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Friday, August 30, 2013

Tena Lee's Wild Ride

Tena Lee writes in today's Hendersonville Star News about the 2014 County Commission and School Board races.

She suggests Sumner County is in for a "wild ride" between now and election day -- when voters will hear conflicting messages about the state of our schools.

One the one side, grassroots organization Strong Schools -- calling for more funding for schools and the election of County Commissioners who will support that funding, even if it means a small tax increase.

On the other, the Merrol Hyde-Jerry Stone faction of the County Commission -- a group locked down against any tax increase.  That faction insists instead that the School Board should simply make do with what it has.

Lee's piece is compelling because while parents have packed the County Commission chambers on numerous occasions (including this past Monday for the Janet Arnold-Leslie Schell vote) historically, turnout has been terribly low for primary and general elections for County offices. 

If parents whine and complain, but don't vote, there will have been 2+ years of intense conflict resulting in little actual policy change.

On the other hand, with turnout numbers so typically low, involving just 100-200 new voters in some districts may be enough to change the outcome and elect someone new to County Commission or School Board. 

In either case, the next 9-12 months promise to be quite interesting and possibly even wild.

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