If you’re looking to see who among your local elected officials actually work to have your back when the going is tough and raises don’t happen and schools are falling down, look no further than the list of officials who showed up for a Sunday town hall to talk to 200 people about topics related to funding education at the Brainerd Youth and Family Center in Chattanooga.
Seven elected officials took the hot seats – four Board of Education members, two Hamilton County commissioners and Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger. The school board members were Tucker McClendon, Jenny Hill, Tiffanie Robinson and Kathy Lennon. The commissioners were Katherlyn Geter and David Sharpe.
This came after more than 1,300 people signed a Hamilton County teacher petition calling for increased teacher pay and improved public school funding. The petition came to life earlier this month, about the same time that a group of teachers – loosely identified as Hamilton County United – called on all elected officials to join them for the Sunday town hall.
Just a few weeks before, an open letter from more than 70 teachers called out Commissioners Randy Fairbanks, Sabrena Smedley, Tim Boyd, Greg Martin and Chester Bankston for voting against putting a $60 wheel tax referendum on the March primary ballot for us voters to decide. And, no, none of those folks attended Sunday’s town hall.
Earlier this year, the commission also killed (by voting simply to remove a schools operating increase – the first in 14 years – from the budget) a 34-cent property tax increase included in the first round of FY 2020 budget proposals. That tax increase – one that a professional poll found 61 percent of Hamilton County voters supported – specifically would have directed more funding to public education.