Hope Hope Hope

Yesterday, while eyes were busy watching the returns from Kentucky and Oregon, Tennessee's State Senate was passing a few amendments to the Hope Scholarship program. Now as someone who has yet to benefit from that program due to me not graduating the right year, I am happy to see the TN Senate has made some decent changes to it. First off, your first 2.5 years of college you only need to maintain a 2.75 GPA, under the compromise you would need to raise it to a 3.0 by your junior year.

Now why I find this program to be fair to most students, I think our state would be wise to invest this Lottery money not in scholarships, but directly into the budgets of State Universities and Community Colleges. The reason I say this because tuition rates continue to climb because state schools are not funded! Already this scholarship does not pay the full tuition at any state university in Tennessee, and as each year passes, it may not even pay for the textbooks.

I hope they can find a better way to spend this money, and I do not think that way is by a scholarship program. Love the idea, but honestly, it does not begin to address the real problem of funding that causes tuition to continue to rise.

-Zak

Slash that Budget Bredesen

Guess what Bredesen and the state legislature are aiming to do now? Make a peach cobbler, legalize gay marriage, something useful? If you guessed any of those you'd be wrong but if you guessed budget cuts you'd be right on the money. All of a sudden Bredesen and his friends on the Hill have found out they don't have the money to run the state next year. So what does Bredesen suggest to do about this? Cut the workforce, gut Tenncare even more, cut education spending, extreme cuts across the board, yet he made sure to come out in full force for banning gay marriage during his reelection campaign.

With the cuts against Tenncare, higher education, and against labor, no wonder many in liberal circles regard Bredesen as a Democrat in name only. This man has no good side, and I can't imagine our state would be very different if we had a Republican in control.

Liberal Tennesseans did not receive an ally when we elected Bredeson to be Governor of Tennessee. So often do we compromise our core values to get the (D) next to a candidates' name. This is one man that I'm glad will be term limited the next election cycle. Hoping against hope that someone better will grace the state stage, and we won't be forced to pick between dumb and dumber.

Wishin and Hopin for Public Trans

Tennessee is one of the few states that does not currently have a single toll road. You can drive on any road in the state without paying, but that may be changing if the bridge connecting Davidson and Sumner County is built. Once built, it could take traffic off of I-40, and allow for quicker commute times for those that live in the two counties. With the Nashville Metro area expanding quickly we do need ways to reduce congestion, but is this the way, I don't think so.

Our elected officials too often try to stick us with additional fees and charges quietly and under the table. Although they are holding public meetings it will be interesting to see if they actually listen to the will of the people that the Toll Bridge will impact , or if just like 840, they will follow their own hearts desire and ignore their constituents.

Tennessee and Nashville would be better served by a comprehensive Mass Transit system, as well as a regional transit system that would take people off the road, and put money back into the hands of the people. As a city, and as a region, we have become too dependent on oil, and we must invest in future transportation projects that will actually reduce that dependence, not make it easier to exploit it.

Sumner and Davidson County residents would be better served by an extension of the Music City Star, than it would be by the toll road. As we grow as a city we must look beyond expansion of roads, and begin to lay the infrastructure for rapid transit throughout the region.

-Zak

Do you smell the pork? TN Students looking at double digit tuition increases

You always know it is May in Tennessee when your allergies are screaming, the sun beats down on you, the weather hovers in the 70s and 80s, and the Legislature cuts more money from higher education forcing them to give us another double digit tuition increase. With Bredesen passing on 55 million in budget cuts to higher education both state college systems(UT and TBR) are grasping at straws to prevent students from experiencing what could be a 15 percent rate increase, and to keep it below double digits.

While college students scramble to find additional funding for their education leave it to Memphis Democrat Karen Camper to ask for 500,000 dollars for the Pink Palace Museum in Midtown Memphis. Now I am all for giving money in good fiscal years to pet projects like this, but this is not the year. Other legislators asked for $97,000 for the Chattanooga Zoo, and a $50,000 for a security fence. Where is the impassioned plea from our elected officials to cut the pork and give college students a break? Every year we are shouldered with an increasing tuition bill that is shouldering us with so much debt that we will be paying for college long after we're dead if the trend continues.

So my message to the TN Legislature is cut the pork, and fully fund education, or you may just find yourself sitting with President Bush in Crawford after the 08 election.

-zak