The Scene: A South Nashville school board race is already shaping up as one of 2016's most watched. That's because Will Pinkston's in it. In Defiance of Will

by Amanda Haggard, The Nashville Scene, Jan. 7, 2016 - At an open conference room in a shared East Nashville workspace, Jackson Miller utters the same phrase over and over again: "Be kind. Be brave." It's a mantra he uses in his life and with his six children, he says.

And it will be his guideline, he says, as he launches his Metro school board campaign against Will Pinkston.

In the race toward August's election — running against a self-described bomb thrower and hatchet man — it'll be tough to maintain the former. The latter, however, will be necessary.
More than a half-year out, the South Nashville school board race is shaping up as one to watch as observers gather along the sidelines. Few of those spectators are disinterested — not in a political climate laced with pro- and anti-charter school sentiment and sharp political maneuvering. And not when it portends the kind of political fundraising and spending once reserved for state legislative seats, a standard set by the hotly contested Metro school board race in 2014. .....

"I'm not the one who came up with the term 'divisive school board,' " Miller says, stifling a soft laugh in the back of his throat.......

"I want to push more autonomy on the school level," Miller says. "That's fair to our teachers and principals, and those kind of broad statements really don't solve a problem. Instead of setting an arbitrary goal of reducing testing, maybe let the schools make that decision." (link)

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