.
In his report, Williams comments, "It’s not clear how such provisions would fundamentally “fix” a school system that Cepicky says is “terrible.”
Nice play to the hyperbole, Phil. Maybe pay a little more attention and you would.
Williams's words are echoed by superintendents in wealthier districts. Many of them, due to their privileged status, have the luxury of already utilizing some of the options available. For them, most of the additions wouldn't be beneficial. However, I'm not sure how they couldn't benefit from increased funding in TISA to rural districts or increased teacher benefit funding.
Once again, to be clear, I don't know their districts intimately so I'm not wholly qualified to comment. But sometimes the benefit to the whole should outweigh the benefit to the singular.
It seems that if I am in a poor rural district struggling to attract teachers with no private competitors available, the reward would outweigh the risk.
Cepicky was asked whether he could just remove school vouchers from his bill.
"We’ll never get the good stuff for the public schools," he answered. "It will not happen because I’ve been trying to get it for six years. We’re using leverage to not only get what the governor wants, use that ambition to get the fix for our public schools.”
Again, he was candid and said the quiet part outlaid, as has his House counterpart Representative Kirk Haston (R-Lobelville).
It is called politics, without leverage, things don't get passed. Just because you recognize it as a good thing based on conversations with educators, doesn't mean it is universally recognized.
Cepicky recognizes that basic tenet and goes one step forward,
“All the governor wants to be say, the major words of ‘universal school choice.’ Because we allow everybody to apply for it, he can utter those words,” Cepicky said.
Asked why that initiative was so important to Lee, the Republican lawmaker noted that it is an effort being pushed by the Republican Governors Association.
Lee is the current RGA chair.
“Of all the states around us, who haven’t passed school choice yet?” Cepicky asked.
I get it, I still think the Governor's pushing the wrong agenda, but that ain't going to stop him, or the next governor
. We can't just keep regurgitating the same arguments over and over, and expect quality outcomes.
We also can't support barriers that limit student potential in the name of a system just because that's what we are comfortable with.
We have to force ourselves into having deeper more nuanced conversations.
Lastly, gotcha politics are great for ratings, they are not great for governance. All it does is lead to small victories at the cost of assembly and transparency. There is not a private entity in the world that would prescribe that as a supporting best practice. Why would we subscribe to that for our public entities?
There is a reason that this upcoming Presidential election is reduced to a duel between two octogenarian candidates that nobody really wants to support.
Our current manner of politics has made the job unattractive to anyone else.
We have to do better.
- - -
Per usual, I need to rattle the cup a little bit before I head out the door.
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