Aaron Gulbransen, executive director of the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition, and Michael Patrick Leahy, editor-in-chief and CEO of The Tennessee Star, condemned Tennessee State Representative Todd Warner’s (R-Chapel Hill) vote against Governor Bill Lee’s proposed school voucher program.
On Tuesday, state lawmakers on the K-12 Subcommittee voted 6-2 to pass the House version of the governor’s school voucher program, which would make Education Freedom Scholarships worth $7,000 available to students in every county of the state.
Warner joined Democrat State Representative Sam McKenzie (D-Knoxville) in voting against the program.
“What is it about politics where people do crazy, inexplicable things? I’m talking about the ridiculous conduct of my state representative, Todd Warner from Chapel Hill, who is ostensibly a Republican. Earlier this week, however, the K-12 subcommittee of the House Education Administration Committee brought to a vote the governor’s signature program, the universal school choice program, which has been hailed across the country as by far the best conservative legislation that’s been put forward on this issue in the country…Todd Warner inexplicably voted no and I think there’s a little bit of puppet activity going on here,” Leahy said on Thursday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report.
Leahy asked Gulbransen why Warner (pictured above) decided to “put a dagger in the back” of the governor through his opposing vote.
Gulbransen said school choice has been part of the Republican Party platform for years, noting how former President Donald Trump “rightfully refers to school choice as the civil rights issue of our time.”
“What school choice does is it recognizes parents’ rights to choose a better education for their children, gives them more options,” Gulbransen explained. “It is a parents rights issue if your kid is stuck in a school that’s bad and you are tired of the woke garbage and teachers reading, you know, “my two mommies” books and that sort of thing, but that’s the only school that you can afford and somehow a government or somebody comes along and there’s a scholarship and in this case the proposal which is Governor Lee’s Education Freedom Scholarship.”
“It enables you to get out of your woke indoctrination factory that is dominated by teachers unions. That is a very conservative thing. It is a freedom issue,” Gulbransen added.
Leahy said that the current district Warner represents needs a “true conservative, not a phony puppet.”
“Todd, you represent me, I will not be voting for you,” Leahy added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Todd Warner” by Todd Warner.
The teachers unions are doing a better job messaging about the “evils” of school choice than have the conservatives.
“put a dagger in the back” of the governor
The legislature is suppose to make law, not do the bidding of the governor.