"No man's life, liberty and property is safe when the legislature is in session." ---Mark Twain, 1866
What he said. Mark Twain. It's too true. Dr. Mike Looney will speak Thursday night in Franklin about bills in the legislature which Williamson County Schools opposes and supports. Two of these bills have gotten lots of attention. Two of them you have never heard of, I bet.
Dr. Looney tells us he has only one hobby---jumping out of airplanes. We have just one question: Which is more dangerous, sky-diving or school board meetings?
PHOTO: Dr. Mike Looney
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dr. Mike Looney, superintendent of Williamson
County Schools, will speak about controversial education bills in the Tennessee
legislature when he is the guest of the Williamson County Democratic Party on
Thursday March 7.
Looney will be joined as a guest
speaker by Anne-Marie Farmer, an attorney and mother of a child in a Metro
Nashville public school. Farmer has been
at the forefront of Standing Together for Strong Community Schools (http://www.facebook.com/StrongCommunitySchools),
a grassroots parents organization that has protested the charter authorizer and
voucher bills which are currently being moved through Tennessee House and
Senate education committees.
The potluck is open to
the public and will begin at 6:30 at Williamson County Democratic Party
headquarters, 112 East Fowlkes Street in Franklin. Guests are invited to bring
a dish, but it is not necessary. Children
are welcome.
The Williamson County school
board recently approved $30,000 for Looney to retain two lobbyists to represent
the district's concerns about legislation in Nashville. Also, Williamson County was recently notified
of its first charter school application.
One bill in Nashville,
the High-Performing School Districts Flexibility Act, was introduced by
Williamson County legislators at the behest of Williamson County Schools. The bill would allow the state's most
successful school districts, such as Williamson County, to act with less state
control in certain areas. The bill is
House Bill 210, and its Senate counterpart is SB 592.
Looney has served as
superintendent of Williamson County Schools since December 2009, and during his
tenure the school district has registered a composite average ACT score of
23.1, a record high for the district, and ranks at the top of advanced
placement course participation and exam pass rates for Tennessee and the U.S.
A former U.S. Marine,
Looney retired at the rank of Staff Sergeant after serving more than seven
years and being injured in the line of duty.
Looney was formerly
superintendent of the Butler County School District in Alabama, and among his
education experiences are school principal and classroom teacher.
Looney gives keynote
addresses at regional and national conferences, and he was a member of
President George W. Bush's National Reading Leadership Panel.
Looney admits to one hobby---jumping
from planes as he is an avid skydiver.
Among current
legislation in House and Senate education committees is an "open
enrollment" bill which would require Williamson County to allow students
to change to schools outside of their districts. These are HB 941 and SB 1175.
Drawing wider public
controversy have been a school voucher bill and the creation of a state body to
authorize charter school applications.
The voucher bill would
take public taxpayer monies from county school districts and give them to
religious schools and for-profit schools under a so-called voucher system. These bills are HB 190 and SB 196.
Another widely debated
bill authorizes the state to approve charter schools' applications without the
applications being routed through local school districts as is the current
practice. In its present form this bill,
HB 702 and SB 830, applies only to Davidson and Shelby Counties. The bill, which was introduced by House
Speaker Beth Harwell, came on the heels of a controversy over an Arizona
charter school being turned down by the Metro Nashville school board last year
and the state subsequently punishing the school system by withholding $3.4
million in state funds.
Tennessee General
Assembly bill search and path to videos of all sessions and committee
meetings: http://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/billsearch/BillSearch.aspx
The WCDP has a monthly
Potluck Dinner meeting the first Thursday of every month and holds Coffee
Klatch, an informal discussion of issues, every Saturday morning. The
WCDP also includes WC Young Democrats, WC Democratic Women and WC Democratic
Veterans Council. All meetings are open to the public.
Special events and
community service projects of the Williamson County Democratic Party include
Feed Franklin First, Adopt-a-Highway, Town Hall Meetings on current topics, Red
Cross blood donor drives, voter registration drives, support of veterans and
Operation Stand Down, Make It Blue Monday music event, maintenance of voter
resources on WCDP web site and fund-raising to benefit other Williamson County
non-profit organizations.
The WCDP and Williamson
County Democratic Veterans Council will accept clothing donations for homeless
veterans every Saturday from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. at party
headquarters. Work clothes are especially needed, but all clothing
donations for men and women are appreciated. Clothing donations are
turned over to Operation Stand Down Nashville.
Williamson County is the
sixth largest Democratic voting county in Tennessee.
For more information, contact WCDP at 615-790-3659. Web site is http://www.wcdemocrats.com. Williamson County Democratic Party
headquarters is at 112 E. Fowlkes Street, off Columbia Avenue and five blocks
south of Five Points in Franklin.
#
Williamson
County Democratic Party Headquarters
112
East Fowlkes Street
Franklin,
TN 37064
Phone:
615-790-3659
Web
site: www.wcdemocrats.com
"Williamson County Democrats
love America. We care about our
community, and we care about each other."
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