Hi Mark - does one submit questions beforehand, is it an open mic? Plz advise on questioning format/process. Thanks!

TNchick, you've linked to the post Mark made last year (2013) for last year's event, but that's okay--I had intended to comment on today's event, myself, and hadn't gotten around it.

It looked like all legislators to have confirmed did in fact attend.

Mark and Becky were there and Bean made it, too. I didn't see any reporter I recognized from KNS (although KNS columnist Bob Booker sat at my table), but that doesn't mean they didn't send someone. I don't much watch the broadcast news, so I'm a blank slate as to who they may have sent.

Ed Shouse also sat at my table and I saw Dave Wright, but I didn't note any other commissioners.

I saw no school board members at all but Ninth District school board candidate Amber Rountree attended, as did her Halls Elementary colleague Lauren Hopson. It may be that other school board candidates I didn't know were also there?

Oh, and KV's jcgrim made it, too.

Yes, other questions arose, but attendees really hammered the panel on education issues--even with a moderator determining which written questions legislators would answer.

Bill Dunn was predictably oblivious and had still more to offer this year as to why pre-K is a "scam." I thought Harry Brooks, though, was on the defensive and should have been. Doug Overby, the sole Repub on the dais to have received any TEA endorsement last election cycle, was a voice of calm and reason among his more agitated Repub peers and I appreciated his comments.

But Gloria, thank God, carried the day. She answered more questions, in part because the audience and/or the moderator directed them to her, than anyone. She was able to disseminate quite a bit of factual information to counter the fevered commentary of folks like Stacey Campfield, seated at her left elbow.

And she remained gracious doing it.

Heard it got a little testy today when legislators were challenged on educational policy. Best not to argue with a professor who has done decades of research on education.

And Becky Duncan-Massey apparently shares her Repub colleagues' concern for textbook content.

She supports this notion that parents should pre-screen textbooks prior to their being authorized by the state's schools.

Campfield also offered some completely unintelligible comment about how some textbook publishers would not allow the parents of students for whom the texts are published to ever, ever get to thumb through them, before or after the texts were authorized for student use???

Don't think anybody on either side of the issue had a clue what he was talking about...

The table full of Minutemen/Tea Partiers was kinda fun.

I rather enjoyed his yelling. I wanted to yell, myself.

I absolutely HATE that polite, sanitized LWV format of submitting written questions that are then read (maybe) by a moderator.
It sets the the panel up to go on and on and allows no opportunity for followup questions. About halfway through, I had to get up from my seat directly in front of the panel and move to the back of the room – because I was about to start hurling baked beans and slaw at them. At one point, Harry Brooks got his filibuster interrupted and actually whined to the mod. about somebody from the audience breaking into his monolog.
There were a lot of half-truths, untruths and, nothing-like-the-truths told at that forum, and I was glad when people like jcgrim and, yes, the Minuteman, broke the rules and took 'em to school a time or two.

In the (sort of) words of the immortal Tina Turner, I like my democracy nice and rough.

There was no opportunity for dialogue and no opportunity to challenge what was said unless you broke the rules. I also didn't care for the moderator whining at the end that he didn't like conflict and wanted to get home. I hope someone else is chosen next time.

I thought Gloria came across extremely well. There was a KNS reporter at my table, but I forgot his name. He's a relatively new freelancer who has been mostly writing international stories with a local interest.

I took a lot of notes at yesterday's event. Let me highlight some items.

Initially, I was impressed with the large turnout--both of crowd and area state legislators.

A bit of a surprise were the "Agenda 21" conspiracy folks, some of whom decided after their morning event in the room next door to drop in on this event, and even videotape it. No real problem, it was a public event.

Rep. Gloria Johnson proved to be the strongest speaker on environmental concerns, addressing both mountain-top removal mining and fracking.

Rep. Bill Dunn stirred some disputing voices in the crowd, including mine, when he challenged the effectiveness of pre-K. He and I have had a running discussion/debate on the point. Here is a link that summarizes some of the evidence in favor of Pre-K programs:

(link...)

Based on the summed answers, and dubious talking points proffered, don't expect this group to move toward Medicaid expansion.

Sen. Stacey Campfield's complaints about controversial items in textbooks suggest that is his next big thing.

Looks like wine in grocery stores could happen, but with rules to keep it out of convenience stores.

It also seems likely some sort of expanded voucher plan (bigger than Haslam's plan, smaller than the big ones suggested last session) will pass--and start skimming desperately needed money away from public schools.

Don't know who else was there, but Georgiana and I were both there on the KNS columnist front. Kristi Nelson was helping run things, so I'm sure she was taking notes on Medicaid expansion. That woman is a walking/talking encyclopedia about such matters.

I was impressed by the turnout, but not the format. Much preferred the format used in the past when questions were taken from the audience with follow-ups. And somebody needs to tell Dunn to put a sock in it re the pre-K stuff.

As for the rest, I'll probably use it as background as the session progresses.