It's been 38 days since Rick Smith made public his vision on how to make Hamilton County schools the smartest in the South.
The school superintendent has given talks at 10 different public schools, with his 11th and final presentation Tuesday night, at Soddy-Daisy High. He's spoken to 21 faculty groups, toured through every voting district, made extra talks at places like the JFK Luncheon, where I found him Monday, speaking to a couple dozen local Democrats over lunch at the Chattanoogan hotel.
"It is all of our shared moral obligation to do all we can for our children," he said.
David CookRead more
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It's been one of the largest public campaigns of any public official not running for elected office.
It's also been one of the most visionary.
It is certainly the loneliest.
In these last 38 days, Smith has been walking a lonesome road. His bold vision for the future of Hamilton County education has been met by a tough crowd. County commissioners already have lined up against it. The county mayor has been quiet. Too quiet.
There's been little to no public debate.
And little to no public support.
In the last 38 days, there have been, by my count, 234 letters to the editor, rants or comments published in this newspaper.
Not one of them has been in support of Smith's plan.
Why not?
Where are the influential allies for public education?
Where are the outspoken editorials from our art community, advocating the part of Smith's plan that calls for art teachers in every elementary school?
Where are our business leaders, who intimately understand the troubles of having an under-skilled, uneducated workforce?
Where are the priests and pastors, who could righteously proclaim education as a loving force for social good? Or condemning the sin that is underfunded classrooms?
Where are the entrepreneurs? The prominent attorneys? Chamber leaders? The nonprofit heads, bank presidents and CEOs, all of whom have a marvelous chance to come forward and line up in support of what could be the educational equivalent of the downtown Renaissance?
We need a community leader and hero.
We need a public champion for public education.
(Think of the top three most powerful people in town. Imagine how fast the earth would move if one of them stood up at Rotary and told the whole room that no issue matters more to the future of Hamilton County than public education.)
Smith's plan is mighty, with more pieces than I can mention here. Sure, you may not be in favor of funding it with a property tax increase. So start promoting a wheel tax. Or repurposing some of the millions -- "$7.4 million," Smith said -- that go into the county's general fund from the trustee's office each year.
The top layer of leadership in Chattanooga has slowly excused itself from the public realm of debating and participating in public education, and I'm not even sure the rest of us are thinking much about it; were we able to somehow collect all the bar stool, lunchroom, dinner table and water cooler conversations from the last month, my hunch is that an inordinate number would be more focused on the Casey barge and NFL draft than Smith's plan.
This is partially the school system's fault.
For too long, it has practiced a form of isolationism that is coming home to roost: a school board that refuses to allow public comment. A county commission that puppet masters the school board and its superintendents. The ongoing infighting between commission and school board that leaves the rest of us parched, sad and tired, almost like children of divorce.
(Even school board members, save Jonathan Welch, have been publicly lukewarm about Smith's plan. Yes, they voted for it. But have you heard any member talk loudly about it since?)
Ten years ago, after meeting with hundreds of local citizens, then-county mayor Claude Ramsey presented a budget that contained a tax increase to fund eight goals for public education. The commission shot it down.
If Ramsey couldn't get educational reform passed in a budget, odds are Coppinger can't either. (And won't try.)
In other words: this won't happen unless more public and powerful people begin advocating on behalf of public education.
At the end of his talk Monday, Smith passed around a tiny white sheet of paper. It had Coppinger's email (countymayor@hamiltontn.gov) and phone (423-209-6100) printed on it.
"He's got to decide his priorities," Smith said.
I think we as a city need to decide ours, too.
Contact David Cook at dcook@times freepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook at DavidCookTFP.