The weight of the newscycle in our country right now is almost unbearable.
Truly.
Protests. Race riots. A pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 Americans. Hurricane season.
Those powerful stories are everywhere. Those powerful, eye-catching headlines also can distract us from local developments that, while nowhere close to the life-and-death issues staring down our country, are important nonetheless.
Take a couple of local stories from TFP education reporter Meghan Mangrum.
Earlier this week, Jeannette Omarkhail, the poohbah of the Hamilton County Education Association, offered this comment when asked about tightening school budgets, which would also affect teachers' raises:
"The state should not be cutting education funding. They need to keep that 2% increase. [Gov. Lee] already dropped it from 4% to 2%. There are other things that they need to look at before they cut teacher pay," Omarkhail told Mangrum. "If the state isn't going to give it to us - which they should because there is only so much a county can do - then the district is going to have to find it."
Hmmmmmm. OK, let's quickly review the last 10 months in school-system funding that included a long conversation about raises for classroom teachers:
> Our county's teachers union allowed the teachers to be used by the system's leadership as pawns in the county budget discussion, only to yield to hiring 180-plus new employees - and dues-paying new members to the union - rather than raises;
> One-time bonuses and mid-year, partial raises are dangled;
> A much-anticipated facilities report offered a 10-figure need for school facilities;
> Then March came, the pandemic sent everything spiraling and shuttered the system for the final two-plus months of the school year.
And that shutdown altered everything. Everything except the school budget, at least according to Omarkhail.
The damaging economic impact is impossible to predict 100% accurately just yet. But with lost sales tax revenue, lost tourism dollars, etc., no one should expect the school system to receive more money from the county in the near term.
So when our national economy is facing an $8 trillion hit over the next decade, and national and local unemployment is at Great Depression-levels and above, now is the time to guarantee teachers' raises?
Granted, the governor all-but-kiboshed any and all state-funded raises Friday, noting that Tennessee will have close to a $1 billion budget shortfall. So was the raise notion posturing or just preposterous? Maybe both.
That's beyond tone deaf. That's separated from reality.
Which brings me to the other story Mangrum reported.
The political arm of the local teachers' union endorsed Hamilton County Board of Education candidates, including newcomers Marco Perez and Stephen Vickers as well as incumbents Tiffanie Robinson and Joe Wingate, in the August county elections.
OK. But remember this if you are a voter in Districts 1, 2, 4 or 7:
If we are ever going to have a school board truly lead our school system rather than letting the system wag the dog, is the endorsement of the teachers' union a good thing?
Do we really need close to half of school board members beholden to the teachers' union, even if just in perception?
Yes, the national headlines are important and tragic.
But the importance of how our school leaders will be ready for our next normal must be closely followed, too.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and follow him on Twitter @jgreesontfp.
Jay Greeson