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TN Democrats Decry School Voucher Ad Buy

wikimedia.org

The Tennessee Democratic Party is crying foul as advocacy groups begin running TV spots promoting school vouchers. The ads target certain lawmakers without mentioning specific legislation.

A commercial is running in West Tennessee, paid for by a local chapter of the Washington D.C.-based American Federation for Children – a school choice cheerleader. 

The conservative Beacon Center has ads of its own, calling for reform that “puts parents in charge.” It downplays that the private school scholarships would be paid for with public money.

Roy Herron who heads the state’s Democratic Party is using strong language to voice opposition, saying “vultures want vouchers” and referring to private schools as “segregation academies.”

“We’ve got a feeding frenzy of public dollars available and folks coming in to pilfer and plunder off the public tax dollars,”Herron said.

However, not all Democrats are of like mind. In fact, the only vote on vouchers so far this year included yeses from two Democrats, including Nashville’s Harold Love, Jr.

Copyright 2013 WPLN. To see more, visit http://www.wpln.org/.

Blake Farmer is Nashville Public Radio's senior health care reporter. In a partnership with Kaiser Health News and NPR, Blake covers health in Tennessee and the health care industry in the Nashville area for local and national audiences.
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