Gov. Phil Bredesen’s plans for a special legislative session on education issues got favorable treatment in Sunday columns by the Tennessean’s Gail Kerr and Tom Griscom, editor of the Chattanooga Times-Free Press.
Well, actually, Kerr’s column goes a bit beyond favorable and into the cheerleading mode.
Sample: “The lame duck just boarded a fighter jet” and “This is huge. It would completely change the culture in every classroom in Tennessee.”
Griscom’s column – under an online headline of “Tilting at Rigid Windmills” – is perhaps more reflective. His conclusion:
Gov. Bredesen may not be successful in revamping the mindset that has resisted change for decades in public education in Tennessee, but one should be careful to place a small wager on his tenacity to get things done,
Meanwhile, in the news pages of the Times-Free Press, there’s a story on something that was left out of the Bredesen education plan.
The governor planned to recommend an increase in the HOPE scholarship for community college students, but the idea was killed at the last minute because funding isn’t available, Will Pinkston said. “If what we are trying to do as a government is encourage more people to go into the two-year environment, perhaps we need to put incentives in place to better make that happen,” said Mr. Pinkston, a senior adviser to the governor. “But that isn’t going to happen this year.”
