erik cole

The controversial school board rezoning vote punctuated by charges that the Chamber of Commerce masterminded the plan to move north Nashville students to the inner city Pearl Cohn cluster is blowing up into a media conflagration and now so-called "liberals"

I've largely stayed out of this whole segregation v. neighborhood schools argument going on in the MNPS because I don't have a concrete opinion either way...I can see both sides.

Jeff Woods is calling out the white liberal community for their silence:

It’s been nearly a week since the Chamber of Commerce rolled back racial progress in the city by voting to resegregate schools. Oh wait, that was the school board that did that. I get the two confused. Anyway, there’s still been no word from any of the city’s white progressive leaders on this issue.

Rex Noseworthy reports on a local television station’s absence from an important Metro council meeting:

Channel 4 called the Barry house during the gathering and said, “We weren’t at the Council meeting, can someone there tell us if anything important happened?”

Erik Cole, Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee in the Metro Council, said that the MTA Board has agreed to revisit later in the year, their decision to only keep two of the seven routes that were originally scheduled to be cut before the Council approved an extra $1MM in funding.

By MICHAEL CASS • Staff Writer (Tennessean) • June 18, 2008

CM Erik Cole said that public transportation was the highest priority in the substitute budget, and the Budget and Finance Committee put money for the bus routes that the Mayor eliminated back into the budget. Substitute budget provides an additional $1,000,000 for MTA. Money was also provided for magnet school students riding MTA.

By MICHAEL CASS • Staff Writer (Tennessean)• June 16, 2008

The Metro Council is poised to restore $1 million to the Metro Transit Authority's budget for the upcoming fiscal year, a move that would save some public bus routes from the chopping block.

By MICHAEL CASS • Staff Writer • June 10, 2008