For a reliably conservative red state like Tennessee, we sure have more socialism enthusiasts than I had imagined. 

The just-passed school voucher scam is government redistribution of tax money in the form of $7,000 handouts (sorry, scholarships) for a lucky group of 20,000 students. That is $140 million this year, and set to rise to $1 billion in five years. There is no family income limit for half of the recipients. The other half has a generous limit $170K/year.

The average tuition at a private school is about $12,000, meaning that a family has to fork out $5,000 per child to send to private school. Meaning not many average income families can afford the $5,000. Further meaning that this program is a government subsidy for affluent families who can already afford $12,000, but now getting on the government gravy wagon.   

Coffee and over half of the Tennessee counties have no private schools, and are not directly affected. This may explain why our state representative and senator Bricken and Bowling correctly voted against the bill. But counties like Coffee are not immune from public school money grab for private interests. The parallel scam is charter school, coming to this county sooner than you think. Charter schools have already arrived in Rutherford County. Google Rutherford Collegiate Prep Academy.

Receiving certain government handouts is a shield from the risks of free market system. If there is another word beside socialism to describe it, let’s hear it. Farm subsidies is another example of socialism. There are many others.

Giving fancy names like Freedom Scholarships does not erase what they really are. Socialism. Saying it like it is, to borrow a phrase popular in certain circles.

Zak Mohyuddin

Manchester