BARRETT GETS THE BOOT. Rep. Jody Barrett has been a very vocal critic of GOP House leadership. Tuesday, the Speaker responded by removing Barrett from his committee post on the influential and powerful Commerce Committee. Maybe a potential run for the State Senate against embattled Sen. Kerry Roberts is a bit more appealing today.
DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN. With the legislature back that means the whacky protesters are back. They appear to be the usual suspects, most likely paid by the far left, singing and chanting their nonsense, with liberal so-called religious leaders in the mix to stir the pot. And of course there is Rep. Justin “Never Met A Protest He Won’t Join if TV Cameras Are Present” Jones brandishing an “Abolish ICE” banner.
VOUCHER APPLICATIONS OPEN WITH A CRASHING SYSTEM DESIGNED TO OBSCURE TRANSPARENCY. The new year of Tennessee voucher applications opened this week with the system crashing repeatedly, perhaps foreshadowing the future economic impact of the costly unsustainable program that still fails to produce oft promised academic gains!?!? Interestingly, the program is still set to hide the number of voucher recipients ALREADY in private schools, likely well over 80%, by making disclosure of what school the student is currently attending “optional”. Thus, the program supposedly designed to let students escape under performing public schools, continues to be focused on putting cash in the pockets of the wealthy elite (political donors) who already have their kids enrolled in private schools.
By not obtaining the actual information regarding whether students are really moving from public to private schools, advocates of the taxpayer funded program can continue to play dumb and plead ignorance while seeking to double the number of students getting the vouchers. Lack of funds will likely hamper the expansion of the system this year, maybe allowing only another 10,000 to be added to the 20,000 in the system so far. With new private schools being added to the mix of those willing to accept the funds, it is almost certain that the percentage of students receiving the vouchers while already in private schools will continue to be in that 80% range.
But as Nate Bargatze might say, “Nobody knows”. Because that is the plan, and has been all along.
Steve Gill is editor and Publisher of TriStar Daily. If you have political tips, stories or rumors that might be helpful to Political Notebook please send them in for consideration.
