The GOP may not care much about truth, but parents, teachers and school officials don’t appreciate being gaslighted when it comes to their students. So here’s what their campaign video doesn’t tell you:
I said $160 million is not enough and I stand by it. Under Republicans, Tennessee has dropped to 46th in student funding. If you want to understand why 3rd graders are not at level, start here.
I said teachers earn less today than they did a decade ago. The NEA’s 2020 Rankings show that Tennessee teachers earn 2.71% less today than a decade ago after you adjust for inflation. Perhaps the cost of living hasn’t increased for Republicans. nea.org/sites/default/…
Here’s what the bill ACTUALLY does for teacher pay... spoiler alert: not much!
It’s a 2% increase to the state’s share of salary funding for HALF the school year.
Math teachers, feel free to confirm: A 2% increase on 50% of your pay is ONLY a 1% increase.
The GOP is bragging about this “2% increase” is exactly why teachers feel burned and mislead. Many teachers won’t see anything close to that increase because the state only includes an increase to cover raises for 66,000 teachers.
But we have about 77,000 teachers in the state. So when districts split the money between all of the teachers, the increase dwindles away.
It’s a simple matter of priorities:
Over the last decade under GOP control, they’ve passed a BILLION dollars worth of tax breaks for Wall Street and billionaires while they’ve let TN’s student funding crash to 46th in the nation.
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Thread👇🏼 Well, we got committees today. I had been told by Dem leadership, who talked to GOP leadership, that I wouldn't be getting anything I wanted.
I didn't vote for the speaker or the Secretary of State and I call out folks on social media for voting on bad bills or saying icky or racist stuff. I'll be honest, sometimes I feel like I am still teaching teens with behavioral disorders😉
If I was in the US Senate I wouldn't vote for Mitch McConnell and I would bet you $100 if Cameron Sexton was in the US House he wouldn't vote for Nancy Pelosi. We don't share the same values--I think healthcare is a right, he does not, and so on....
Thread👇🏼 Today I was the only member to abstain rather than vote for Speaker Sexton on the house floor. I want people to understand why I did not vote for Speaker Sexton. I am a Democrat, the people who sent me here know my values.
I believe healthcare is a human right, I believe in raising the wage, paid family leave, funding public education, medical cannabis, peaceful protests, criminal justice reform, equality for all, climate change is real, and a woman’s right to make her own health decisions.
Speaker Sexton and I don’t agree on many of these, and that’s ok, but I would like to be able to have the choice of voting for someone who shares my values. Do you expect Senate Democrats to vote for Mitch McConnel? House GOP to vote for Pelosi? And that should be ok.
Thread On 12/10/20 I was on a zoom w/School Superintendents across East TN, these were their asks: teacher raises, holding students/teachers harmless on evals, hold systems harmless for BEP, more nurses/mental health, broadband, allow us to select our own programs, & NO VOUCHERS!
Tonight I’ve been talking w/ teachers. They are exhausted, they are working double & triple time, they need more support staff, more time for planning, and a safe work environment. They need the vaccine. They need to make more money than they did 20 years ago.
I talked to parents tonight too. They want their kids to be safe and healthy. Some are concerned about the meals they miss at school and hope the “distance lunches” could be healthier. Some are afraid their kids will bring home the virus.
Governor Lee just announced a Special Session for Education on January 19th.
Apparently he is very concerned about learning loss...I sure wish he had been concerned about this learning loss when we tried desperately to address it in budget amendments in March and June-before we had learning loss and could have prevented it!
We literally told him this would happen, and he refused to act. We had amendments to provide funding and the GOP voted every one down. They are never proactive and refuse to make education a priority in the budget.
Thread👉🏽 Some of you may have seen @6News tonight, for those who didn’t, they asked for my thoughts on Bill Dunn’s new gig at the State Dept of Education, so I gave them. Here they are...
It is a slap in the face of educators, students, and parents to give this position to someone who has no teaching/education background.
There are hundreds of educators across this state who could do a huge service in this position, actually helping the legislature understand what is needed in our classrooms-literacy experts with PhDs in this field.