Kudos to Tennessean columnist Gail Kerr for criticizing Gov. Phil Bredesen over his failure to keep his promise to clean up the sexual harrassment and corruption mess at the Tennessee Highway Patrol.
Kerr rightly cited the danger to women stopped on Tennessee's highways and Bredesen's seeming indifference for so long to the threat. The Volunteer State's good 'ol boy system allows such overt sexism to exist in so many forms including sex acts with porn stars and sexual harrassment of female truck drivers. Then there are instances of traditional corruption.
The entrenchment of this Little Shop of Horrors in our law enforcement system makes everything even more reprehensible and disgusting.
Such sharp criticism of the governor is somewhat new for Kerr. She has been a strong supporter of his policies as Nashville mayor and now as Tennessee's governor. So Bredesen really has nowhere to hide on this failure cited by Kerr.
Bredesen is most weak when it comes to issues involving people, which by definition is what politics is all about. The governor is quite adept at giving away tax dollars for big deals, most recently with Volkswagen. But as writer Jeff Woods of the Nashville Scene rightly pointed out in his thorough "Philbot 3000" cover story last week, the governor suffers from an attention deficit disorder. He lacks concentration on matters beyond the moment. He now shows fatigue at being governor. It really doesn't seem to interest him anymore.
And if people outside of corporate executives are involved, he gets most uncomfortable and distant.
Former Scene editor Liz Murray Garrigan confessed her deep disappointment with Bredesen as a policymaker and moral figure in a column earlier this year. More and more local and state journalists are discovering the emperor has no clothes.
I hope that a Tennessean story earlier this week about the abject failure of the state of Tennessee to prepare its children for college will encourage Kerr to reconsider a previous column. It touted the good of Bredesen and Mayor Karl Dean working together to run Metro public schools.
Reporter Jaime Sarrio wrote: Fewer than one in five Tennessee high school graduates left school this year ready to go on to college, based on the test most take before continuing their studies.
For the third year in a row, Tennessee students taking the American College Test averaged 20.7 of a perfect score of 36 — lower than the national 21.2 average. The ACT determines college readiness.
Results for individual schools and districts will not be available until the state report card is released in November.
Students who meet test benchmarks, which are different for every subject, have a better shot of passing core college-level courses, according to the ACT's high school profile report released today.
The ACT is the test of choice in Tennessee and several other states. The SAT is the other widely known college entrance exam. Results show the majority of the state's 50,000 test takers will not be ready for algebra or biology. And, despite English scores above the national average, only 18 percent of students will be ready in the four subjects covered by the test — reading, math, English and science.
The story is shocking. Taxpayers should question if they're getting their money's worth. And Bredesen has been at the helm of Tennessee education for six years now.
So his takeover of Metro public schools should be greeted with horror. The man failed Metro children with his core curriculum program as mayor. As governor, he simply has spread his mismanagement.
THP, state education, TennCare, sales tax holidays, state employee layoffs, $11 million in state money for a political theme park under the governor's mansion, cutting home health care for the most vulnerable ... the list is growing longer of failures by a political figure who has been given so much support for so little in return.
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