Is Tennessee Headed for Vouchers?

An interesting piece by Dana Goldstein (absolutely phenomenal writer, by the way) that I missed from February, plus ruminations about next year’s legislative session got me thinking this evening.  Flush with their successes (air quotes may or may not be appropriate) in the 107th General Assembly, will Tennessee Republicans attempt to pass a vouchers program, the holy grail for, among others, suburban Memphis’ own Sen. Brian Kelsey (R-31) (check out Sen. Kelsey’s previous attempt).

Before the 107th General Assembly, Governor Haslam took vouchers off the table.  It looks like he may be changing his mind (courtesy of Tennessee Report, who are awesome):

Might this be the re-emergence of a trend?  Dana Goldstein thinks so:

Well. One mid-term shellacking and a few Tea Parties later, vouchers are back, and in a very big way. Yesterday the education committee of the New Jersey state assembly advanced a bill to give corporations tax credits if they donate money for private school vouchers. Florida’ new Republican governor, Rick Scott–who is being advised by Michelle Rhee–is offering up a number of creative voucher and voucher-like proposals that would suck tax dollars out of the public schools and inject them into Catholic schools and private tutoring services.

The Pennsylvania state senate is considering a voucher bill that one Democratic state senator has called a small but “very expensive new entitlement program in the midst of an unprecedented budget crisis.” Something similar is going on in Indiana under the leadership of yet another GOP presidential hopeful, Gov. Mitch Daniels.

It’s something to keep an eye on.  I’ve said before that I’m not beholden to any political ideology, so long as it shows proven results for underserved populations.  I have to say, though — my reservations about the privatization of the public school system (which I regard as a bad thing), are somewhat piqued by charter schools, but go on full alert when talking about vouchers.  My gut reaction is just bad; I can’t help it.  Maybe it’s because there’s no proof that they work; maybe it’s because they’ve often been used as political cover for ulterior motives.  It’s probably all that and more.  I guess I better get ready for the fight, though, ’cause it looks like it’s coming to Tennessee.