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Back in 2015, parent group Williamson Strong was accused by some local politicians of being an illegal PAC (Political Action Committee.) They were not, and the State of Tennessee had to pay a bunch of attorneys fees over the frivolous complaint (e.g. your tax dollars hard at work.) In fact, Tennessee state law was changed to more clearly define a PAC as a result of that waste of everyone's time. Since no money was raised or used to support candidates, it was a threshold that never came into play before the law was changed, or even since then.
However.
It's recently become crystal clear that Williamson County Schools are once again becoming a political playground for a small but shrill group of extremists who think our public schools are fair game for all the free time they have on their hands. It's why the baton was passed to new parents who revived and relaunched this site and coverage of local news and meetings.
Williamson Strong has always been, and will always be, a few WCS parents who take great offense to our kids' education being messed with, and put our various skillsets to use in true Mama Bear fashion. Until now, that has consisted of blogging and social media postings to make sure parents and community members are informed and engaged in protecting our community's most important asset.
Political agendas, especially extremist and fringe ones,
are not welcome in our public schools.
We officially filed to be a PAC in order to raise money for candidates who are truly public school advocates. This will happen in the nonpartisan School Board race, the County Commission race (all 24 seats are up for election in 2022 and they're the one who hold the county's purse strings and manage our budget), possibly with local and state legislative candidates, maybe even local Alderman races**.
This all depends on you (yes, you!) and if you trust us to evaluate and support those who will truly serve our public schools - our children and their teachers, staff, and administrators who are counting on us to be the fortification line on this (unfortunately) politicized battlefield.
There are two of us behind the scenes here with no ties to a national group, organization, or anyone pulling the strings or even advising us from outside Williamson County. We're moms who have both been closely following the actions of the WCSB and our school district for many years now. One of our shared skills is being able to sniff out a partisan player who doesn't have public education's best interests at heart...and they're actively organizing as we speak.
This unfortunately isn't the first time a politically divisive playbook has been used to attack and weaken our local public school system, but the good news is that this time? We're prepared to protect it, and to make it easy for you and your neighbors and friends to do the same.
The first step: Donate now if you believe in our schools, and we'll vet and support local candidates who will vote in the best interest of our public schools, and not for political or partisan gain. We will always be 100% transparent with who we're supporting and why.
p.s. Take some time to browse the "candidates" section of our blog to see how politicized WCSB races have been in the past. The same organizers and players are already hard at work for the 2022 races. Time to tune in, engage, and make sure every single person you know in Williamson County is doing the same. We know for a fact that we public school believers are the vast majority of residents...we just have to show up and be counted.
**Know anyone who lives in Franklin's Ward 1 and would like to run for Alderman? A public school advocate could really be used in that seat and the filing deadline is July 15th. Pass it on.