Corey DeAngelis, a school choice activist and senior fellow at the American Federation for Children, said it’s time for Tennessee State Representative Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill) to be voted out of office amid his anti-school choice stunts, including his recent work with News Channel 5’s Phil Williams.
On Monday, Warner appeared in Williams’ investigative segment regarding the conservative political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity pushing for state lawmakers to advance Governor Bill Lee’s universal school choice bill.
Warner, who voted against the bill last month in the K-12 Subcommittee, told Williams he’s “not leadership’s bi***” in regards to House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) and House Republican leadership – all of whom support the governor’s school choice bill – and supposedly is voting the way his district wants him to vote.
However, during Monday’s episode of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, host Michael Patrick Leahy – who is represented by Warner – said the representative told him he supported school choice when asked at the time of his last reelection bid.
“Last election cycle…I wanted to know where Todd Warner stood and as a constituent, I asked him, ‘Do you support school choice?’ And he said yes. That was before the August 2022 primary. So based on his statement to me, I voted for him in that primary. And now he’s lied to me. I don’t like it when my state representative lies to me,” Leahy said
DeAngelis also noted recent polling, which has consistently shown Tennesseans across the state in support of school choice.
“We overwhelmingly find that Tennesseans support school choice and that this is a nationwide trend as well. And what he says in the clip is that he’s listening to his district. What does that mean? That’s code for the special interest to control the government school monopoly. It sounds like he caved to them and he’s no longer fulfilling his campaign promise that he responded to you, that he actually supported school choice. Now he’s letting the special interests that are in his district control him and to block parental rights and education,” DeAngelis said.
DeAngelis said school choice has become a “Republican GOP litmus test issue,” noting how it’s “bad news” for lawmakers to align instead with the teachers union and anti-choice movements.
“The hardest thing to do in politics is to take out a sitting legislator. Incumbents usually win 95 percent of the time but with school choice, that trend has become inverted. Even if you’re an incumbent, if you come out against education freedom, it’s bad news because it’s become a Republican GOP litmus test issue. And so this doesn’t look good for Todd Warner either, especially after he said that he supported it, and then looks like he’s totally against it, aligning with Phil Williams over at Channel 5,” DeAngelis said.
“At the end of the day, who’s going to the ballot box to vote against someone who votes against school choice? It’s the actual parents, which are a new interest group that are just fighting for the right to educate their own kids as they see fit. They’re the ones that are going to cast the vote at the end of the day. So they’re the ones that are ultimately holding fake Republicans like Todd Warner accountable at the ballot box,” DeAngelis added.
In regards to Williams’ second hit piece on the governor’s school choice bill, DeAngelis called the segment a “desperate attempt for attention from a so-called journalist,” as the so-called “secret recording” released simply reveals how interest groups boast their resources to intimidate lawmakers to vote a certain way – a tactic used in politics for hundreds of years.
“Basically what Phil Williams does is he presents nothing but a nothing burger to the table and tries to present it as if it’s some groundbreaking news. It’s so pathetic, really. It’s a desperate attempt for attention from a so-called journalist. And all he really revealed is that, ‘Oh, political groups are doing political things. We support this policy. If you don’t support it, that’s probably going to be bad news for you because voters aren’t going to vote for you.’ That is nothing new in politics,” DeAngelis said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Corey DeAngelis” by Corey DeAngelis.
Thanks to everyone who comments here. The comments are helpful.
Americans for Prosperity is a Koch Brothers group. I’m suspicious of any group affiliated with the Koch Brothers – they oppose Trump and want unlimited illegal immigration. Americans for Prosperity backs Nikki Hailey.
I think School Choice is a good idea but I researched it about 7 years ago and at that time the biggest beneficiary in some states were Muslim schools – they would recruit “teachers” from Muslim nations and the jobs let those people come to the US.
Geez, the next thing you know we will be bringing in Betsy (Mrs. Common Core) DeVos into our state as the Commissioner of Education. DeAngelis is a Sr. Fellow at the American Federation for Children which is an organization founded by Betsy (Mrs. Common Core) DeVos. He makes his money pushing this agenda. Our Governor has been in bed with The American Federation for Children since he started his campaign for Governor. His campaign Policy Director was Tony Niknejad (TN Federation for Children) and up until August 2023 he was in the Lee administration with the same role. Gee, where is Tony now? He has gone on to bigger things with Stones River Group out of Nashville. When this scheme fails to produce the results promised will DeAngelis be held accountable? Will Governor Lee or the legislators that supported this scheme? No they will not. They will all have gone on to bi$$er thing$. Just like no one has ever been held accountable for the failed Common Core and the other failed “fixes.” They will just latch on to the next shiny object dangled in front of them. There is no easy fix for this situation. We need to scrap everything we are doing, search for the best and tell the federal government to take a hike. They have no authority over education yet we allow them to hold us hostage and sell out our children for federal money.
Rep. Warner should be applauded but he is stepping where they don’t want him to step so now he needs to be destroyed? He is exposing this fraud for what it really is. Parents in TN already have school choice and have for years but now our Governor and most legislators (and parents too) that think money is going to fix a messed up education system want us to not only pay for public school but to pay for private education as well. If what is being taught in private schools is so much better than what our public schools are doing then why not just adopt what the private schools are teaching? Oh but that just might interfere with federal money, right? And there you have it folks. We don’t want to take what is working and use it in our public schools because we might anger the federal Gods. I believe this violates our state constitution which clearly states the state of TN is to provide free PUBLIC education. Of course it is not free in the first place. The voucher scheme is how they will eventually suck all children into the same system. Just like they convinced parents that Charters were different and would improve education. Charters ARE public schools and do follow the same failed standards, curriculum and testing as the traditional public schools parents were convinced to leave. Moving your kids from one school to another, chasing good money after bad is not the answer. It is the easy way for legislators to make parents think they are working to make education better but all they are doing is throwing money at a problem that was not caused by a lack of money. This also smells of socialism. A family with 3 kids would get $21,000. Did that family pay $21K in taxes.. No they did not. That means our state is taking from some to give to others that did nothing to earn what they got. That is redistribution of wealth and that is socialism folks. Our Governor and our legislators refuse to do the hard work that is needed to fix our education problem. They are afraid to buck the federal government. 10+ years ago many of us tried to convince our legislators that Common Core would damage education achievement not increase it and no one would listen. And here we are addressing another education crisis because they would not listen 10+ years ago and they are still not listening. Vouchers are a gauze pad on a bleeding wound. One of the goals of the globalist education agenda, which Common Core is part, is to get ALL children in the world learning the exact same thing. it is all about creating global citizens. Common Core was not just implemented in the US. It was implemented all over the world. They can have no outliers. Their goal is to get all children under the same indoctrination umbrella and Common Core, Charters and Vouchers are all part of the plan. And YES people Tennessee still has Common Core and any legislator that says different is either lying or they do not have a clue what is being taught. We have been throwing money into education for decades saying it will help the poor children become more academically successful. Well how has that been working so far? After well over 50 years our poor children are worse off now than ever before and this system has taken middle class and the rich children down with them. It is a proven fact that home educated children achieve higher academic success than children in the public school environment and home education cost almost nothing. So there again proves money is not the answer. Parents with their hand out instead of doing the hard work required to be parents are just as bad as the legislators writing the checks.