The most memorable quotes in the Chattanooga Times Free Press for Jan. 11-16.
“There is no law saying the county can’t fund education. If they want to raise the taxes, let’s raise them. And by ‘let’s,’ I mean ‘y’all.'”
— State Rep. Mike Carter, R-Ooltewah, on whether the state is properly funding K-12 education
“A lot of veterans won’t go and get help because there’s so much stigma attached to it. Here, they don’t have to say, ‘I have this problem.’ They can just be around other people who have had similar experiences.”
— Alese Maples, a volunteer with a veterans group building an Old West replica town called “Fort Villanow” for skill-building and therapeutic value
“It looks like educational apartheid.”
— Tennessee State University professor Ken Chilton, on the fact that no students from predominantly black Brainerd and Howard high schools scored high enough on the ACT to be deemed college-ready
“The sunshine law stinks. We ought to be able to talk.”
— Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Beck, objecting to a state law requiring elected officials to deliberate publicly
“Whenever an elected official complains about this, it makes me wonder what they are afraid of — is there something they don’t want the public to know?”
— Deborah Fisher, director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, on the same topic