Friday, September 19, 2014

City to define, regulate and tax "short term rentals" in private homes.

Remember when food trucks made there appearance in Nashville. The brick and mortar resturants did not like them and tried to put them out of business. A few year ago the Metro Council tried to stop a new form of transportation, "the black sedans", from operating in Nashville by forcing them to charge a minimum fee. The city also engaged in unlawful harassment and went to court and spend thousands of dollars to defend the minimum fee. Then along came Uber and Lyft and the city reversed itself and lifted the minimum. Every time there is an innovation, politicians want to protect the status quo and tax the new service.  Now, we are seeing a new innovation in lodging rentals. A phone app matches people who want to rent out a room in their house for a night or two with people who are seeking an inexpensive rental for a night or two. If someone is not watching, this new form of vacation lodging will be outlawed or regulated and taxed to the point it is prohibitive.


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Governors Haslam, Bredesen Urge Passage of Amendment 2

The Knoxville News Sentinel - Gov. Bill Haslam and his predecessor, Phil Bredesen, said Wednesday that a proposed constitutional amendment on the selection of appellate court judges provides clarity and accountability that is needed to keep the state's judicial system fair and impartial.

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Jim Cooper votes against an audit of the Federal Reserve.

The House of Representatives passed a bill on September 17 that would require the U.S. comptroller general to make a full audit of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal Reserve banks. The legislation, “The Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2013,” was passed by an overwhelming 333-92 bipartisan vote. The measure received bipartisan support, with 106 Democrats joining 227 Republicans to pass it. The bill has not yet been acted on in the Senate.

Here is how the Tennessee delegation voted.

Yea   R   Roe, Phil TN 1st
Yea   R   Duncan, John TN 2nd
Yea   R   Fleischmann, Chuck TN 3rd
No Vote   R   DesJarlais, Scott TN 4th
Nay   D   Cooper, Jim TN 5th
Yea   R   Black, Diane TN 6th
Yea   R   Blackburn, Marsha TN 7th
Yea   R   Fincher, Stephen TN 8th
Yea   D   Cohen, Steve TN 9th

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Donelson-Hermitage Conservative Breakfast meeting, Sept. 27th

Jim Garrett will be hosting his Donelson-Hermitage Conservative Breakfast meeting at the Shoney's (546 Donelson Pike  37214) on Saturday September 27th starting at 8:30. He will have speakers for both yes and no on Amendment 2.

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Thursday, September 18, 2014

Fund Raiser for Bob Ries Thursday, Sept. 25th.

This is tonight! Sept. 25th. 
If $100 is a little steep, don't let that keep you from attending. Bob put out an email and said
Also Gary Chapman will be performing tonight

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Mark Winslow tells me, the election is over ...Find something else to bitch about.

Mark Winslow
To Me 
Sep 4 

Actually it's now Judge Blackburn. 
The election is over and the people of my district said clearly they are satisfied with my work on their behalf. Find something else to bitch about. 

Mark Winslow 
Tennessee Republican Party 
State Executive Committee District 19 
615.424.0883 

Me 
To Mark Winslow 
Today at 10:33 AM 

Mark, I just now found your email. 
The election may be over and you won but that still does not make what you did right. I do not see how in good conscience you could work to elect a Democrat and defeat a Republican and still serve on the Republican Party Executive Committee. Please do the honorable thing and resign your position with the Party. 
Sincerely, 

Rod Williams 
A Disgruntled Republican 
home 292-8900, cell 509-3900, work 850-3453 
Please visit my blog: http://adisgruntledrepublican.com

In case you do not know what this is about, see below.

Mark Winslow, member of the Republican Party SEC, is still working for Democrat Judge-elect Melissa Blackburn.

Mark Winslow, the  member of the Republican
Party State Executive Committee who works
to defeat Republicans and elect Democrats.
Remember Mark Winslow?  He is the member of the Republican Party State Executive Committee who worked to defeat a Republican candidate and elect a Democrat to the office of judge in Davidson County. He first worked to help Melissa Blackburn win her Democrat nomination.  When he came under criticism for working for a Democrat, he claimed that he was only working for her during the primary and would not be doing so in the General Election.  He claimed he was doing so only because it was required by his employer, SmithWaterhouse Strategies.  We know that Winslow continued working for Blackburn because he was still seen at events with her and putting up yard signs on her behalf during the General Election.  He helped Blackburn beat our Republican candidate, Marian Cheadle Fordice for that office. Our candidate had much more experience in the field of mental health law and had a real heart for the job.

Winslow's candidacy to run again for a seat on the State Executive Committee was challenged on the basis that he was campaigning for a Democrat. Unfortunately, Chris Devaney, Chairman of the Party and a person up until that point that I had always respected, failed to rule Winslow as ineligible to run for that seat. Winslow ran and was reelected.

Serving on the Republican Executive Committee gives one access to Republican strategy and data and puts one in the position to vote on how much, if any, funds will be given to Republican candidates.  I do not see how anyone cannot see that having a member of the Republican SEC campaigning to elect a Democrat and defeat a Republican, is not a conflict of interest.

I do not see how Mark Winslow in good conscience could work to defeat a Republican and elect a Democrat and still serve on the SEC.  A person of character would have resigned his position with his employer or would have resigned his position on the Republican State Executive Committee. One cannot serve two masters.

I had heard a few weeks ago that Winslow was working for Judge-elect Melissa Blackburn, but wanted to wait until it was confirmed to bring it up. Below is a news paper story that confirms he is still working for Blackburn.
Two fired from Davidson Mental Health Court 
by Brian Haas, The Tennessean, September 3, 2014- Newly elected General Sessions Judge Melissa Blackburn is quickly making her mark as the head of Davidson County’s Mental Health Court.
Two weeks ago, she forced all five court employees to resign and reapply for their jobs. On Tuesday, she told two of them they would not be re-hired. .....
Blackburn’s transition into office included an Aug. 14 email sent to all Mental Health Court employees forcing them to resign by the following day, with a resignation date of Sept. 1. (link)
“All employees, if you wish, shall be eligible to reapply for positions with the court as part of Judge-Elect Blackburn’s evaluation of performance, efficiency and staff cohesion,” read the note, penned by Mark Winslow of SmithWaterhouse Strategies, a political consulting firm. (link)
I am so disgusted by this whole episode that I am at a loss for words. One thing I am not going to do; I am not going to give any money to the Tennessee Republican Party as long as Winslow is serving on the State Executive Committee.  I will not be attending the Statesman's Dinner or responding to party solicitations for contribution. I think only real Republicans should be sitting on the Executive Committee, not phoney Republicans who are working to defeat Republicans and elect Democrats. I don't know, but I would suspect that there is a way the Executive Committee could refuse to seat a member or remove one. They should.  If this is the kind of Republican Party we have, that can allow a political mercenary-for-hire to have a seat on the Executive Committee, then I want no part of that Party.

I guess there is no point in beating a dead horse, but one more piece of evidence that Mark Wislow is a Democrat in Republican clothing, he picked up a qualifying petition for Gary Blackburn to run for the male seat for District 21 of the Democrat Party. Why would a State Executive Committee member of the Republican Party pick up the qualifying petition for someone seeking a seat on the Executive Committee of the other party?  See the below record.
 
To learn much more about Mark Winslow, follow this link.

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Wednesday, September 17, 2014

(update) What happened in the Metro Council 9-16-14: The another-Million- for-'Nashville' meeting.




This is a short meeting at only 40 minutes long. If you want to link to the staff analysis, agenda and my commentary follow this link.

After the Pledge and prayer, the first order of business is a recognition given to CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates.  The presentation is made by Councilman Westerholm. CASA trains volunteers to speak for abused and neglected children caught in the court system and helps them find safe and permanent homes. I am a little familiar with the program. I once had a volunteer working with me at my place of employment, trying to start a support group for single mothers seeking to get child support. Unfortunately, this effort never was successful.  This same volunteer was also active in CASA and I learned from her some of the heart breaking cases in which she was involved. CASA does important work. This is a well-deserved honor.  If someone is looking for meaningful volunteer work, I think working with CASA would be very rewarding.

Confirmation of appointments to boards and commissions are all approved. All resolution on the consent agenda pass. Three resolutions listed below were not on consent:

 RESOLUTION NO. RS2014-1215 appropriates $2,573,300 to various departments and includes $1 million to fund an economic incentive grant for the TV show Nashville. Supplemental appropriations are how equipment and repairs are paid for and how departments with cost overruns get more money. Included in this resolution is $250,000 to host the League of Cities Convention in 2015. This is the first I had heard of this.  I think this is money well spend.  It brings thousands of locally elected officials from all over the country to Nashville and lots of exhibitors that do business with cities. Nashville shows them a good time and showcases what we are doing right in our city. They will spend a lot of money while here but it also raised the profile of Nashville. 

The controversial part of this is the $1 million for Nashville. As it turns out it apparently is not controversial, at least not in the council. It passes unanimously. Nashville has been good advertising for Nashville, no doubt, but things like that are hard to measure.  Also, having the program filmed in Nashville has helped develop the film industry in this city.  However, I do not support another million to subsidize the program. Nashville has been renewed for a third season. If at this point they were to film the program elsewhere, the skylines and scene footage would still be Nashville and the title would still be Nashville. We would get the advertising benefit even it was filmed in Atlanta or Hollywood. The staff analysis says the filming of Nashville adds $40 million to the economy in spending on salaries, good, and services. In a way, this is not much different than when we pay a company to stay in Nashville or to locate to Nashville, but I don't much like that either. I think it is time to pull the plug on subsidizing 'Nashville' but the Council passes this bill without discussion.

RESOLUTION NO. RS2014-1216  appropriates $3,959,500.00 to various other departments and it passes unanimously.
RESOLUTION NO. RS2014-1217  authorizing the execution and delivery of an economic development incentive grant agreement between The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County and Music City Productions, Inc. which is the paperwork for the $1 appropriated in 1215 above and it passes unanimously.
Bills on First reading pass unanimous as is the custom. Everything on Second and Third reading pass and none of the bills are of much interest.  Almost all are rezoning bills or bills concerning acquiring or abandoning easements or letting signs protrude over a sidewalk.

Below is the meeting of the Budget and Finance committee. This provides a more detailed explanation of the bills and resolutions that spend money and councilmen ask questions. To really understand the operation of the Metro Council and how the city is spending money, one needs to watch the meetings of B&F.

Below is the Tennessean's report on this Council meeting. 

'Nashville' gets $1 million from Metro, double last year's grant
The Tennessean ‎-The Metro Council voted unanimously and without debate Tuesday for a $1 million economic development grant to the local production of ABC's “Nashville,” ..

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Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Tennessee Libertarians Sue To Change Party Recognition Laws

This video has been removed because it is one of those that start automatically, and I find those very annoying. You can follow the link to view the video. I wish the Libertarian Party well in this effort to secure ballot access. Rod

 By Todd Walker.  Sep 15, 2014 NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Four years after the Libertarian Party of Tennessee filed its first lawsuit to get on the ballot, the group is still fighting for access in a state that has some of the most restrictive ballot access rules in the country. In a lawsuit filed last month, the party claims Tennessee laws violate its members' constitutional rights to free speech, association and equal protection. (link)

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Education Summit could offer taste of Common Core fight, Sept 18

Education Summit could offer taste of Common Core fight

Gov. Bill Haslam has billed a special-called Education Summit next week as a wide-ranging review of the “past, present and future” of Tennessee’s public schools.
Some, though, are looking squarely at Common Core....Ron Ramsey and House Speaker Beth Harwell are co-hosts for the summit, set for Sept. 18 at Nashville's downtown Sheraton Hotel.... “Let’s give them all an ear full,” reads a flier from a group that calls itself Tennessee Against Common Core, which plans to stage the rally.

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TNGOP Chairman: Gordon Ball Will Be One More Vote for Barack Obama's Agenda

State Republican Party launches new web ad and new site, ObamaBallAgenda.com, to expose Gordon Ball's support for Barack Obama's liberal agenda

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—President Barack Obama has his sights set on Tennessee this fall.
While Tennessee has increasingly become a Republican stronghold, Washington Democrats believe they have an opening to gain a foothold in the Volunteer State with the November 4th election. In the last few months, news reports have surfaced that reveal a secretive liberal agenda targeting Tennessee. Whether it is with a former OFA staffer running for Congress or the funding of a liberal strategist for a pro-abortion campaign against Amendment One, it’s clear Democrats believe Tennessee can be turned into a battleground.
And, at the top of the ticket, will be a man who would be one more vote for Barack Obama's harmful agenda -- Gordon Ball. Mr. Ball, a liberal personal injury lawyer from Knoxville, will only serve to empower Obama and strengthen Washington’s stranglehold on our economy.
"Ball's thin record and slick plan to fool voters should be alarming to Tennesseans,” said Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Chris Devaney. “Like many Democrats in Tennessee—and every personal injury lawyer I’ve come across—Ball will try to cloak himself with conservative rhetoric in order to win. But the reality is: He'll be one more vote for Barack Obama’s agenda. His commitment to ObamaCare and the fact he would help President Obama impose more job-destroying taxes and regulations, all while eroding our Second Amendment rights and the rights of the unborn, proves he wouldn’t be a bluedog—he’d be Obama’s lapdog in the Senate.”
To counter the efforts of the Tennessee Democratic Party and Gordon Ball’s own self-financed public image campaign, the Tennessee Republican Party today announces the creation of a new website designed to be a strategic resource center for voters and journalists alike. The site, ObamaBallAgenda.com, will reveal the truth about Gordon Ball’s record and explore his support for the liberal Obama agenda.
Additionally, the TNGOP released a :30 web advertisement that can be seen by clicking here, that highlights Gordon Ball's campaign to be one more reliable vote for Barack Obama's reckless agenda in Washington.
Devaney added, “Tennessee has been at the forefront in the conservative movement. We’ve had--and continue to have--outstanding leaders who look for solutions and reflect the values of our citizens. This fall, we have the chance to return one of those leaders, Senator Lamar Alexander, back to the Senate to defend us from President Obama. The last thing voters should do is be tricked by Gordon Ball’s campaign--an effort that promises to be as slick and contrived as the candidate himself.”

Background
The liberal agenda in Tennessee will take several forms this fall, including:
• VIDEO: TNGOP Web Ad.
• The Tennessee Democratic Party is spending a significant amount of money to bring in a consultant to fight against Amendment One, a pro-life constitutional amendment on the ballot this fall, and advise Democratic candidates.
• In the Fourth Congressional District, Democrats are backing a candidate who has "worn the Obama stripes as...regional field organizer for Organizing for Action" and has nearly $100,000 cash on hand.

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Federalist Society Presents 2014-2015 U.S. Supreme Court Preview, Sept. 24th

The Nashville Lawyers’ Chapter of the Federalist Society presents 2014-2015 U.S. Supreme Court Preview with Ilya Shapiro & Brian Fitzpatrick on September 24, 2014, 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. at The Law Offices of Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP Nashville City Center, 511 Union Street, Suite 2700, Nashville, Tennessee 37219.

 Lunch Will Be Served.  RSVP and pay $15 by visiting this website.

This program is approved for 1 hour of general CLE in Tennessee.

Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute and editor-in-chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review.

 Brian Fitzpatrick is a professor at Vanderbilt Law School, where his research focuses on class action litigation, federal courts, judicial selection and constitutional law.

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Monday, September 15, 2014

Herbert Slatery III, Haslam’s chief of staff, picked as AG

Herbert Slatery III, Haslam’s chief of staff, picked as AG
 Slatery, 62, is set to become the first Republican attorney general in Tennessee since Reconstruction when he takes over for Attorney General Robert Cooper Jr., who sought to keep his job.



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Reception for Diana Guellar, Sept 23rd


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Benefit for YES on 1 Campaign, Sept., 22, 6:00 pm

Benefit for YES on 1 Campaign, September 22, 2014, 6:00 pm, at the Steinway Piano Gallery, 4285 Sidco Drive, Nashville. RSVP to Myra Simons at 615-714-7997 or Myra.Simons@comcast.net.

This is tonight, September 22

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Ashley Judd says she was a victim of Sexual Harassment in Hollywood

Ashley Judd
Ashley Judd, the Hollywood actress and liberal activist who last year was threatening to move from Kentucky to Tennessee to run against Lamar Alexander and who then considered running against Mitch McConnell in Kentucky and who occasionally makes forays into Tennessee to support liberals such she did when she attended a fund raiser for Jeff Yarbro, recently sounded off about being a victim of sexual harassment and the misogyny she's encountered in Hollywood.

According to the Huffington Post: "She also recounted numerous times she received "sexually charged" comments from producers and fell victim to "egregious sexual harassment" from a "famous movie mogul." Judd told Virtel that, despite being a well-versed women's studies minor, it wasn't until years later when her and other actors traded similar stories of this man's inappropriate behavior that she realized it was sexual harassment."

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What's on the Council Agenda for Sept. 16th: Another $1 million for the Nashville soap opera.

Council meetings are less boring if you know what the Council is voting on. To get your own copy of the agenda and analysis follow the links.

There are four appointments to boards and commissions, but none are to the controversial and troubled commissions.

There are 14 resolutions on the agenda. At this time all, of them are on the consent agenda, which means if they pass the committee to which they are assigned unanimously and no one object they stay on consent and will all be taken together and passed by a single vote instead of being considered individually.

 Below are the ones of interest:

RESOLUTION NO. RS2014-1215 appropriates $2,573,300 to various departments and includes $1 million to fund an economic incentive grant for the TV show Nashville. Supplemental appropriations are not unusual. That is how equipment and repairs are paid for and how departments with cost overruns get more money. There is a system in place to justify the request to the Department of Finance before the request ever gets to Metro Council. This is where it is important to have good people on the Budget and Finance Committee who can question expenditures if something looks out of line or unusual.

The controversial part of this is the $1 million for Nashville. Nashville has been good advertising for Nashville, no doubt, but things like that are hard to measure.  Also, having the program filmed in Nashville has helped develop the film industry in this city.  However, I do not support another million to subsidize the program. Nashville has been renewed for a third season. If at this point they were to film the program elsewhere, the skylines and scene footage would still be Nashville and the title would still be Nashville. We would get the advertising benefit even it was filmed in Atlanta or Hollywood. The staff analysis says the filming of Nashville adds $40 million to the economy in spending on salaries, good, and services. In a way, this is not much different than when we pay a company to stay in Nashville or to locate in Nashville, but I don't much like that either. I think it is time to pull the plug.

RESOLUTION NO. RS2014-1216  appropriates $3,959,500.00 to various other departments. There is nothing unusual about this. I hope someone in B&F however takes a hard look at it.

RESOLUTION NO. RS2014-1217  authorizing the execution and delivery of an economic development incentive grant agreement between The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County and Music City Productions, Inc. I assume this is the paperwork for the $1 appropriated in 1215 above.

RESOLUTION NO. RS2014-1221 appropriates $7000 to match $7000 in a State arts grant to fund 12 big band dances in Centennial Park. I use to attend these dances with my wife Louella before she became too ill and I enjoyed them a lot.  I wonder however, why should they be subsidized? Other music events are sponsored by advertisers or they charge admission. However, we subsidize golf and public art and other recreation and $7000 is not a lot of money. I would not vote against it but do wonder what is the logic in funding some music and not other. 
There are only two bills on First Reading.

There are eleven bills on Second Reading and 17 bills on Third Reading and none of them are of interest. Most of them are zoning bills or bills accepting easements or abandoning easements and they would interest no one but the property owners or nearby neighbors. 

There are two non-controversial memorializing resolutions.



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Davidson County Young Republicans to meet Thursday 9-18

The Davidson County Young Republicans are having their monthly meeting at Jonathan's in Green Hills at 6 p.m. this Thursday (9/18). 

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In Nashville, taxpayers pay for ‘art’ few people want to look at

By Chris Butler, Tennessee Watchdog, NASHVILLE — Let’s try making sense of this, shall we? Nashville officials offer subsidized housing to local artists on the pretense it’s the only way to keep artisans in the city. They live in the Ryman Lofts, in one of Nashville’s most expensive areas downtown. These same city officials have given away nearly $1.5 million in taxpayer money so out-of-state artists can create abstract art that only hard-core art connoisseurs may appreciate.

Attention Nashville City Hall: We have local resources for this kind of thing.

And why is it the taxpayers’ job to fund any of this, especially art?

Photo by Chris Butler
Photo by Chris Butler
GHOST BALLET: This structure, in front of Nashville’s LP Field,
 reportedly cost taxpayers $340,600.
Never mind government officials only fund this art because, when regular people have a choice, they would never in their right minds pay to look at such things.

As Tennessee Watchdog reported, Nashville’s Metro Art Commission has forced taxpayers to pay all this money for the following abstract sculptures:
Let’s face it, folks, only a few consider this “art.” While the rest of us go to Titans games, Comic Con and the latest blockbuster movies, these “connoisseurs” hold their noses, sneer at the rest of us and believe it’s their job to force their art down our throats.

They do this because they think they know what’s best for us common folk. And the only way they can make that happen is with taxpayer money.

Let’s address another problem. You’re on vacation in Savannah, Ga., or perhaps New Orleans.
You want to sample the local culture and absorb it before you head home. Obviously, local culture includes art. Wouldn’t you rather take in art that came from a local as opposed to someone on the other end of the continent?

Photo courtesy Nashville Metro Arts Commission
Photo courtesy Nashville Metro Arts Commission
STUCK WITH THE STICKS?: An artists’ rendering of the sticks that will be placed in downtown Nashville, at taxpayer expense, at a cost of $750,000. While it doesn’t address the problem of government paying for art in the first place, here’s a pragmatic approach Nashville officials probably never considered. The only public art Nashville officials pay for would come from the residents of the Ryman Lofts. They only live there as long as they create that art for free.
Granted, from the free market point of view it’s still an undesirable option — Government has no place whatsoever subsidizing art.  Why does the city of Nashville even have a Metro Arts Commission?  But this option would save Nashville taxpayers some money and at least give them, as well as tourists, locally produced art.  We’re taxpayers, and our views merit respect. It’s nothing personal, we just want to save some money.

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Sunday, September 14, 2014

(Update) Register calls for school shake-up, advocates choice at School Board meeting of 9/9/14.




The School Board produces great agendas including most of the handouts that the Board gets. To view your own copy of this 35-page agenda follow this link. This meeting is a little less than 2 hours long.

The first order of business is electing the new chair and vice chair. Dr. Gentry is elected Chair, the other candidate being Jill Speering. Elissa Kim is elected Vice Chair in an uncontested election.

The Director's Report where Dr. Register presents his bold plan for improving Nashville's "priority Schools" starts at time stamp 59:31 in the video. Priority Schools are failing schools that are under threat of being taken over by the State if they do not improve. Priority Schools are schools that rank in the bottom 5% of all Tennessee public schools. Register analyzes the state report pointing out the good and the bad in the report. He calls for a goal of eliminating all priority schools in Nashville within the next three years. There is a period of Q and A with the board. The discussion ends at time stamp 1:46:09.

He says we must have three strategies to turn around failing schools: Great leaders, great teachers, and innovation and collaboration. He says to get great teachers in priority schools we need to consider incentives to attract teachers to the those schools.  He calls for developing transition and conversion strategies and an East Nashville Corridor Strategy which would make the East Nashville corridor an all-choice zone where parents could sent their child to any school of their choice and where some schools are closed or consolidated. We cannot continue business as usual, he says.

One of the highlights of this meeting is comments by Elissa Kim. She is so enthusiastic and animated that it is contagious. She says that one school had an incredible 33 points of academic growth this year and that this should chance one's conception of what is possible. She says Cameron went from a failing school to an award school. See 1:26:13 - 1:30:02.

Resistance to the plan is voiced by Amy Fogge and Will Pinkston.

In my view, the plan laid out by Register is exactly the right course of action. Unfortunately it appears some on the board would rather provide excuses for why schools fail rather than change the way we do things.

To read the Tennessean article reporting on this meeting see: Jesse Register calls for swift shake-up at struggling schoolsThe schools most vocal supporter of School Choice, Elissa Kim, praised the plan while anti-choice zealot Amy Frogge and her two allies, Will Pinkston and Jill Speering, were critical.

Since this meeting, Dr. Register's plan has created a lot of discussion. Below are other recent news articles and editorials generated by Register's proposal.

Metro Schools Director Jesse Register answers questions from The Tennessean

Register Calls for Closing, Chartering, Mandating Choice for East Nashville schools

An editorial by Mayor Karl Dean: 'All hands on deck' only way to transform schools




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