Cagle that is...
Photo from Rocky Top Politics Charles W. (Chuck) Cagle is listed as a shareholder and chair of the Education Law and Government Relations Practice Group for Lewis, Thomason, King, Krieg, and Waldrop on the firm's website.
According to the website: Cagle graduated from Tennessee Tech in 1978, receiving his law degree from the Nashville YMCA Night Law School in 1989. Now known as Nashville School of Law, this school has not been accredited by the American Bar Association and its graduates may not be allowed to sit for the bar examinations in other states.
It also goes on to say that he "oversees the firm’s representation of over 70 public boards of education, two private schools, two private universities, and a private medical school in a variety of legal matters... Mr. Cagle also is a registered lobbyist with the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance. His list of lobbying clients has included school superintendents, school employee professional organizations, school boards, private schools, private universities,"
Friends might call him "Chuck" but Momma Bears like to call him, Chucky Sleeze.
According to the website: Cagle graduated from Tennessee Tech in 1978, receiving his law degree from the Nashville YMCA Night Law School in 1989. Now known as Nashville School of Law, this school has not been accredited by the American Bar Association and its graduates may not be allowed to sit for the bar examinations in other states.
It also goes on to say that he "oversees the firm’s representation of over 70 public boards of education, two private schools, two private universities, and a private medical school in a variety of legal matters... Mr. Cagle also is a registered lobbyist with the Tennessee Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance. His list of lobbying clients has included school superintendents, school employee professional organizations, school boards, private schools, private universities,"
Friends might call him "Chuck" but Momma Bears like to call him, Chucky Sleeze.
Friends might call him "Chuck" but Momma Bears like to call him, Chucky Sleeze.
In addition to representing over half the school districts in the state, here is a quick list of some of Chuck’s lobbying clients:
(1) Tennessee State Collaborative on Reform of Education (SCORE)
(2) Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents (TOSS)
(3) The Association of Independent and Municipal Schools (AIMS)
(4) Mr. Cagle is also a registered lobbyist for Pearson Education.
Yes THAT Pearson
Pearson is the biggest book publisher in the world, who stands to make millions selling books and materials to the state and to school systems that were forced to buy new books because of Common Core. SCORE played a huge role in bringing Common Core to Tennessee.
And who plays a major role at the local level in deciding what textbooks get bought with taxpayer money? The School Superintendents. Cagle represents the School Superintendents (TOSS) in Nashville as their personal lobbyist.
Mr. Cagle’s client Pearson Education also landed the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) testing contract without having to contend with any competing bids.
Oh, but that's not all... Photo from Teachers' Letters to Bill Gates |  Photo from LinkedIn |
Chucky Sleeze's wife, Sandra G. worked for Pearson as a Senior Account Executive. Yes, that same Pearson!!! And when Sandy was unavailable, ol' Chucky would pinch hit for her, like at this important meeting for the Association of Independent and Municipal Schools, where "Chuck Cagle represented PEARSON in the absence of Sandra Cagle and indicated that PEARSON was happy to sponsor the AIMS luncheon." After doing Sandy's part, then Chuck gave his "Legislative Update" as the AIMS Lobbyist/Attorney.
According to LinkedIn, Sandy was employed by Pearson for thirteen years. She left in 2013, just after Chucky got into trouble with Tennessee Ethics Commission for an incident involving Pearson. Uh oh.
Details are in Commission's November 13, 2012 minutes. A Pearson employee gave a case of wine to an employee at the Tennessee Department of Education (tsk-tsk), but Chucky got the wine back and reported the incident, so no action was taken against him. This wasn't his first time before the Ethics Commission. Earlier that year, Cagle was fined by the commission for forgetting to register on time. Well, those things happen when you are as busy as Chucky representing all those schools systems and education organizations.
Maybe Chuck forgot to file his registration because he was busy working on the Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools merger? Sometimes, things get lost in the shuffle when you ping pong back and forth between being a lawyer and a lobbyist.
Anyway, back to the merger... Only, it really wasn't a merger.
It was a contentious legal battle. Unfortunately for Shelby County Schools, they hired Chuck Cagle to be their lawyer. So, all those promises of the school merger litigation dragging out until kindergarteners went to college never happened. Instead, Chucky urged the Shelby County School Board to "start planning for the inevitable.” And forget about a special school district or municipal schools because "the idea of some or all of the suburban municipalities forming their own school systems probably wouldn't get far in the legislature which has not only a 1982 ban on special school districts but a similar ban on municipal school districts."
Even though, Chucky turned out being wrong wrong wrong about municipal schools, he can still be rather pushy about things. Back in 2007, he pled "no-contest" to assault after pushing and calling someone an idiot at a school board meeting. "No-Contest" means Chuck didn't want to admit to assault because he might get sued. But he can't plead "not guilty" because he did it. And you can see his lame little push in this video.
So, how does Chucky get away with all those conflicts of interest? Why do school boards keep hiring him to be their lawyer? Why do reputable education organizations pick him to be their lobbyist? We want to know!!!
WHAT. THE. CHUCK...???
Maybe Chuck forgot to file his registration because he was busy working on the Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools merger? Sometimes, things get lost in the shuffle when you ping pong back and forth between being a lawyer and a lobbyist.
Anyway, back to the merger... Only, it really wasn't a merger.
It was a contentious legal battle. Unfortunately for Shelby County Schools, they hired Chuck Cagle to be their lawyer. So, all those promises of the school merger litigation dragging out until kindergarteners went to college never happened. Instead, Chucky urged the Shelby County School Board to "start planning for the inevitable.” And forget about a special school district or municipal schools because "the idea of some or all of the suburban municipalities forming their own school systems probably wouldn't get far in the legislature which has not only a 1982 ban on special school districts but a similar ban on municipal school districts."
Even though, Chucky turned out being wrong wrong wrong about municipal schools, he can still be rather pushy about things. Back in 2007, he pled "no-contest" to assault after pushing and calling someone an idiot at a school board meeting. "No-Contest" means Chuck didn't want to admit to assault because he might get sued. But he can't plead "not guilty" because he did it. And you can see his lame little push in this video.
So, how does Chucky get away with all those conflicts of interest? Why do school boards keep hiring him to be their lawyer? Why do reputable education organizations pick him to be their lobbyist? We want to know!!!
WHAT. THE. CHUCK...???
