Defender of Tennessee Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds fails to make his case

Re: "Lizzette Reynolds, Tennessee education commissioner, suffers for disrupting the status quo," by Joseph R. Murray II, April 10.

Attorney Joseph R. Murray’s recent guest opinion column, defending the besmirched honor of Tennessee Education Commission Lizzette Reynolds was as shameless as it was risible.

I do not wish to engage with his argument, stated repeatedly but backed up only by one piece of data — which shows student standardized test scores rising in recent years, and which Gov. Bill Lee himself trumpeted — that public education in Tennessee is “a complete failure, a laughingstock.”

If that were the case, Tennesseans would be clamoring in support of Governor Lee’s voucher program, instead of doing what they have been doing throughout the current legislative session: imploring their representatives to vote against it.

Mr. Murray is, of course, a proponent of that same voucher program. He is hardly a dispassionate observer. The poverty of his argument is underscored by the fact that Ms. Reynolds could find no one else to deliver a defense of her conduct and qualifications.

I would think that an award-winning attorney would conclude, as even some Republicans have admitted, that Ms. Reynolds is unqualified to hold the position to which she has been appointed.

The law is clear on that the commissioner be a person who is “qualified to teach in the school of the highest standing over which the commissioner has authority.”

I would also think that an award-winning attorney would know perjury when they see it, and Ms. Reynolds appears to have perjured herself when she lied on her application for a tuition waiver for her teaching certificate at University of Tennessee-Martin, which her office called an "administrative error." The shamelessness of this lie is par for the course for the entire crooked enterprise, fueled by out-of-state money, which seeks to impose vouchers on a state that does not want them.

David Rivera, Brentwood 37027

Point: School choice expansion helps Tennessee parents who have been waiting for better options

Counterpoint: Admit it: Tennessee Senate and House are at odds on school vouchers. It's time to move on

Columnist never says how commissioner makes Tennessee education better

In his column, Joseph R. Murray II laments that Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds has been unfairly criticized for two reasons: first, she fails to meet a pre-existing standard for the position of education commissioner (prior experience as an educator); and second, for falsely representing that she was entitled to a tuition waiver for which she applied (which is only eligible to those who have been employed by the State for at least six months) ostensibly to meet the experience requirement that she lacks.

However, nowhere in his column does Mr. Murray point to any accomplishment by Ms. Reynolds either prior to or after assuming her position with respect to education administration. Nor does Mr. Murray identify any steps taken by Commissioner Reynolds to “shake up the establishment” that has motivated attacks based on her lack of experience or failure to follow otherwise clear requirements for a tuition waiver.

Mr. Murray suggests that it in order to secure better performance in Tennessee schools it is advisable and commendable to appoint someone without demonstrable and relevant experience in education administration or who can understand and comply with a basic prerequisite for a State funded benefit.

The agenda of the Lee Administration is to further cripple public schools by diverting limited public funding to pay for private school tuition for certain students while not requiring demonstration of any educational progress. For these tasks, Commissioner Reynolds appears to be eminently qualified.

Irwin Venick, Nashville 37205

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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee education: Defense of Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds lacking