posted March 24, 2008
Rep. Beth Harwell told the Chattanooga Pachyderm Club on Monday that she favors using excess lottery funds to build K-12 public schools.
Rep. Harwell also said she wants to expand use of charter schools, saying they are proving more effective than regular public schools.
She said lottery funds could help replace many older public schools.
She said Nashville made a mistake in going to large comprehensive high school and is now moving to neighborhood schools.
She said three charter schools in Nashville for "at risk" students are big successes.
The speaker said state teacher unions want to protect existing public schools and are resisting the move to charter schools. She said, "I don't think the teacher unions have the students' interest at heart."
She said several Nashville colleges, including Vanderbilt, David Lipscomb and Trevecca, are offering to sponsor charter schools. She said when colleges and businesses sponsor charter schools that provides a place for the children of their employees to attend.
Rep. Harwell also said there needs to be a process "to weed out bad teachers" from the public schools.
She said Gov. Phil Bredesen spent too much in the last budget and is now facing about $300 million in cuts.
She hit the "Bredesen bunker" project at the governor's mansion. "No one can argue that this is a necessary project," she said.
She said Republicans just need four seats to gain control of the state House and oust House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh. She said she has her eye on two seats that should be winnable.
On the water "border war," she said, "We are going to keep out water." But she said the stzte of Tennessee needs to do a better job on planning for infrastructure needs.
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