Public school officials in Tennessee who protest school vouchers insist public schools are by far the best option for children, especially versus charter schools or private schools.
Yet in their written communications some of them can’t seem to put a proper sentence together.
Take Etowah City School Principal Brian Trammell, for instance.
Trammell’s email to his teachers and other staff members this month begging them to lobby against school vouchers contained almost a dozen grammatical errors.
Examples, with The Tennessee Star’s corrections in parenthesis:
• “Yesterday Senate Bill 795(,) the Education Savings Account Bill (the alternative name for Vouchers to make the general public feel good about the Bill) (,) passed the Senate Education Sub-Committee.”
• “The response from our Senators and Representatives will be that it will not effect (affect) McMinn County/Etowah City School students and families, but it will.”
• “Once (a) pandoras (Pandora’s) box is open, parent groups, such as, (no comma needed) Homeschool parents start suing (comma needed) wanting the same “benefit” in every district in the state.”
• “What is being communicated is ‘the folks in favor of this Bill are out numbering (outnumbering) the opposition.”
• “If you have time(,) please email Representative Mark Cochran and thank him for standing up in opposition to this Bill. He is under extreme pressure from very wealthy and powerful lobbyist (lobbyists), (no comma needed), inside his Party and from folks not even from Tennessee.”
As The Star reported last month, Dale Lynch, the executive director of the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents does not use proper grammar on social media.
TOSS, according to their list of legislative priorities, oppose school vouchers that would help children in failing public schools.
Last month, Lynch tweeted the following:
“TN Supts…hope your engaging as Commission Schwinn presents the State Education budget that will effect your district. @tosstn1975 #engagenow”
If this tweet was on paper, and if an English composition teacher were grading it, he or she would doubtless grab his or her red pen and draw a circle around “your” and “effect.”
Using proper English, the tweet should have said ““TN Supts…hope YOU’RE engaging as Commissioner Schwinn presents the State Education budget that will AFFECT your district.
“You’re,” of course, is short for “you are.”
As for the difference between “affect” and “effect,” Vocabulary.com puts it this way:
“Choosing between affect and effect can be scary. Think of Edgar Allan Poe and his RAVEN: Remember Affect Verb Effect Noun. You can’t affect the creepy poem by reading it, but you can enjoy the effect of a talking bird.”
Again, members of TOSS oppose school vouchers because they say public schools provide a better education.
According to TOSS’ website, the organization “opposes any legislation that uses public funds to sponsor private school vouchers or education savings accounts.”
According to TOSS’ website, Lynch was the Hamblen County director of schools and has a doctorate of education from East Tennessee State University.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Dale Lynch” by TOSS. Background Photo “Etowah City School” by Etowah City School.
[…] The Tennessee Star reported last year, public school officials in Tennessee who protest school vouchers insisted public schools are by […]
And the Education establishment will be the first to tell us they know what’s best for your children.
Why didn’t the author also mark down the principal for improper capitalization? I quickly read through and found at least three: Voucher, Homeschool and Party.
Unfair to single out Tennessee. We have all been dumbed down by illiterate media and know-it-alls who don’t.
Some of these vouchers should be set aside for those in most need like these two educators. If these two stories are representative of Tennessee education would any vouchers then be left for the kids?
“Choosing between affect and effect can be scary. Think of Edgar Allan Poe and his RAVEN: Remember Affect Verb Effect Noun. You can’t affect the creepy poem by reading it, but you can enjoy the effect of a talking bird.”
Common misperception. Both ‘affect’ and ‘effect’ can be verbs AND nouns, though the usage in this instance is, to be fair, incorrect. as Chris Butler points out.
Figures.
Could it be that Mr. Trammell was, or is, one of the 66% of third graders in Tennessee who fail to read at a third grade level? Could Mr. Trammell have been the prototypical candidate for the remedial TN Promise program?
It truly is pathetic that most of our “educators” are so vehemently opposed to school choice! Maybe we need a different strategy? Fire all of the “educators” and just hire teachers!
Disgusting, Lynch represented my county…