School Vouchers: If your product is good, then why force people to stay in your system?

School choice. Republican Governor Bill Lee faces opposition from his own party in Northeast Tennessee. Or does he?

The people who are the strongest opponents to school choice are those who run public education systems. Why is that?

Take a minute and read this by the Kingsport Times News about the recent meeting by local officials to deride the value of school choice.

I saw this philosophy (public schools are the only way) when Kingsport tried to purchase the old Colonial Heights Middle School instead of letting Lakeway Christian by it. Why was that? Well, it was pretty obvious to everyone that Kingsport and Sullivan County were afraid that the new Lakeway Christian School was going to be competition. The best way to prevent that(other than fining Lakeway for silt in a creek) was for the property to be bought by the government so that a private entity couldn’t have it. Fortunately, at the last minute Lakeway aquired the property. They are doing a lot of great work over there if you haven’t been by the campus. It will be a marked upgrade for that community. Private business is creating a new campus for Colonial Heights. I have seen similar outcomes in Knoxville during the early 1980s. Knoxville’s public schools were lacking. Private school rosters ballooned. It forced west Knoxville public schools to improve their own product which they did. There are fantastic public school options now in Knoxville now. That wouldn’t have happened without private schools forcing public schools to up their game.

So what did we see last week? Kingsport public officials and local politicians breaking from their own Republican Party and supporting Democrat efforts to block vouchers which are supported by both Governor Bill Lee and President-elect Donald Trump. That seems like politically thin ice to be walking on when your school system is in one of the reddest districts in Tennessee. There is a mandate for Turmp’s policies. Something to think about.

Do I support vouchers? I do wholeheartedly. I used to not support them. I changed my mind a few years ago. When COVID hit and our schools were closed, Kingsport’s then BOE(not the current one) tried to silence pediatricians by limiting their time to speak to the Board. By the way, the Sullivan County BOE gave unlimited time to physicians who wanted to speak. That tells you something right there. I can 100% guarantee you that if vouchers where in place then, people would have left KCS in droves. And who could have blamed them? ASC(central office) was not the least bit ready for virtual learning. Meanwhile, Knox County schools stayed open for the entire year without excuses. I have made no secret that Kingsport’s ASC needs drastic and substantial personnel changes. The same people who supported public school closings and supported silencing medical doctors…they still work there. Until they make those changes, I want people to have the choice to take their tax dollars and go somewhere else. Families shouldn’t be trapped in a system that is tone deaf to families and staff.

Donald Trump was elected, because our nation’s government quit listening. Want to see what happens when politicians and leaders quite listening? Look no further than Los Angeles and Malibu where many homes have been destroyed by fire. The governor of the State of California and local politicians of the area gutted police and fire services. They failed to fill reservoirs used for firefighting and for keeping fire hydrants supplied. They failed to clear brush around neighborhoods. And it wasn’t like they weren’t told. They were told….over and over and over and over. They were told by countless citizens, firefighters, and even Donald Trump. Local and state government officals in California became aloof. They were disconnected from real life. They ignored the public’s concerns, and have now paid a mind boggling and incredibly sad price. I can just about guarantee you that voting patterns in those areas are about to change drastically.

Back to school choice. We in the city of Kingsport are being ignored. We have professionals behaving unprofessionally with absolutely zero penalty. In fact, they are lauded when they should be getting shown the door. Our schools were closed against our will, and yet nobody at ASC has even been reassigned for what was a catastrophic mistake. They were warned (by the public) prior to closures, yet they did it anyway. We are being slowly Malibu’d. We are over-assessing our students. We are taking part in a benchmarking process that is gobbling up ridiculous amounts of time. Instead of, “Marsha! Marsha! Marsha!” it has become, “Data! Data! Data!” Kingsport no long focuses on quality instruction which focuses on high level, critical thinking. Instead, it focuses on testing, metrics, data conferences, and bullying anyone who thinks differently. In short, they see numbers and not people.

So, Kingsport City Schools, if you think that your data driven system(led by people in ASC who haven’t set foot in a classroom in decades or even two decades) is so great…why don’t you support vouchers and let’s see if people choose to vote with their feet? Making a stand against vouchers is potentially trapping families in school systems which might not be supportive of their academic and personal values. If you think you got the hot ticket, let’s see if people want to come watch your show. If you are good at what you do, then give people a choice of where to school their children.

Put your money where your mouth is and let people vote with their vouchers.

ProTip: I love this talk by Elon Musk about teaching critical thinking. Parents want their children to be taught how to think…not bubble. They want their children to be inspired.