Tuesday 9/13/05

Citizen Bredesen

Gov. Bredesen hasn't voted in the Nashville referendum regarding the sales tax increase according to this morning's City Paper. It is appallingly shameful for the chief executive officer of our state to have failed in this most fundamental responsibility of citizenship. Yes, I know he's a busy man--but that's why we have early and absentee voting.

Separation of schools and politics

I sure hope someone follows through on the shenanigans that have occurred during campaigning over this sales tax increase in Nashville and legal actions are taken and people are punished for this over the top nonsense. Taxpayers should never have their resources used to advocate for one side or the other of an issue. Our school superintendent should not be encouraging our employees to man phone banks encouraging folks to vote for this referendum. And this morning the Tennessean reports that flyers were to be sent home with children to encourage their parents to vote for this tax increase. Thankfully, it was stopped. But there is no way of knowing what was said in classrooms to children that did reach home.

It makes you wonder if these bright folks are the ones teaching our children and this sort of politicking seem OK to them--what on earth are they teaching our children?

When teachers and administrators operate as political puppets they've wasted whatever professional cache they have. I know how hard it is to work in an environment that won't allow dissent. I know what it's like to keep your mouth shut about an issue because you want to keep your job. Those are outrageous working conditions and they should not be tolerated. It's going to take brave folks to stand up and point fingers but hopefully some whistle blowers will rise up and they'll be protected for telling the truth.

Bloggers are all over this: Nashville Files & Nashville Files again with pictures of the flyers, Moore Thoughts has several entries, Larry Brinton, Mike Rose.

But no separation yet

Knox News reports that the mayors of Davidson, Knoxville, Hamilton and Shelby counties--

The mayor of Tennessee's four most populous counties will meet in Knoxville later this month to try forging a united front on changes to a state education funding system that they believe discriminates against urban areas.

Isn't their job to administrate the resources they have? Isn't it our job, as citizens, to advocate to our legislators regarding BEP changes?

Sometimes you learn too much in school and not enough at home.

A 12 year old girl in Knoxville learns during a lesson on drinking and driving that her father died as a result of drinking and driving. This brings up a lot of questions to include who thought 12 was the time for such videos, how is it she didn't know her father's real name, how is it no one took the time to explain how her father died?

There is no more powerful life lesson than telling your children the stupid things you did and letting them know how much you regret those actions.

Government is in the education business.

Not content with K-12 alone government is regularly trying to get even more deeply entangled in the college arena to the point of trying to sell even more college educations. The Nashville City Paper tells us that Tennessee Higher Education Commission is utilizing funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation to market college education to nine southern states. I'm of the opinion that college is another area that ought to be left to the private sector.

And yes, that's the same Bill Gates that managed to do quite well for himself despite dropping out of college.