Clinton High School English teacher DeWayne Emert, left, announces that a Tennessee Education Association organization has endorsed Democrat Jim Hackworth, center, in his campaign for the state House of Representatives. Also pictured is Ryan Mackay, Tennessee Democratic Party deputy field director.
CLINTON — Education could be one of the key battlegrounds in Anderson County’s hotly contested race for Tennessee House of Representatives.
This week, Democratic candidate Jim Hackworth said teachers are unhappy with changes made during the past few years and are “tired of being treated like second-class citizens.
“They want someone who will listen to them and ask them what they think to improve education,” said Hackworth, a former four-term legislator who is trying to take back his old seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives.
During a campaign kickoff ceremony Monday, he was joined by DeWayne Emert, a Clinton High School English teacher, who said a Tennessee Education Association organization had unanimously endorsed Hackworth over the incumbent, Republican John Ragan.
“We have to vote for candidates that are going to stand up for education,” said Emert, a member of the TEA Fund for Children and Public Education Executive Council. He said the local organization is bipartisan.
The Ragan campaign didn’t express surprise at the reported TEA endorsement.
“The TEA typically does back Democrats,” said campaign aide Holt Whitt, a Republican Caucus field staff member.
TEA spokesman Alex Smirnov confirmed that local teachers in Anderson County have recommended that Hackworth be endorsed in District 33, which includes the county south and west of Interstate 75.
But he said the TEA FCPE has yet to consider the local recommendation or concur. That could happen in the next few weeks, Smirnov said.
The Ragan campaign said Republicans were getting blamed, at least in part, for a new evaluation system that was approved while Hackworth and former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen were still in office. Hackworth voted for the evaluation system guidelines during a special session in 2009, Whitt said.
It would be hypocritical for the TEA to endorse Hackworth based on concerns over that system, Ragan said.
A first-term legislator from Oak Ridge, Ragan said some resistance to the new system was to be expected. Before the most recent reforms, teachers could receive tenure after three years and then be evaluated once every five years, he said.
Ragan said he did not know of any similar profession where workers were evaluated that infrequently.
He said legislators have listened to educators’ concerns, and some changes are likely, although the evaluations will still probably be more frequent than they were in the past.
Emert said the new system requires four evaluations per year for tenured teachers and six evaluations per year for non-tenured ones. That’s up from one per year under the old system, Emert said.
He said tenure is also an issue for teachers. They used to be eligible for tenure after three years, but they now have to wait five. And, if they drop below a four on the five-point evaluation evaluation system for two years, they could lose tenure, he said.
“That’s really hard on a new teacher,” said Emert, an Anderson County teacher of the year at the high school level.
A substitute teacher, Ragan said the state’s low-ranking education system had to be changed, although there are some bright spots, including the Oak Ridge school system.
“We must do something,” he said.
He said the TEA has been a major force in Tennessee since the 1960s, and the organization is objecting to what is in place now.
Republicans and Democrats agree that the race between Ragan and Hackworth is one of a half-dozen key contests in the Nov. 6 election.
T J says
Unions are one reason government schools are failing to educate the children.
There are many other reasons and many are listed in books by John Taylor Gatto.
Democrats have never seen a union they didn’t like.
JH says
Several republicans have been endorsed by TEA in the past. However, they were typically in favor of public schools; unlike Ragan who is in favor of privatizing schools. Also, TEA is not a union because it has no bargaining rights.
Jim Hackworth says
When we passed the race to the top two years ago, the law established a panel for the purpose of establishing and submitting performance measures for teachers to the state school board. I fought to make sure the teachers were fairly represented on that panel. Unfortunately, the recommendations of that panel were ignored for most part by the state school board when they, not the legislature, put the current system in place. Had they listened to the teachers’ imput then, we would not have the turmoil we are currently facing. It is unfortunate, that John Ragan does not see that the real issues at hand. In fact, he only worsens the issues when he treats our teachers like second class citizens.
Jim Hackworth says
In 2010 the Tennessee Legislature passed, “Race to the Top.†A part of that law created a committee to establish a way to measure the performance of our teachers and submit their recommendations to the state school board for their approval or modification. An appropriate number of teachers were finally allowed to serve on that committee after several legislators, including me, stood fast to ensure they had a place at the table. Unfortunately, the state school board chose to ignore many of their suggestions. Those exclusions along with the attacks on our teachers by John Ragan and his refusal to hear them out and protect our public schools is what has brought about their efforts to send him home. In addition to activating the teachers against him, Ragan has also activated many parents and grandparents against him because of his attempts to eliminate the laws protecting our children from bullies. And to make it even worse, many folks are upset because he has not made good on his promise to bring jobs to Anderson County and has instead has led them down a path to the unemployment line and the worst new jobs effort by Anderson County in a decade.
MW224 says
Jim, since you seem to care about this story and not the others posted, why do you choose to have Coming soon as your post on where you stand on your issues on your own website? Post your record and your votes and let the voters decide if they agree or disagree with you. You lost a heads up race, lost a lot of your financial supporters to John Ragan and have the ability to gain some voters including myself back, but you tiptoe into the county mayor race, back out, then come back into this race but do not clearly show your hand on where you stand on the issues with the exception of this education issue and the bullying item which you seem to be passionate about. I do not want to start any for or against your stance when it is not fully clear…but a union is a union, teacher tenure is and has been a problem, and I’m sorry, did the problems in Anderson County only occur in the past two years? It seems like the economy began to hit bottom in 2008 and bottomed in 2010…about the time you left office? Can someone rebuild damage in only two years as a junior congressman?
Mare Martell says
Okay, Mr. Hackworth. I hear you. I’ve made derogatory statements in the past about Mr. Hackworth and I probably will in the future, but at least it will be because of changes made while in office.