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Location: Nashville, Tennessee, United States

9/12/2002

For the Children?
This story from today's Tennessean details how the number of students at state-funded Tennessee Preparatory School has fallen by 82 percent, yet the budget has been reduced just 4.2 percent. It also reveals that the Department of Childrens Services plans to use the money for other things, though it was budgeted to run the school. Not one person mentioned in the story is critical of the program's budget or DCS' plans to divert the money to other programs, though it's hard to believe there aren't critics of such uncontrolled spending. This story reminds me of the strange way Tennessee's welfare budget didn't fall significantly even as welfare rolls were cut in half by welfare reform.

Perhaps the administration needs the money to help businesses owned by Gov. Don Sundquist's friends and even one owned by Sundquist's former top deputy Alex Fischer, as NewsChannel5's Phil Williams has exposed in recent days. The stench of corruption and deliberate mismanagement emanating from this administration is growing stronger every day.