If yesterday’s statement by Tennessee House Republican Rep. Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown) during the discussion on the budget didn’t make you think he was a walking right-wing extremist talking point, then surely the press release he issued today prior to the debate on Rep. Beth Harwell’s (R-Nashville) charter school bill – and read aloud by State Rep. Ulysses Jones (D-Memphis) on the floor of the House during the discussion – will convince you.
“Charter school expansion will help poor children have a chance to receive a quality education. said Rep. Kelsey, “Our public school system is the last vestige of slavery. It traps many impoverished kids into a system of poor education with very little chance of success. I’m glad that this bill continues to pick up bipartisan support from the local level all the way up to the presidency.”
Add “hyperbolic,” “insulting,” and “misguided” to the list of adjectives that describe Rep. Kelsey. His comparison doesn’t even work metaphorically. And during a session in which we saw a bill that would have directed the state of Tennessee to issue an apology express profound regret for slavery bullied (and sullied) into submission, and it was revealed that some members of state government find racism amusing, his timing couldn’t be any worse.
Comparing public schools to slavery is like comparing school nutritional guidelines to Nazism.
In an impassioned plea for the bill during the discussion, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner (D-Old Hickory) said, “Do not let this influence your vote on the bill.”
HB2133 passed 79-15 through the House.
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