Monday, January 18, 2010
Education / Legislature / Politics / Woods Devaney Slaps Democrats on Special Session But What About His Own Naysayers?
Posted by Jeff Woods on Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 6:23 AM
"Tonight, a number of Democrats turned their back on Tennessee's children, teachers, and administrators when they voted against legislation aimed at putting our education system back on track. The reforms passed by the General Assembly are major steps in the right direction as we work to improve our schools that consistently rank amongst the lowest in the country. By not supporting these reforms, these Democrats demonstrated they are content with the status quo despite the fact that students across the state are forced to rely on an education system that is failing them."
OK, we'll ask the obvious question: What about the two Republicans who voted no--Sen. Mae Beavers and Rep. Susan Lynn, both from Mount Juliet? Are they content with failing schools too?
Democrats generally opposed the reforms because they don't think it's necessarily fair to judge teachers on student test scores. They were standing with teachers who opposed the legislation. But Beavers and Lynn? They think the federal government's trying to turn us all into commie rats and this Race to the Top cash is the camel's nose or something like that. With these loopy lawmakers on his side, Devaney probably should keep his mouth shut.
Update: Well, it turns out Lynn changed her vote to yes. She was against the bill before she was for it. She gives some weird reasoning on her blog. More likely, somebody explained to her that her Democratic state Senate opponent would club her with this vote, so she changed it. Now, she'll catch grief, not only for her original no vote, but for flip-flopping.
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