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Daily Dose for May 16, 2008
Kelsey Lone Vote Against Edu Bill
Kelsey Lone Vote Against Edu Bill -- State Rep. Brian Kelsey was the only vote against the state's comprehensive education bill which both lowers GPA requirements for students to retain their lottery scholarships. The measure sponsored by Education Chairman Les Winningham, a Huntsville Democrat, was approved 92-1. The House version keeps the GPA requirement at 2.75, while the Senate version only allows the lower GPA for one additional year past the freshman year. State Rep. Brian Kelsey on why he was the lone no-vote: "If we’re going to have the best and brightest, then we need to keep the standards high."
Niceley's Attachment Fails -- State Rep. Frank Niceley's bill which would have allowed directly elected school board superintendents in Knox and Jefferson Cos. got expanded yesterday to include Roane, Fentress, Morgan, Overton and Giles counties as well. Legislators representing those counties asked to be included. However, the bill then failed on a floor vote. Niceley blamed the apparent loss of support on calls to legislators made between Tuesday and Thursday by school board members, parent-teacher organizations and others. Opponents of direct election of school board superintendents say the measure is anti-education. After State Rep. Joe Armstrong arguing against the bill said school boards need the ability to go across the country to get the very best ones, Niceley responded: "We ought to appoint state representatives so we could go out of state and get smart ones."
Dems Split on Employee Buy-out -- Some Democratic lawmakers are getting frustrated at their party's titular head Gov. Phil Bredesen. Bredesen says lawmakers will need to remain in session for at least a few more weeks to get more details on the employee buy-out proposal, but lawmakers want to wrap up the session and pass a budget. The double pressure has caused at least one Democratic lawmaker to accuse Bredesen of making them write a blank check. Some Democrats want Bredesen to use rainy day funds to eliminate the need to cut employees, while the GOP generally supports the layoffs. Now, with the legislature staying in session, the state will be billed more per diems for lawmakers and the cost of the legislative session will increase in the face of already hefty budget concerns.
KnoxViews Interviews Carville -- KnoxViews has an excellent interview up with former Bill Clinton strategist James Carville. Carville recently spoke to the Knox Co. Democratic Party at their annual Truman Day fundraiser. On the left blogosphere angst: "There certainly is a… certain group of people in the blogosphere that feel like that the modern Democrats have become sold out, that they didn't oppose the war enough, which I kind of agree with them, and certainly I think what really sparked it was the fact that we seemed to give up in 2000 in the Florida recount."
