Last week, the Williamson County Association of Realtors® hosted a special luncheon featuring Tennessee State Representative Phillip Johnson and his older brother, Senator Jack Johnson. The luncheon was scheduled to feature two additional TN State Reps, Glen Casada and Charles Sargent, who were otherwise occupied by the special session on education reform. As many of you have probably heard, last night the Tennessee House and Senate passed a bill to reform teacher evaluations and tenure. This bill was passed in an effort to increase Tennessee’s chances at receiving up to $485 million of the federal government’s ‘Race to the Top’ money.
The Johnsons informed us that this week’s special session on education reform will focus on higher education, more specifically, tieing TN’s 2 year institutions, like Columbia Community College, with 4 year institutions like UT. This would potentially allow students to graduate from a 2 year school and integrate into a 4 year school, without losing credits earned.
The luncheon featured a Q&A session with Tennessee Senator Johnson and Representative Johnson. Most of the questions centered around the stimulus and its effect on Williamson County. We were informed that large portions of the money went towards infrastructure and expanding unemployment health benefits.
The general consensus of the meeting was that Williamson County is in much better economic condition than many of the other counties in TN. Senator Johnson stated, “Investments in education and infrastructure were made 20, and even 30 years ago. It’s no mistake that the median home price in Williamson county is nearly double that of Rutherford County. ”
