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One Story to Read Today highlights a single newly published—or newly relevant—Atlantic story that’s worth your time.
In a rare bipartisan alliance, rural Republicans are joining forces with Democratic lawmakers to oppose private-school vouchers, which they fear will use small-town money to subsidize the private education of metropolitan and wealthy kids, Alec MacGillis writes.
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| | Todd Warner, a Republican member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, photographed in June 2024 at the office of his company PCS of TN in Chapel Hill, Tennessee (Whitten Sabbatini for The Atlantic and ProPublica) |
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Drive an hour south of Nashville into the rolling countryside of Marshall County, Tennessee—past horse farms, mobile homes, and McMansions—and you will arrive in Chapel Hill, population 1,796. It’s the birthplace of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who helped found the Ku Klux Klan. And it’s the home of Todd Warner, one of the most unlikely and important defenders of America’s besieged public schools.
Warner is the gregarious 53-year-old owner of PCS of TN, a 30-person company that does site grading for shopping centers and other construction projects. The second-term Republican state representative “aabsolutely” supports Donald Trump, who won Marshall County by 50 points in 2020. Warner likes to talk of the threats posed by culture-war bogeymen, such as critical race theory; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and Sharia law.
And yet, one May afternoon in his office, under a TV playing Fox News and a mounted buck that he’d bagged in Alabama, he told me about his effort to halt Republican Governor Bill Lee’s push for private-school vouchers in Tennessee.
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Meet us at The Atlantic Festival | |
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The Atlantic Festival returns this September 19 and 20, bringing you thought-provoking conversations, book talks, and film screenings with speakers including playwright Anna Deavere Smith, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, director and screenwriter Noah Hawley, and more. Join us virtually or in-person in Washington, D.C. Passes are now available, with a special 30% discount for Atlantic subscribers. Reserve your spot today. |
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