Tennessee's Chamber Maids
The Wall Street Journal, MAY 13, 2011
Nothing is worse for freedom and opportunity than when big business conspires with big labor. Behold the spectacle in Tennessee, where the Chambers of Commerce in Chattanooga, Knoxville and Nashville have joined with the teachers unions to kill education vouchers.
That proposal, which has already passed the state senate, would give thousands of low- and middle-income parents in failing school districts private school options. The Tennessee Equal Opportunity Scholarship Act would provide vouchers of between $4,000 and $5,000 per child to families with an income up to ...To continue reading the article you must be a subscriber to the WSJ so I have not bothered to link. The above portion is the essence of the story anyway. The article goes on to say that the Chambers trashed vouchers and told absolute lies claiming that "there is no empirical data demonstrating that vouchers improve student achievement," and that private schools lack "accountability" and won't be subject to "high academic standards."
This is an outrage! "High academic standards?" Our urban public schools are failing us miserably. There is overwhelming evidence that contradict these claims of the Chambers. Children in failing schools deserve a decent education. I wonder how many members of the leadership of the various chambers send their children to public schools?
In March I attended a meeting of First Tuesday and the topic was "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs" and along with a representative of Mayor Dean's office and a spokesman from the State Department of Economic and Community Development, Mr.Ralph Schultz of the Greater Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce was a guest. What I came away with from Mr. Schultz comments was this: The city of Nashville pays the overwhelming money to support the community development function of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce but almost all of the new plants or corporate headquarters locating in the Nashville area are locating in the Nashville bedroom communities. Nashville pays the bill and Cool Springs, Lavergne, Hendersonville and Mt. Juliet are getting the benefit. I thought, "we are suckers."
Now, on top of that, I learn that the Chamber is actively campaigning against education reform!
It is time to pull the plug on the Chamber. Local businesses should refuse to join or renew their membership in the Chamber. The city of Nashville should withhold funding and should not renew any contracts with the Chamber. Tourism and convention promotion is a valuable function provided by the chamber, but I have no doubt that we could find one of our talented public relation firms who would love to contract to provide this service.The Chamber should not get a single dime of public support!
Candidates for Metro Council should be asked if they will commit to withdrawing support for the Chamber which is not working in our best interest and does not deserve our support.
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