Day: March 7, 2019

BREAKING: Fetal Heartbeat Bill Passes in Tennessee State House with 65 Ayes, 21 Nays and 7 ‘Present Not Voting’

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The Tennessee State House has passed a bill (HB0077) on Thursday intending to provide protection of unborn children after a heartbeat is detected. The bill, introduced by primary sponsor State Rep. Micah Van Huss (R-Gray) at the beginning of this session of the Tennessee General Assembly, passed by an overwhelming margin of 65 ayes, 21 nays and 7 Republicans voting “present.” Governor Bill Lee and Lt. Governor Randy McNally have each expressed their support for the legislation. Tennessee Attorney General Herb Slatery has expressed reservations about the Constitutionality of the bill. Two Democrats, Rep. John DeBerry of Memphis and Rep. John Mark Windle of Livingston, voted in favor of the legislation. The seven Republicans who were present but took a pass on the vote were Representatives: Dale Carr (Sevierville), Jim Coley (Bartlett), Bill Dunn (Knoxville), Patsy Hazelwood (Signal Mountain), Justin Lafferty (Knoxville), and Pat Marsh (Shelbyville). State Representative Robin Smith, (R-Hixson), a former nurse and co-sponsor of the bill, said: “Just as the presence of a heartbeat indicates life with a child, teenager, adult or senior, the presence of a heartbeat is indicative of life of a baby in the womb of his or her mother. Tennesseans are pro-life in…

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EXCLUSIVE: Watch the Full Video of Williamson County Schools’ ‘White Privilege’ In-Service Training for Teachers

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In a recent in-service training session, Williamson County Schools’ teachers were presented with a video titled “Cultural Competency Series Module Three.” “Today we will be discussing privilege,” the unnamed narrator begins; adding: Our goals for today will be to begin to recognize the construct of privilege and its implications. I want to emphasize the word ‘begin,’ and encourage you to use this module as a springboard for further reading, discussions and reflection. Our second goal is for you to have built confidence in your ability to engage in courageous conversations about privilege. If we as educators do not build our capacity to discuss challenging topics with our colleagues, how can we teach those skills to our students? Our norms for these modules are, as always, to limit our distractions and to commit to our own personal learning and growth. As The Tennessee Star reported Tuesday: The 26-minute in-service training video, the third in a series about cultural competency, profiles several people whom the video describes as “Williamson County Voices.” The video does not identify anyone, nor does it make clear if these people are school system employees or county residents not formally affiliated with the school system. One man, though,…

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BREAKING: Two Williamson County School Teachers Resign After School Director Mike Looney Holds Secret Meeting Closed to Media

Chris Butler

The two Williamson County school teachers who asked students to hand out tasks to their pretend slaves have reportedly resigned from their jobs because of a “strong backlash from the community.” This, after parents met with Williamson County School Superintendent Mike Looney Tuesday night — a meeting reportedly off-limits to the press. Brentwoodhomepage.com reported the news Wednesday. As reported, the two teachers are Kim Best and Susan Hooper, and they teach at Sunset Middle School in Brentwood. The parents reportedly called for Best’s and Hooper’s resignations, according to Brentwoodhomepage.com The website quoted Inneta Gaines, who said the county school system has a problem with “cultural insensitivity.” “I don’t have a student at Sunset Middle, but I have friends that have students there,” Gaines reportedly said. “One in particular, there was an incident that happened about building a wall in a classroom, this [being] the Trump wall. This is stuff that’s going on in our school that doesn’t get brought to light.” Gaines told the website it “was not an appropriate assignment to give, especially in the political climate we’re in, especially with the diversity training that they (teachers) are supposed to be getting.” As The Tennessee Star reported this week,…

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After 50 Years, Ohio’s Lordstown Assembly Complex Ceases Production

Andrew Shirley

COLUMBUS, Ohio– On Wednesday, with dignity and uncertainty, the workers of Lordstown Assembly Plant assembled their last vehicle. The plant will still make certain parts but the Chevy Cruze, which had been produced and assembled at the plant since 2011, will no longer be produced in Ohio. As previously reported, in November of last year General Motors, the plant’s current operators, announced that five plants across America would be permanently shut down, or, as they referred to it in their public statement:”unallocated.” The plan was met with immediate backlash. President Donald Trump personally decried the decision, demanding that GM find a way to keep these plants open. After months of failed negotiations between GM, the federal government, the Ohio state government, labor leaders, national unions, and other car manufacturers, GM officially began their mass layoffs on February 5. Wednesday, Lordstown became the first of the five plants to cease operations. Almost all of the 1,700 employees have been, or will be, laid off. GM maintains that the plant will remain in a “state of readiness” should they find cause to reopen it for a new operator. However, this remains unlikely. GM has made it clear that its future with the plant is over. The Lordstown plant workers are currently represented by…

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Federalism Committee Chair John Becker Gauges Gas Tax as Ohio Statehouse Battle Ignites

Andrew Shirley

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The battle over a gas tax increase has officially kicked off in the Ohio Statehouse. Since taking office, Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has insisted that a gas tax was critically necessary to preserving and repairing the state’s decaying roads and bridges. Though many in the state on both sides of the political aisle agreed that some form of revenue increase would be necessary, the real question was exactly how much would the increase would be. In his State of the State Address on Tuesday, as previously reported, DeWine explicitly stated that his proposed gas tax increase of 18 cents was lowest it could go:  “Members of the General Assembly, by requesting $1.2 billion dollars to fill the budget hole and meet existing needs, let me assure you that I am taking a minimalist, conservative approach, with this being the absolute bare minimum we need to protect our families and our economy. He intended for it to go into effect immediately with no tax break offsets, and would peg it to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), thereby ensuring it would increase over time as the economy grew. However, prior to that speech, Ohio Republican State Speaker of the House Larry Householder…

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Commentary: Socialist Democrat Star AOC Headed For Jail?

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by CHQ Staff   Andrew Kerr, investigative reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation posted a blockbuster report suggesting that a “serious investigation” of Socialist Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her Chief of Staff, Silicon Valley millionaire Saikat Chakrabarti, could result in jail time if a campaign finance complaint were filed. Kerr reports that Ocasio-Cortez and Chakrabarti obtained majority control of Justice Democrats PAC in December 2017, according to archived copies of the group’s website, and the two appear to retain their control of the group, according to corporate filings obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation. If the Federal Election Commission (FEC) finds that the New York Democrat’s campaign operated in affiliation with the PAC, which had raised more than $1.8 million before her June 2018 primary, it would open them up to “massive reporting violations, probably at least some illegal contribution violations exceeding the lawful limits,” former FEC commissioner Brad Smith told Kerr. Ocasio-Cortez never disclosed to the FEC that she and Chakrabarti, who served as her campaign chair, controlled the PAC while it was simultaneously supporting her primary campaign, reported Kerr. Former FEC commissioners told Kerr the arrangement could lead to multiple campaign finance violations. The group backed…

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iPhone Sales Falling, and Apple’s App Fees Might Be Next

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As iPhone sales slip, Apple has been positioning its booming digital-services business as its new profit engine. But there could be a snag in that plan. A brewing backlash against the rich commissions Apple earns from all purchases and subscriptions made via iPhone apps could undercut the app store, which generates about a third of the company’s services revenue. Late last year, Netflix rebelled against Apple’s fees, which can range from 15 percent to 30 percent. Analysts fear other companies may follow. And attorneys representing consumers in a pending Supreme Court case charge that Apple is an unfair monopolist in the market for iPhone apps. An adverse decision, in that case, could open a legal door that might eventually force Apple to cut its generous commissions. Apple shares have plunged 25 percent from their peak in early October thanks to concern over iPhone sales. Investors are now hanging onto Apple services as a “life preserver in the choppy seas” just as it’s about to float away, Macquarie Securities analyst Benjamin Schachter concluded after the Netflix move. These app-store fees mostly hit app developers themselves, although some pass along the costs to users of their iPhone apps. Spotify, for instance, used…

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Cheaper to Buy Every American a Ferrari Than Fund the Green New Deal, Mitch McConnell Says

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by Michael Bastasch   For the cost of implementing the Green New Deal, the federal government could buy every American a brand new Ferrari luxury sports car, according to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “For the comparatively cheap price of just $66 trillion I’m told the government could buy every American a Ferrari,” McConnell said on the Senate floor Wednesday. McConnell is basing this cost comparison against a recent report by the right-leaning American Action Forum (AAF) that estimated the cost of the Green New Deal to be as high as $93 trillion over ten years, or $653,000 per household. “What a great idea. But of course, everyone would have to get their drive in before Democrats ban the internal combustion engine,” McConnell quipped about buying every American a Ferrari. McConnell joined other Republican lawmakers who took to the Senate floor to criticize the Green New Deal, which calls for radically transforming the U.S. economy to fight global warming and dramatically expand welfare and “social justice” programs. “93 trillion is more than every dollar our federal government has spent in its entire history to date,” McConnell said, referring to the AAF report. “It’s more than the combined annual GDP of…

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CNN Leak During Michael Cohen Testimony Recalls Memories of Network’s Bungled Don Jr. Story

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by Chuck Ross   In the middle of Michael Cohen’s private testimony to the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, CNN reported the former Trump fixer provided the panel with documents allegedly showing President Donald Trump’s attorneys edited false statements that Cohen made to Congress in 2017 regarding efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. The leak harkens back to another provided to CNN that led to an embarrassing retraction for the network. CNN reported Dec. 8, 2017, during the middle of Donald Trump Jr.’s testimony that he had received an email Sept. 4, 2016, with a link of unreleased WikiLeaks documents. CNN had wall-to-wall coverage of the scoop, which would have been the first evidence that Trump associates received WikiLeaks materials before their release. But CNN got the story entirely wrong. The email was actually sent to Trump Jr. on Sept. 14, 2016, a day after the same WikiLeaks documents contained in the email had been released to the public. CNN corrected its story but previously declined The Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests to explain the error. It remains to be seen whether the CNN report during Cohen’s testimony will suffer a similar fate. According to CNN’s anonymous sources,…

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Republican-Backed Medical Marijuana Bill Clears First Hurdle in Georgia

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by Evie Fordham   A Republican-backed bill to make it legal for Georgians to obtain, not just possess, limited amounts of medical marijuana oil cleared its first hurdle in the state’s House of Representatives Tuesday. The bill is sponsored by five Republican state representatives and one Democrat. Republican state Rep. Micah Gravley has been a leading proponent of the legislation, named “Georgia’s Hope Act,” and said it will allow Georgians with certain state-specified conditions to obtain the oil. “These aren’t people who are seeking a recreational high,” Gravley said, according to the West Georgia Neighbor. “These are people who simply want their children to experience less seizures, a loved one to be eased in the pain of cancer. These are people who simply want to go about their everyday lives and use an oil, and an oil only.” The legislation passed the Georgia House 123-40 and permits growing and manufacturing medical marijuana. The bill also allows 60 dispensaries to “serve the state’s rising number of physician-approved medical marijuana patients — more than 8,400 so far,” reported The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. If Gravley’s bill passes, Georgia would join 31 states that allow some form of marijuana cultivation. But critics of the bill…

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Commentary: Reparations: The Problems with Social Justice Economics

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by Doug McCullough   Senators Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, as well as former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro, have embraced the idea of reparations for the descendants of slaves as part of their 2020 presidential bids. As Castro said on MSNBC’s Hardball, It is interesting to me that under our Constitution and otherwise, that we compensate people if we take their property. Shouldn’t we compensate people if they were property sanctioned by the state? Writers like Ta-Nehisi Coates have made a sympathetic case for reparations for the crime of slavery: Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole. You will get no argument from me about the moral repugnance of slavery or racial injustice. But putting reparations in practice today would be challenging… and misguided. Slippery Slope Slavery, lynchings, Jim Crow laws, and all the other injustices that flowed from the hideous institution of slavery are some of the starkest blemishes on American history. Yet some have described the treatment by white settlers of indigenous peoples and the…

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Bloomberg’s Decision Not to Run for President Is a Windfall for the Sierra Club

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by Michael Bastasch   Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s decision not to run for president in 2020 has at least one group very excited — the Sierra Club. That’s because Bloomberg promised to “expand” his support for the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign, and the former mayor pledged to start a new climate activism venture to move the U.S. “Beyond Carbon.” Bloomberg’s goal is to close every U.S. coal plant in the next 11 years, a goal the Sierra Club reacted quickly to embrace. Bloomberg has already donated $110 million to the Club’s anti-coal campaign, and his op-ed suggests more funding is on the way. We’re proud of our partnership with @MikeBloomberg on @BeyondCoal — and we’re excited about his focus on moving beyond ALL fossil fuels to 100% clean energy. https://t.co/9bPfIS2LWK — Sierra Club (@SierraClub) March 5, 2019 Sierra Club leaders were quick to praise Bloomberg’s decision as well. Beyond Coal’s Director Mary Anne Hitt praised Bloomberg’s “partnership” and “leadership in pushing to move beyond all fossil fuels.” .@MikeBloomberg is right. We can, and we will, retire every coal plant in the country in the next eleven years — just like we can move to 100% clean…

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Arizona Lawmakers Stand Up for Students Wearing ‘MAGA’ Gear in Dispute With High School

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by Ginny Montalbano   Some Arizona lawmakers are raising free speech concerns after a group of students and parents said high school officials called on students to remove pro-Trump “Make America Great Again” gear. The incident occurred March 1 when Perry High School in Gilbert, Arizona, hosted its “Party in the USA” Spirit Day. Heidi Jones and Jennifer Farris, the mothers of two girls in the group who wore the Trump gear, told the Arizona Republic newspaper that school officials asked students to take off their gear. The school suspended Jones’ daughter, Logan, but a school spokesman later said that action was unrelated to the Spirit Day events. According to Arizona Central, a spokesman for the Chandler Unified School District said that other than a Trump banner, students were “not asked to put away any Trump gear.” But parents and students disputed that. Principal Dan Serrano sent out an email to detail the school’s side of the story. “The administration addressed an incident that occurred at lunch this past Friday, when students carrying political signage caused a disruption and created safety concern. The students were asked to put away the signage, and they complied,” Serrano wrote Saturday. “However, after school…

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US Officials Issue Sanctions Warnings to Europe Over Russian Gas

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U.S. officials have warned at an energy conference in Brussels that the Trump administration will take punitive action against European companies that are building the Kremlin-favored Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, which will deliver energy from Russia to Germany while bypassing Ukraine. Nord Stream 2 (NS2) will largely replace an older pipeline running through Ukraine and Poland that has the backing of the German government. But it is prompting the alarm of Central European governments, increasingly infuriated with Berlin’s dismissal of their concerns. They object to Nord Stream 2 — which will run 1,200 kilometers from Vyborg, Russia, to Lubmin, Germany, and snake under the Baltic Sea — not only because they’ll lose lucrative transit fees from the older pipeline, but because they fear the Kremlin wants to develop NS2 largely for political reasons, not commercial ones. Speaking at the energy conference in the Belgian capital, Nicole Gibson, deputy director of the U.S. State Department’s office for Europe, warned that if European companies resume laying pipe later this year they “risk significant sanctions.” Declining to go into any details about the threatened sanctions, Gibson said Washington doesn’t accept that Nord Stream 2 is a done deal. “Some people say…

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America’s Biggest Medical Association Sues Trump Administration Over Abortion Rule

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by Grace Carr   The American Medical Association and Planned Parenthood filed a Tuesday lawsuit against the Trump administration over its latest move to force abortion clinics to separate abortion from other health care services in order to qualify for Title X funding. The groups argue that the final rule is unconstitutional and violates a congressional mandate requiring health care providers receiving Title X funds to provide complete and unbiased information to patients. They filed their lawsuit in a U.S. District Court in Eugene, Oregon. Title X is a federal grant program that provides individuals with “comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services,” according to HHS. “Because of the administration’s overreach and interference … physicians will be prohibited from having open, frank conversations with their patients about all their health care options,”AMA President Barbara McAneny said, according to The Associated Press. “This blatant violation of patients’ rights under the Code of Medical Ethics is untenable.” The lawsuit follows the Trump administration’s Feb. 22 rule barring Title X funds from supporting programs and organizations that provide abortions or abortion referrals. The rule states that “none of the funds appropriated for Title X may be used in programs where abortion is…

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Tennessee May Reportedly Give FedEx $10 Million in Corporate Welfare

Chris Butler

Tennessee officials may decide this week to give $10 million in corporate welfare to FedEx, the state’s largest employer, according to various news outlets. When asked, the people at FedEx told The Tennessee Star that, yes, they are seeking corporate welfare. “FedEx considers all available state and local financial incentives when evaluating potential facility projects,” said spokesman Jonathan Lyons, in an emailed statement. “As a matter of policy, we do not publicly discuss specifics of a project until all the details have been finalized. We are thrilled about being a part of this important development for downtown Memphis.” According to U.S. News & World Report, members of the State Funding Board may decide the matter Friday. There, they will reportedly discuss a new Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development report on that and other matters. “A $10 million FastTrack Economic Development Grant has been proposed for the establishment of a headquarters by FedEx Logistics in the former Gibson Guitar factory in downtown Memphis,” U.S. News & World Report said. “The board also is set to vote on a $1.2 million grant for JNJ Express trucking company to turn an abandoned shopping center into its new headquarters. Both Shelby County…

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The Tennessee Star Report: Phil Kerpen Provides Details on the Knoxville Location That Served as Campaign Hub for AOC and Justice Democrats

Julie Carr

On Wednesday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Gill spoke with Kerpen who is an American free-market policy analyst and political organizer. He is the president of American Commitment, a conservative 501c organization which he founded in 2012. The Tennessee Star Report spoke to Kerpen about his recent Twitter feed wherein a Knoxville location on Gay Street was the hub for the newly elected freshman congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, which allegedly funneled funds through the location between PAC and campaign accounts through corporations. Gill: Yesterday I was reading through the twitter stream of Phil Kerpen who previously was vice president of American’s for Prosperity is now President of the American free market policy group, American Commitment. It’s a conservative 501 organization that he founded in two thousand and twelve. He and I actually ran into each other repeatedly at Grover Norquist’s regular weekly meetings and through American’s for Prosperity. So anyway I’m reading through Phil’s Twitter and there’s a picture of a building in Knoxville, Tennessee and I’m going, “Wait a minute, I’m from Knoxville, I know that building.”…

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Homeland Security Secretary Insists Border Crisis Is ‘Real’

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Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen insisted Wednesday the crisis at the southern border is not manufactured, as she faced questions from Democrats for the first time since they took control of the House. “We face a crisis — a real, serious and sustained crisis at our borders,” she said at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing. “Make no mistake: This chain of human misery is getting worse.” Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said he wanted to use the hearing in part to give Nielsen the opportunity to start a “serious discussion,” rather than echoing President Donald Trump’s claims of a security crisis at the border, and to say what she knew about the family separations last year. He said real oversight over the border was long overdue. “No amount of verbal gymnastics will change that she knew the Trump administration was implementing a policy to separate families at the border,” Thompson said. “To make matters worse, the administration bungled implementation of its cruel plan, losing track of children and even deporting parents to Central America without their children.” Nielsen was grilled on whether she was aware of the psychological effects of separating children from their parents, and when she knew ahead…

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Ohio Federalism Committee Convenes to Discuss Government Overreach

Andrew Shirley

COLUMBUS, Ohio— The Federalism Committee of the Ohio House of Representatives convened its Wednesday session with an unusual goal: debate and discuss the 10th amendment, the limits of state sovereignty, and the greater philosophies that underpin the constitutional system. The spirited session began with guest Michael Maharrey of the Tenth Amendment Center briefing the committee members, along with a crowd of roughly forty attendees, on his analysis that the federal government has grossly overstepped its constitutional limits, specifically the tenth amendment. Per the center’s site: The Tenth Amendment makes explicit two fundamental constitutional principles that are implicit in the document itself. The federal government is only authorized to exercise those powers delegated to it. The people of the several states retain the authority to exercise any power that is not delegated to the federal government as long as the Constitution doesn’t expressly prohibit it. He asserted that the federal government, through a myriad of abuses, including warrantless monitoring of citizen communications and unrestricted warfare, has greatly violated the sovereign rights of the states. He claimed that the states have the right to combat these abuses by several measures, the most powerful of which is nullification. The organization outlines this process as follows: Madison gave…

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Ex-Muslim Turned Christian Pastor Speaks at Minnesota Capitol Ahead of Court Hearing

Anthony Gockowski

A group of Minnesotans gathered at the State Capitol Wednesday night to host a prayer rally for Pastor Ramin Parsa, who was arrested at the Mall of America in August on charges of misdemeanor trespassing. As The Minnesota Sun reported in November, Parsa visited Minnesota in August and was invited by one of his hosts to see “the biggest mall in North America.” While there, Parsa said he “randomly ran into some Somalis, we had a random conversation.” “They asked me where I’m from. I told them and the conversation led to whether I was Muslim or not. I replied, ‘I used to be but I’m a Christian now,’” he said. Parsa claims that “another woman who was not part of the conversation went and complained to the security,” and he was ultimately charged with trespassing. Parsa, who runs Redemptive Love Ministries in Los Angeles, returned to Minnesota Wednesday evening ahead of his Thursday morning hearing. His supporters organized a prayer rally Wednesday night at the State Capitol where Parsa spoke about the religious persecution he’s experienced in other countries. “I’ve been through this before in other countries,” he said during the rally. “The only thing that made me sad…

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Three More Arrests in North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional District Case

A.P. Dillon

There have been three more arrests in the current criminal case involving absentee ballot harvesting in North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District. According to a press release by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, Caitlyn Croom was arrested on March 3 in New Hanover County. Croom has been charged with conspiracy to commit felony obstruction of justice and possession of absentee ballots. On March 5, Tonia Marie Gordon and Matthew Monroe Mathis were also taken into custody and charged with felonious obstruction of justice and possession of an absentee ballots. Mathis was also charged with falsely signing the certification on an absentee ballot. Gordon turned herself in at the Bladen County Magistrate’s office and Mathis was arrested by the Sampson County Sheriff’s office. Rebecca Thompson, who also was indicted, has not yet been arrested. Last week, the man allegedly running the operation, Leslie McCrae Dowless, was arrested for three counts of felonious obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and two counts of possession of absentee ballots. Dowless was arrested by State Bureau of Investigation Agents in Bladensboro and a secure bond of $30,000 was set. After several days of evidentiary hearings last month, North Carolina…

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Illegal Immigrant With Criminal Record Sexually Abused Minnesota Senior Center Patient

Anthony Gockowski

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) revealed Wednesday that a 23-year-old man accused of sexually abusing a resident of a St. Cloud senior center is in the country illegally. ICE issued an immigration detainer and administrative arrest warrant against Jesus Manzanilla-Alvarado after responding to a call from St. Benedict’s Center where he was employed. Manzanilla-Alvarado later admitted to having sexual contact with a female resident in the home over a period of two weeks. According to a criminal complaint filed against Manzanilla-Alvarado with the Minnesota Department of Health and obtained by The St. Cloud Times, he spent an “inordinate amount of time with” the woman and was accused of touching her genitals while masturbating. Manzanilla-Alvarado faces charges of gross misdemeanor mistreatment of residents or patients, and gross misdemeanor criminal sexual abuse of a vulnerable adult by a caregiver. If convicted and sentenced, Manzanilla-Alvarado would likely face deportation after he’s released. But according to ICE spokesman Shawn Neudauer of the agency’s St. Paul field office, this isn’t the first time Manzanilla-Alvarado has faced criminal charges. In fact, he has a “criminal history” that includes “numerous misdemeanor convictions,” Neudauer told The Minnesota Sun. One of those convictions seems to include a 2015…

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Questions Surround Who Approved ‘White Privilege’ Training for Williamson County Teachers

Chris Butler

Williamson County officials had the ultimate power to approve an In-service “white privilege” training curriculum for their teachers last month, said a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Education Wednesday. But that’s inconsistent with the TDOE’s standards and practices on In-service teacher training, as specified on that department’s website. Tennessee’s education commissioner, according to the rules, has the final say approving any In-service training plans. Local school system officials submit those plans to the education commissioner months before the start of the new school year. “In-service days shall be used according to a plan recommended by the local superintendent of schools in accordance with the provisions of this section and other applicable statutes, and adopted by the local board of education,” the TDOE website said. “A copy of this plan shall be filed with the State Commissioner of Education on or before June 1 the preceding school year and approved by him.” The Tennessee Star asked TDOE officials Tuesday and Wednesday whether officials from that department had approved Williamson’s “white privilege” In-service training curriculum? TDOE spokeswoman Chandler Hopper, in an emailed statement, said the following: “Tennessee is a state that believes in local authority, so the content of inservice trainings…

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