NASHVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has ignited a furor among public school teachers, local school boards and some of his fellow Republicans after he sat silently by as the president of conservative Hillsdale College made insulting comments about teachers and teacher-training programs.
The comments and others in a similar vein were reported last week by Nashville television station WTVF, which obtained video secretly taken at a June private reception in Franklin, Tennessee.
At the event, Larry Arnn, president of Michigan’s private Hillsdale College, held forth on his views with Lee sitting beside him. Arnn condemned teacher-training programs and described teachers as having been “trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country.”
Lee said nothing in response to Arnn’s criticisms of public education and teachers at the time, according to portions of the nearly two-hour video released by WTVF. Arnn, who at Lee’s urging plans to open dozens of charter schools in Tennessee, also criticized diversity efforts in higher education and charged people in those posts have education degrees because they are “easy” and “you don’t have to know anything.”
At the urging of Lee, Arnn plans to open 50 Tennessee taxpayer-supported charter schools here. Lee made that one of his focal points in his 2022 State of the State speech to Tennessee lawmakers in January.
Actually, Lee wants Arnn to open 100 of the schools here, reminding Arnn of that during their joint appearance.
“The philosophic understanding at the heart of modern education is enslavement They’re messing with people’s children, and they feel entitled to do anything to them,” WTVF reported Arnn as saying.
“You will see how education destroys generations of people,” Arnn said. “It’s devastating. It’s like the plague.” And, he added: “Here’s a key thing that we’re going to try to do. We are going to try to demonstrate that you don’t have to be an expert to educate a child because basically anybody can do it.”
‘Completely insulting’
Push back has been swift and broad.
“That was just completely insulting from Larry Arnn, and the comments were inappropriate, reprehensible and untrue,” said J.C. Bowman, head of the the Professional Educators of Tennessee, in a Chattanooga Times Free Press phone interview on Saturday. “And for the governor to sit there for two hours and not comment, I’m just completely baffled.”
Tennessee Education Association President Tonya Coats also condemned Arnn’s remarks and criticized Lee’s silence over what she called Arnn’s attacks on public school teachers, citing public educators’ work over the past two years to help teach students in the face of the pandemic.
“To now witness their governor stand silently alongside out-of-state privatizers as (teachers) are cruelly and unfairly attacked feels like a punch to the gut,” Coats said in a statement Sunday. “There is no excuse.”
Jeanette Omarkhail, president of the Hamilton County Education Association, agreed.
“I expect an apology – teachers expect a public apology from Gov. Lee,” said Omarkhail by phone Sunday as she attended a National Education Association-sponsored conference in Texas. “We are extremely upset that he sat there and said nothing and even since then has said nothing.”
Instead, Omarkhail said, Lee “stood up and said, ‘I wish he would bring a 100 of his charter schools to our state.'” That, Omarkhail added, “is like a stab in the back after everything we’ve done” to keep public education on track both during and following the worst of the pandemic.
State House Republican Caucus Chairman Jeremy Faison of Cosby criticized Arnn’s comments via Twitter.
“The vast majority of teachers have huge hearts and are in education because of their commitment to our children,” wrote Faison, who did not mention Lee. “To argue that they are bottom of the barrel is wrong & ignorant. The guy from Hillsdale doesn’t speak for any Tennessean I know.”
Faison’s tweet drew this response from state Senate Republican Caucus Chairman Ken Yager of Kingston: “As a former classroom teacher, I have some idea of the challenges our public school teachers deal with on a daily basis. They do an outstanding job preparing our youth. I support them and say thank you.”
Tennessee Association of Colleges for Teacher Education President David Cihak said in a letter to Lee that while the group had not seen an unedited video of the meeting, reporting of it “did not show a response from you in defense of Tennessee’s teachers.
“We urge you to speak out now in defense of teachers and professional educators,” Cihak added.
Lee spokeswoman defends governor
Lee’s communications director, Laine Arnold, pushed back against criticisms of Lee in a statement to The Daily Wire, a conservative website.
“Critics dishonestly claimed that a recent event with Hillsdale College criticized Tennessee teachers when it did not,” Arnold said in her statement. “Criticizing activism and other left-wing issues that creep into the classroom is entirely separate from sentiments about the value or performance of Tennessee teachers. Our respect and support for educators in Tennessee wasn’t up for debate then, and it isn’t now.”
Arnold did not respond to a Times Free Press email request Sunday to address the governor’s specific views of Arnn’s sweeping comments, including where the college president stated “teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country.”
Lee’s wife, Maria Lee, was once a public school teacher.
Independent colleges: ‘Deeply offensive’
Many Tennessee public and private universities have teacher education programs. The list includes the public University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and private faith-based Lee University in Cleveland. Other colleges or universities with teacher education programs include the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro and Tennessee State University in Nashville.
Others with teaching programs include faith-based Lipscomb University, Belmont University and Trevecca Nazarene University, all in Nashville.
The Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association condemned Arnn’s reported remarks.
“The Hillsdale College president’s recent comments and demeaning portrayal of teachers and educator prep programs in a NewsChannel 5 TV report from Nashville is both uninformed and deeply offensive,” the association stated.
Senate Education chair defends governor; Rep. Hakeem says Lee should apologize
Tennessee Senate Education Committee Chairman Jon Lundberg, R-Kingsport, said Lee is committed to K-12 education.
“This is a governor who just implemented a huge reform of how we fund education, put a billion dollars more into the budget to fund education,” said Lundberg of Lee, who pressed this year for the additional funding, in a Times Free Press phone interview Sunday. “I think we have a governor who’s completely committed to education K-12 and higher in Tennessee.
“Now,” Lundberg continued, “if you said that he’s endorsing those [Arnn] comments, I would be shocked if he was talking about our educators in anything other than a glowing comment.”
But Lundberg said he hasn’t seen that, pointing to the statement Arnold issued.
“I consider Laine’s response a comment from the governor,” Lundberg said. “Again, with the relationship I have with Gov. Lee and knowing his commitment to education, I’m comfortable with his stance.”
Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, a Chattanooga Democrat who serves on the House Education Administration Committee, said he was dismayed by Lee not pushing back on Arnn publicly.
“I can’t gauge what credibility the governor had with the general public, but I feel sure that what he’s done in this instance sinks whatever credibility there was to an all-time low,” Hakeem said Sunday in a phone interview. “If he disagreed, I would have expected him to verbalize that in that meeting or get up and walk out. But by staying there, not saying anything, it’s like you concur or you agree with what’s being said.”
“I just feel that an apology is due to the teachers and the citizens of Tennessee,” Hakeem added.
Republican Troy Weathers of Cleveland, who spent 20 years as a Bradley County school board member and is now running in the Aug. 4 state House District 24 GOP primary, was critical of Arnn’s remarks during a Saturday phone interview.
“It infuriates me that anyone in education would say anything at that level about our teachers in Tennessee,” Weathers said of Arnn.
Weathers said he knows the teachers in Cleveland and Bradley County.
“They’re dedicated, they’re good people, they worked hard to become a teacher. My wife’s a teacher, I got a daughter who’s a teacher, I got two sons-in-law that are teachers. Let me tell you, that wasn’t a ‘give me.’ Their [curriculum] was just as hard as anyone else’s. For (Arnn) to stand up and say that they’re ‘dumbest people’ and they go to the ‘dumbest colleges,’ I mean I can’t believe anybody with a pea brain would say that about our people in Tennessee.”
Weathers last week spoke out against Arnn’s comments last week at a local Chamber of Commerce gathering.
He said during the Times Free Press interview that he was “disappointed” Lee didn’t push back against Arnn’s comments.
“I wanted to scream and holler and say, ‘Governor, you’re better than that,'” Weathers said. “You never let anybody talk about your teachers. They’re your people.”
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @AndySher1.