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Koch groups visiting cities to push school vouchers

Joey Garrison
The Tennessean, Nashville
Panelists assembled by the Charles Koch Institute discuss in Nashville Tuesday what they say is a need to expand school choice in Tennessee. From left to right: Stephanie Linn, state programs and government relations director of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice; Jonathan Butcher, education director of the Goldwater Institute; Steve Perry, principal of Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Connecticut; and Justin Owen, president and CEO of the Beacon Center of Tennessee.

NASHVILLE — Recognizing Tennessee's recent focus on education reform, two organizations founded by one of the conservative Koch brothers stopped by Nashville Tuesday night, giving a platform to speakers who promoted an option this state still lacks — school vouchers.

Letting parents use public dollars to attend private school quickly emerged as a leading remedy to solve education performance woes during a Charles Koch Institute-backed panel talk Tuesday featuring heads of right-leaning think tanks and a Connecticut high school.

Tennessee has a robust charter school program, a panel of four noted and applauded, but proposals for school vouchers have annually stalled, defying the political make-up of its state government.

"You have a Republican governor, a supermajority of Republicans who typically vote vouchers and yet you don't have a voucher program," said Steve Perry, principal of Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Connecticut. "I'm confused.

"You say you want choice, and then you don't pull the lever to make the choice happen," he told a room of around 100 mostly sympathizers but several skeptics as well gathered at the downtown hotel. "You're the ones who have the power to make the change that needs to be made."

Billionaires Charles Koch and his bother David Koch are scorned nationally by liberals for their willingness to pump their money into conservative political causes. A representative of the Charles G. Koch Foundation didn't say when asked whether some sort of financial play could be in store for Tennessee with vouchers.

Brennan Brown, program officer with the Charles Koch Foundation, said the lone focus of Tuesday's event was to start "a conversation" on educational opportunities.The Nashville forum fell under the group's Well-Being Initiatives and followed others in Oklahoma City, Atlanta and Austin, Texas.

Some were there to offer a counter view. T.C. Weber, a Metro Nashville school parent, questioned the "end game" of diverting funding from public schools.

"Are you looking to destroy the public system that we already have and build a new one based on your ideas?"

Panelists included representatives the Indianapolis-based Friedman Foundation for Education Choice and the Arizona-based Goldwater Institute, along with Nashville's Beacon Center of Tennessee.

"Right now, a ZIP code determines where your child goes to schools, and frankly, I think that is pathetic," Beacon Center CEO Justin Owen said. "We need to empower parents to make those choices."

Gov. Bill Haslam has supported a voucher system that would be limited largely to low-income students zoned for struggling schools in Memphis and Nashville, but legislation last year again stalled in committee.

State Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, who has sponsored voucher bills in the past, was in the audience. He said he would do so again next session.

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