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Contributed commentary by John Bench of Clarksville regarding school vouchers:
Over the last several weeks, we have bombarded with commercials by the governor telling us how great his voucher program will be. He has even posted an op-ed in the Tennessean trying to drum up support. The way I take the ads and the article is that if we pass this legislation, teachers will get bonuses, and more funding will go to public schools. We shouldn’t have to pass special legislation to give teachers bonuses or put more money toward better schools. These items should not be used to blackmail our legislators to pass a bill.
Parents do have the freedom to send their child to any school they want. It is a matter of if they have the resources or not. My biggest concerns are that these vouchers will go those who have the resources to send their child to private schools and not those who need the help the most.
I also have not seen anything about accountability. We ask public school students to pass TCAP and perform to certain standard, but nothing I have seen holds those receiving the vouchers to any such standard. Take all of the other “carrots” out of the bill and let the voucher program go forward on its own merit. Our neighbor to the north, Kentucky, put the issue on the ballot this past election, and it was defeated soundly.
John Bench