Thursday, December 15, 2011
Legislature Haslam Pulls Fast One on School Voucher Proponents
Posted by Jeff Woods on Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 4:04 PM
The new bolder, brasher Bill Haslam is at it already, slamming the door shut on school vouchers in the upcoming legislative session. Last session, when according to Ron Ramsey the governor wasn't altogether secure in his knowledge of Civics 101, Haslam would have let the legislature go ahead and adopt vouchers. Then he would have shrugged and signed the bill into law. This afternoon, Haslam announced the appointment of a task force to study the issue and report back to him in the fall of 2012, effectively preempting any action until then.
It was the tactic of a seasoned political pro, and Haslam did it! Our world is turned upside down.
The task force includes GOP education heavyweights like Jamie Woodson and even the voucher's Senate champion, Brian Kelsey. For Republicans to act now without first hearing from this group is out of the question. The House sponsor, Bill Dunn, concedes his bill is toast for another year. It would have been a dog fight in the House anyway. House Education Committee chairman Richard Montgomery was against the bill.
Comments (6)
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In addition to being another tool in the arsenal of those determined to wage war on public education, vouchers are also another handy method for working class taxpayers to subsidize the rich. It works like this:
Vouchers are provided in theory to anyone, but since the vouchers in and of themselves cannot pay the tuition to the "academies" favored for the trust fund kinds of Belle Meade and Brentwood, they are in reality only used by those already rich enough to send Biff and Sissy to those schools. Therefore, only the rich actually use the vouchers, and taxpayers basically help pay the way for the country club set.
It's like the lottery. The poor buy the tickets, and the well off get the lottery scholarships.
Pleasantly surprised that Gov. Emptysuit has taken this stand.
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Vouchers are yet another diversion from what is keeping public education from becoming a viable option for all Nashville residents. Having grown up in Nashville, and having attended a great public high school, it appears that unwillingness to enforce discipline in the classroom is the main problem in our schools. The problem is not rich people, or poor people, but politicians and school administrators that do not want to be unpopular with children's parents. There is a contingency that says that parents are the cause, but the politicians have taken parents out of the equation by busing kids across town so that parents, and neighborhoods, cannot become involved with and support our schools.
My solution. There should be two disciplinary schools for those that "act out" and prevent schools from functioning. These schools should offer discipline combined with counseling. After one year in these schools, children should be let back into the mainstream schools. If it happens again, the kids should be sent to the disciplinary setting for two years. After re-entering the mainstream schools after this, if "acting out" happens again, the child will sent before a committee to determine the course of his/her future education.
Beyond this, Nashville is not like it was in the 1970s; neighborhoods are more diverse, at least diverse enough to not have busing on the scale it is today. Re-zoning and having neighborhood schools would give parents and neighborhoods more say so in the running of the schools. Schools become stronger, better supported, and a part of the neighborhoods; rivalries come back in sports, and, yes, parents that are now paying for both a private education and a public one, can send their kids to the school down the street. Metro is not spending monies on gas and bus maintenance, but instead on books and teacher's salaries. All this to say, please do not let yet another diversion weaken our schools further. The solution is simple, and popular.
Ah, yes. The "bad kid" school concept -- a separate system of remedial education for the troublemakers.
I used to think that we needed that in the NFL as well; a place to send all the "problem children" so they wouldn't ruin the game for the rest of us. Then I realized that the Raiders basically perform that function, so...
Actually, @Don't Ask, I rather thought it was the Bungles (Bengals) who performed that function. ;)
