CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Despite the City Council having no say in school vouchers, in the last week one council member proposed the city take a stand against them, the local GOP issued formal statements denouncing her involvement, and another council member went on a social media video tirade saying opposition to vouchers was part of a Communist/LGBTQ agenda plot.
On Thursday, March 7, the council passed the resolution opposing Gov. Bill Lee’s Education Freedom Scholarship Act – essentially a school voucher program. The vote was a close 5-4, with two members abstaining and one absent.
What is Education Freedom Scholarship Act?
School vouchers are a form of public education funding where the government provides families with vouchers or certificates that can be used to pay for tuition at a private school, including religious schools. The idea behind school vouchers is to give parents more choice in their children’s education and to introduce competition into the education system.
The new statewide voucher program would offer $7,075 a year in public funds to 20,000 students to attend a private or independent school or to be used to support home schooling, according to The Tennessean.
Notably, the act would make students eligible for vouchers regardless of family income or a child’s assigned public school’s performance and would set aside a percentage of vouchers for families with household incomes of 300% of the federal poverty level in its first year alone.
‘Local answers to local needs’
“I submitted this resolution because I think we have an obligation to show our support for our local schools and our School Board members,” Councilperson Karen Reynolds said during the council meeting.
“There are members of the community that feel the City Council should not weigh in on this issue,” she said. “The truth of the matter is the state Legislature should not be taking away our freedom to decide these matters at the local level where they belong. This is true government overreach.”
Reynolds mentioned last year’s School Board vote denying charter schools and said they indicated that Clarksville should fully fund and support CMCSS. “We as local leaders should send a message that we do not support the state Legislature taking away our freedom to govern because they don’t like our decision,” Reynolds said.
Before the meeting began, council members received an email from the Montgomery County Republican Party also published in Clarksville Now.
Councilperson Brian Zacharias said he wasn’t sure how he was going to vote before the meeting started, but after reading the email, which called the topic of school vouchers a “partisan issue,” he decided to join in the voucher opposition.
“That email really decided how I was going to vote.” Zacharias said. “That email said, ‘This is a partisan issue.’ And it shouldn’t be. If there is anything that should not be a partisan issue, it is the education of our citizens. Everyone benefits from an educated work force.”
Zacharias said isn’t convinced about vouchers and doesn’t have faith in the controlling party’s willingness to fix the law at is currently going through the Legislature.
“We are sending a message to our state Legislature that we are standing up for local leaders, local schools and their staff,” Reynolds said. “We are defending our freedom to find local answers to local needs.”
Voting yes to oppose vouchers were Reynolds, Zacharias, Wanda Smith, Wanda Allen and Joe Shakeenab. Voting no were Dajuan Little, Wallace Redd, Ambar Marquis and Travis Holleman. Stacey Streetman and Keri Lovato abstained, and Deanna McLaughlin was absent. Mayor Joe Pitts did not vote.
‘Threefold’ objection
In the GOP letter, Chairman Doug Englen expressed opposition to the resolution, arguing that it claims the voucher bill threatens the district’s ability to maintain the quality of its educational offerings, and he criticized the resolution for not providing any evidence of that.
He said the GOP’s objection is threefold:
Reynolds recently announced her candidacy for state Senate to serve Montgomery County, and Englen said this resolution was a political maneuver aimed at gaining attention for her campaign.
Secondly, he said the council has limited involvement in funding local schools and no involvement in managing them. These responsibilities primarily belong with the Clarksville-Montgomery County School Board and the Montgomery County Commission.
Finally, he said the council is supposed to be a bipartisan body, and he said, “It should not take sides in what has unfortunately become a partisan issue.”
“Why alienate a large bloc of the city’s population taking a side on an issue that the council has virtually no say over?” Englen wrote. “The council relies on Gov. Lee’s administration for a myriad of services and funding. Why do you want to risk alienating such an important entity?
“Perhaps the council should focus on issues of importance. Eliminating the city’s horrific traffic issues, funding law enforcement and ensuring our city’s growth is managed properly are much more pressing problems. Councilwoman Reynolds should leave her political posturing for the campaign trail and not bring it into the council chambers,” Englen said.
‘LGBTQ+ Marxist and communist agenda’
Last week, Councilperson Travis Holleman took to Rumble to share his thoughts about the approaching council vote on school vouchers. Rumble is an online video platform that doesn’t have the same content restrictions as Facebook and YouTube.
In the video, Holleman says the school voucher debate at the council is annoying because it will divide Clarksville for the purpose of nothing. He argued that Reynolds was promoting “progressive, leftist agenda” to gain attention and garner votes.
“The reason they are so against school vouchers is because they don’t want your kid to have the option to go to another school,” Holleman said. “They want everyone to go to public schools and then the crazy Marxists leftists take over the school board and then they push these leftists, Marxists agendas and create these little ‘social justice warriors,’ and push the LGBTQ stuff on them. They try to confuse them and them think they are different genders.
“Some states, like California, will give them hormone blockers. Like, they transition your kids. This is serious, we do not want this here,” Holleman said.
In the video, Holleman pulls out a copy of The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and cites passages to link it to the modern LGBTQ-rights movement.
County Commissioner David Shelton responded to these claims in an opinion piece also published by Clarksville Now.
“I’m utterly disappointed that such conspiratorial and hateful language was delivered through the council member’s official city newsletter,” Shelton wrote. “Fully half of the video was of the elected official reading from The Communist Manifesto in a wild attempt to link Communism to those in opposition to an expanded school voucher program.”
Clarksville Now has reached out to Holleman for comment.