Three candidates running for Tennessee House District 65 discussed their views on state education funding, banning inappropriate books in K-12 schools and how they think schools approached the COVID-19 pandemic during last week’s Williamson County Republican Party primary forum.
Real estate attorney Lee Reeves, County Commissioner Brian Beathard, and former State GOP Executive Committee member Michelle Foreman are vying for the seat that opened for challengers when Rep. Sam Whitson, R- Franklin, announced his retirement.
When asked what they thought about how the state and its school districts handled the pandemic, candidates Beathard, Reeves, and Foreman all said they would be in support of legislation that limits the power of state government to enact a state of emergency or other sweeping state measures to deal with similar crises in the future.
“The masking and especially the closing of businesses went against everything I believe in as an American – our freedoms and our liberties,” Beathard said. “I would leave it up to the local citizenry of each county to decide for themselves. I don’t believe in passing these large sweeping bills that affect every county.”
Foreman and Reeves echoed those sentiments. Reeves said he was among the state’s parents who protested measures such as masking in schools during the pandemic and emphasized his support for limiting the state’s powers during crises like COVID-19 moving forward.
“People were dealing with a very difficult period of time that was hard to find a corollary to, and they went way overboard, and it did infringe on people’s rights. I actually remember not getting into this room one night when parents were frustrated about masking our kids, and I was outside there with my wife with our signs, ‘Don’t mask our kids,’” he said.
Noting that Williamson County leads the state in providing 71 percent of its annual funding for education, candidates also discussed their thoughts on a recent resolution by Williamson County Commissioners that challenges the way Tennessee calculates local matching funding obligations through the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) Act. Beathard said he would support a measure to make sure that “no county pays more than double what it gets back” if in office.
“There are three counties in our state that provide most of the funding for the state,” he said, adding that he believes the state is “balancing its budget on the back of Williamson County.”
Moving along to other hot button issues, candidates said they agree that Williamson County has a “problem with obscene material in our schools” when discussing recent controversies around the Age-Appropriate Materials Act of 2022, which compels schools to review and ban books with sexual and age-inappropriate material.
The controversy has since recently led to a lawsuit filed by Rep. Gino Bulso against the Williamson County Board of Education for its alleged failure to comply with the legislation. Foreman thanked Bulso for filing the lawsuit.
“We need to handle that,” Beathard said of the topic. “Personally, I would have taken a different tact than suing our schools … I think conversations and meetings with your county commissioners and school board could get this resolved.”
In addition, candidates said they would support removing state funding for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in higher education. Reeves took it further and said he would get rid of such programs in K-12 as well.
“These are programs that pursue ‘woke’ ideologies and push that into our kids and businesses, and that’s something we’ve struggled with over the last number of years, so yes, it’s got to go,” Reeves said.
