Political Roundup: Democrats and Republicans chart courses ahead
Tennessee House of Representatives Speaker Cameron Sexton (center) at Friday’s opening of Pure Academy talks with County Commissioner Mickell Lowery (left) and City Council member Philip Spinosa (right). (Bill Dries/The Daily Memphian)
The opening of the new Pure Academy private school in Nutbush drew a lot of bipartisan traffic Friday, Feb. 7, to the renovated school site’s gymnasium.
The school’s board chairman John Golwen said the recently approved Education Freedom Act school voucher plan would help the nonprofit boys high school that targets at-risk Black children with an approach that includes a boarding school option.
Among the elected officials who spoke at the ribbon cutting was Tennessee House of Representatives Speaker Cameron Sexton who led the charge in the special session for a proposal that drew opposition from some Republicans as well as Memphis Democrats.
“The freedom scholarships will allow Pure Academy to grow. It is supported by a foundation obviously because the families can’t afford what this costs,” Sexton told The Daily Memphian. “The scholarships will allow the foundation to expand and provide more of this for more students. It doesn’t cover the whole cost, but it will allow them to do more.”
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Bill Dries
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for more than 40 years.
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