TN ELECTIONS, GOV RACE: Governor candidates stake positions while issue picks up steam

The Commercial Appeal ^ | 7/22/02 | Bartholomew Sullivan

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Governor candidates stake positions while issue picks up steam

By Bartholomew Sullivan sullivan@gomemphis.com July 22, 2002

Unless a lot of heads roll in the Tennessee General Assembly in the next four years, taxpayer-subsidized school vouchers for supplementing private school tuition are not likely to be an issue for the next governor of Tennessee.

But gubernatorial candidates vying for their parties' nominations Aug. 1 recognize a hot national issue and have staked out positions, just in case.

In general, the Democratic candidates oppose the use of tax dollars to send students to private schools while Republican candidates are divided on the approach.

Some said the issue, which has never drawn much legislative interest in Tennessee, could catch fire following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling this month endorsing the use of vouchers to underwrite private school tuition in the Cleveland, Ohio, school system.

Van Hilleary, the U.S. congressman from East Tennessee and Republican front-runner, said his education reform plan does not include vouchers.

"As governor, I will make the reform of our public schools my top priority. Today we have 60,000 children trapped in failing schools, and we must be willing to change the way we do business in education to give every one of those children their shot in life."

Hilleary said he thinks the Supreme Court decision was correct and it offers hope to low-income students in some areas of the country.

"Here in Tennessee, my focus will be on making sure that every public school is effective. Strong charter school legislation will be an important part of that effort to improve our public system."

Hilleary's chief Republican opponent, former state legislator Jim Henry of Kingston, gave an unequivocal endorsement of vouchers.

"I'm supportive of charter schools and vouchers both, especially in failing schools," he said during a campaign swing through Memphis. "Kids can't wait. (Vouchers) give the parents more of an option to do what's right."

Likewise, United Methodist minister Bob Tripp of Knoxville, a Republican candidate who says he's called by God to improve trust between citizens and their government, is a voucher supporter, even though he believes Tennessee has "one of the best school systems in the country."

Democratic front-runner Phil Bredesen said he supports "innovation and creative solutions in helping students achieve success, but I do not think that vouchers are the silver bullet. In Tennessee, I believe public taxpayer money should go to improving public schools and public education."

Bredesen, former Nashville mayor, said he would rather concentrate on improving public schools with programs that would raise teacher pay, encourage parental involvement, implement character education and make sure every child reads at grade level by the end of the third grade.

"Public education has been the backbone of opportunity for generations of Americans, and we cannot afford to turn our backs on this system."

Democrat Randy Nichols, who does not support vouchers, says he "can't see why you'd give a relatively small stipend to go to a relatively expensive school."

"I think it's going to detract from what is woefully inadequate funding for education" in Tennessee, he said, and it shouldn't be considered until the system is improved in other ways.

Luther Best of Nashville, a state employee supervisor with the Department of Corrections and a Democrat, looks on vouchers as yet another effort to privatize a public-sector institution, in this case, the public schools.

Best, who won more than 20,000 votes in the 1998 Democratic gubernatorial campaign, said he thinks the public schools should be improved, not abandoned.

Chip Smith, campaign manager for his father, Nashville Democrat and former state education commissioner Charles Smith, said Smith is opposed to "the voucher-type system and feels that it undermines the public school system."

Charles V. Brown, a disabled former TVA worker and candidate for the Democratic nod from Morgan County, said he was unfamiliar with the issue and couldn't understand the need for vouchers.

Democratic candidate Floyd R. Conover of Gallatin and Republicans David Kelley of Gainesboro and Jessie McDonald of Nashville could not be reached for comment.

- Bartholomew Sullivan:

529-2317

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