Setting the record straight
County Republican Party makes clear stance on education
“The Catoosa County Republican Party stands for smaller government, fiscal responsibility and more liberty, including in the way we educate our children,” says party Chairman Jeff Holcomb.
The recent uproar over the party’s platform, Holcomb says, was “due to things that were printed that are absolute fabrications, including a claim that we stand for no government-funded education.”
“We are not calling for the end of public schools,” says Holcomb. “It would be impossible not to have public schools. What we’re calling for is more parental control over education.”
The party’s platform contains two sections on education, one that addresses the present and one that outlines a vision for the future.
In a section titled “Public Tax Supported Education Now,” the platform includes: “Education of the children of the nation does not mean that the state should take the place of parents ... Educational institutions of this state shall have the absolute right as given by parents to maintain discipline in their classroom and school system. Children are expected to respect their teachers and obey the policies of the school … Parents should be allowed to have input into the curriculum of any school. The ultimate control should be with the administration …”
Where more controversy has arisen comes from parts of the platform that address school funding. The platform calls for the school board to submit a budget to the county Board of Commissioners, to publish their accounting records online and to “not fear rejecting Federal Funding.”
“We need to be “We are not calling for the end of public schools. It would be impossible not to have public schools. What we’re calling for is more parental control over education.” -- Jeff Holcomb, Catoosa County Republican Party chairman
frugal with the taxes we take from people,” says Holcomb. “Most government expenses are pretty predictable. They can be planned for. You know about how many students will
local communities.”
The peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis was conducted by economists Catherine Cullinane Thomas of the U.S. Geological Survey and Lynne Koontz of the National Park Service. The report shows $18.4 billion of direct spending by 331 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park. This spending supported 318,000 jobs nationally; 271,544 of those jobs are found in these gateway communities. The cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy was $34.9 billion.
According to the 2016 report, most park visitor spending was for lodging (31.2 percent) followed by food and beverages (27.2 percent), gas and oil (11.7 percent), admissions and fees (10.2 percent), souvenirs and other
expenses (9.7 percent) local transportation (7.4 percent), and camping fees (2.5 percent).
Report authors this year produced an interactive tool. Users can explore current year visitor spending, jobs, labor income, value added, and output effects by sector for national, state, and local economies. Users can also view year-byyear trend data. The interactive tool and
report are available at the NPS Social Science Program webpage: go.nps.gov/vse.
For more information about Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, please contact the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center at (706) 866-9241, the Lookout Mountain Battlefield Visitor Center at (423) 821-7786, or visit the park’s website at www. nps.gov/chch.