🚨🚨🚨 Thread: I really want you all to understand these dark money organizations that are spending millions lying to voters at election time in this state. They do it when a candidate has a strong voice against the millionaires and billionaire special interests.
Some of the worst are the school privatizing groups. How can you say you are an organization for children when you spend millions to lie and spread trash about public school advocates? Two of these groups are Tennesseans for Students Success and TN Federation for Children.
Betsy DeVos was board chair for American Federation for Children and former Haslam staffers started TSS to push for vouchers for private schools. Lee is a DeVos faithful and TSS cheerleader, he used them to send warnings during his voucher votes.
TSS is connected to pay-day lenders that cause damage to TN families, especially struggling families. When they accuse my friends of BS like TSS is putting out, I am going to call them on it-I don't care how many hundreds of thousands of dollars they spend against me. Bring it!
They’re sending fliers with blatant lies against @RepMikeStewart. Similar to the lies they told about me, as if this organization cares about kids? I don't know if they are sloppy, ignorant, or think voters are dumb-but the "information" they spew is either a lie or a distortion.
They say he voted against literacy for kids--LIE. He voted against a bill that took away teacher autonomy, taught reading in a one size fits all program that was scripted and robotic and has not proven to be effective...and it would give millions of TN $$ to corporations.
He also voted for a bill that got rid of Kindergarten portfolios and high stakes testing for K-2, teachers and parents begged for this legislation. They will still be tested, just not using high stakes measurements that are not appropriate at their stage of development.
They also said he voted against other things and cited the bill #, a bill he clearly supported as did every member of the legislature. They make vague assertions and cite incorrect bills and actually say he voted the opposite of what the record shows.
I really can't stand a liar-especially ones that do it in the name of our kids. That's a special kind of evil.
Anyway, if you are in Nashville, @RepMikeStewart has done nothing but fight for public ed for EVERY child. I have no doubt they will recycle this BS in the general election in my race, I voted the same as Mike did, because we put the kids before the billionaires!
I sure hope KCS and other school systems get smart and stop letting these dark money groups who fight against public schools into our buildings-what are they even thinking?
Hey Tennessee friends, here are some things to remember about voting in November, especially for new voters and new to TN voters!
We are about 3 weeks away from the last day to register to vote for the November election. OCTOBER 7th is the last day to register to vote if you plan to vote in November!
You do not register to vote by party in Tennessee. This is a GENERAL election and you vote for the person you believe to be best for the job and no one knows how you vote unless you tell them. This is different than a PRIMARY election where you choose a Dem or GOP ballot.
Early voting begins October 16 and goes through October 31st. Early voting is the easiest way to vote because lines are shorter and you can show up at any of the voting locations in your county, regardless of where you live. It is also a big help to candidates if you early vote😉
Since it’s #LaborDay2024, I want to talk about a couple I met Saturday in Mountain City. They had kids and struggled to make ends meet on the salaries they earned in Mountain City. The mom wasn’t working because she couldn’t make enough in TN to afford childcare while working.
She was able to go back to get a degree so she could get a better job, yet there were no jobs in her town/state with better salaries. She still couldn’t work in TN and afford child care.
She and her husband both go to jobs in other states. One drives an hour to work in Boone, NC, the other drives 45 minutes into Virginia each day. VA’s minimum wage is $12 an hour instead of the $7.25 in TN.
I don’t know y’all, but it seems a certain election administrator may have 💩 and fell back in it? Seems he may be operating outside his statutory authority.
These intimidating letters inviting citizens to remove themselves from the voting rolls could be incredibly scary to those who don’t realize this is just another unAmerican GOP scare tactic to keep them from exercising their right to vote.
1 of Knoxville’s election commish got the letters at home as her husband & his son are from France. Her husband has been a citizen since 2016 and if Goins checked the records in the code cited above, there would be no need to send the letter…but I believe she sent him one😉
I ended up having an education day today. We met with the school board and listened to their concerns and needs. It was surprising how many bills we have that will affect them that most folks are unaware of.
One that is particularly concerning is about Charter schools getting first dibs on decommissioned school properties. wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/…
It’s concerning for many reasons, mostly because tax payer dollars and the LEA will be used to bring these buildings up to standard. Another Rep from Knoxville said I was wrong, but here is the bill language.
“there is a strong relationship between wage levels and criminal behavior, which explains why, over the past 20 years, crime rates for young men have increased while their wages have decreased.” nber.org/digest/nov97/h…
Studies show raising the wage lowers crime. The TN supermajority refuses to raise the wage.