Candidates for Hamilton County mayor tackle workforce, education in Signal Mountain debate

Staff photo by David Floyd / The candidates for Hamilton County mayor — Democrat Matt Adams, left, and Republican Weston Wamp — squared off in a forum Thursday evening at the Mountain Arts Community Center in Signal Mountain. They answered questions about education, development, their priorities if elected mayor and more.
Staff photo by David Floyd / The candidates for Hamilton County mayor — Democrat Matt Adams, left, and Republican Weston Wamp — squared off in a forum Thursday evening at the Mountain Arts Community Center in Signal Mountain. They answered questions about education, development, their priorities if elected mayor and more.

The two candidates for Hamilton County mayor centered much of their focus on education, a lagging workforce and public transit in a respectful, hour-and-a-half-long forum Thursday evening at the Mountain Commerce Community Center in Signal Mountain.

"I would say the most consistent challenge I hear from residents is equitable investments in our public education system," said Democrat Matt Adams, a 26-year-old paralegal and member of the U.S. Army Reserves. "For far too long we've allowed certain schools in certain ZIP codes to literally fall apart."

Hamilton County teachers don't receive a living wage, he said, and the district has not properly addressed discipline problems in schools.

"When I talk to teachers, they cite those two things as the biggest reasons that they want to leave Hamilton County," Adams said. "If we solve those two issues and invest funds that we're getting from the state and federal government that we've never seen before, we can see a world-class education system here in Hamilton County."

Republican Weston Wamp said business leaders and companies like Volkswagen have been transparent about the need for a more robust workforce in Hamilton County. That problem ties into one of the region's biggest human challenges, he said: Hopeless teenagers and particularly hopeless teenage boys.

It's a problem, he said, that plays out in national headlines, including recent shootings that occured in Chattanooga in late May and June.

"If we're willing to meet every young person where they're at and coach them along and love them along and train them towards a career, I think you lower crime, you develop an extraordinary workforce," he said. "That's where you really unleash the potential of Hamilton County, Tennessee."

Wamp, 35, was involved with the Lamp Post Group for several years and started a logistics-focused venture capital fund called Dynamo. He also launched a non-profit called the Millennial Debt Foundation focused on America's ballooning national debt.

Asked about one major project or cause he would champion as mayor, Wamp said he wants to see the construction of a world-class, high-capacity career and college prep school near the downtown area.

photo Staff photo by David Floyd / The candidates for Hamilton County mayor — Democrat Matt Adams, left, and Republican Weston Wamp — squared off in a forum Thursday evening at the Mountain Arts Community Center in Signal Mountain. They answered questions about education, development, their priorities if elected mayor and more.

Wamp said the city of Chattanooga left behind public education during its renaissance, pointing to the razing of Kirkman High School in the 1990s and City High School's transformation into a magnet in 1999. Since then, there's been rapid residential growth around town, Wamp said, but there isn't a top-tier public school option in the city or in any of the communities contiguous to downtown.

"The effects of it would be extraordinary," he said about the project. "It would be, the investor in me speaking, the greatest investment this community would make."

Adams said he would prioritize public transportation. He noted that a study completed a few years ago by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga found that expanding existing operations of the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority would be financially feasible. There's reserve money at the county level, he added, to help offset the cost.

"I spoke to the mayor of Chattanooga a few weeks ago and he said, 'Matt, the fact is the 'R' in CARTA is missing. The regional part is missing,'" Adams said.

Adams said CARTA receives phone calls on a daily basis from people in Ooltewah, Soddy Daisy and Hixon who can't find a bus route or secure a ride through Care-A-Van, a transit option available to people with impairments that otherwise prevent them from using the bus.

"We are doing a disservice to our residents," Adams said. "We can expand within our existing framework, but in the short term we can also partner with companies like Via out of Canada, which provides commuter services in partnership with local public transportation."

The candidates also addressed recent disparaging remarks about teachers made by Larry Arnn, the president of the private, conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan. Gov. Bill Lee has invited Arnn to open 50 charter schools in the state affiliated with Hillsdale, but during a June appearance in Franklin alongside Lee, Arnn said teachers are "trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges" in the U.S.

"I didn't know who Dr. Arnn was," Wamp said, "but his comments, especially if you go watch them, are just arrogant and totally out of touch and totally cringeworthy. And I think frankly as a result of those comments, the Hillsdale curriculum doesn't have much of a future anywhere in the state of Tennessee."

Adams said he took great offense to Arnn's comments.

"I also took offense to the governor's lack of responsibility taken when he sat by and said nothing in response to those comments," he said. "My mother, who is in the audience tonight, taught preschool for several years. I saw her work her butt off for her students day in and day out and I have the utmost respect for our teachers."

Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6249. Follow him on Twitter @flavid_doyd.

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