Today, State Representative Bill Dunn of Knoxville did not put his school voucher bill up for a TN House of Representatives floor vote, primarily because he does not believe he had the 50 votes to pass it. Here is the quandary, school vouchers are a urban/suburban issue and not a rural issue. In the TN House of Representatives the vast majority of legislators represent rural communities.
Today, in the emotion of the moment Dunn inferred that his fellow legislators that do not support school vouchers do not care about kids. Well, that was just plain ole stupid and Dunn should apologize to his colleagues.
Here is my take, I support vouchers because the edu-bureaucrats have done nothing to compete with the private schools to improve test scores for 20 years and now they want to save “their” dollars. The problem is TEA, KCEA needs to understand the dollars are the taxpayers, not the edu-bureaucrats.
On the other hand, if I am a State Representative representing the Morgan County community of Oakdale and a kid gets a voucher, where will that kid and family take it? The family can’t move or they would have moved already. The kids in rural communities are simply stuck and stuck with edu-bureaucrats and their organized labor union thugs that keep them stuck in failing schools with no hope for a way up and out.
Dunn said, “I feel sorry for the parents who have children in failing schools. All we did was try to help them and unfortunately for another year they’re going to be on the path to failure,” Well I do too especially the ones that are so rural, they can’t get help. But until Dunn modifies the bill to help the rural communities and legislators to have buy in, his bill will linger on a lifeline.
