Now we know what Bill Lee thinks of the 80,000 K–12 teachers who work for the state of Tennessee. Yesterday a leaked video shows our governor sitting meekly by as one of the leaders of the national movement to privatize our public schools calls teachers “dumb,” and later makes the overtly creepy claim, “They’re messing with people’s children, and they feel entitled to do anything to them.”

Our schools are chronically starved of resources; our teachers are chronically underpaid. In 2021, Tennessee ranked 44th out of 50 states for how much funding it devotes to its K–12 schools. 

Under Bill Lee and our Republican supermajority legislature, morale among Tennessee’s public-school teachers has plummeted. We’re losing top talent. That’s terrible for our schoolchildren and our economic future.

A good education puts children on track to become successful adults. These are the taxpayers who don’t require government support or intervention. They’re the skilled workers who attract major employers, the entrepreneurs who start new businesses, the visionaries who lift up communities. 

It’s foolish not to fully fund our public schools, not to pay our teachers competitive salaries, not to give them the resources to do their jobs well. We have the money to do it. We just don’t have the political will.

We need state legislators who will fight for our teachers, our public schools, and our schoolchildren, and who will fight back against the radical right-wing agenda.

Allison
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