The Tea Party and Vouchers: Reunited

The local party officials of the GOP are partnering with two pro-privatization groups to offer free food and a “talk” led by Glen Casada (who has received more than $15K from pro-privatization groups) regarding vouchers and their other education privatization efforts in Tennessee.

The local GOP event tonight is hosted by Americans for Prosperity and American Federation for Children—two national groups who spend huge sums of money to get pro-privatization candidates elected to local and state offices.

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Americans for Prosperity, of course, also dumped tens of thousands of dollars into the 2014 Williamson County School Board race and took credit for the victories of Cash, Burgos, Curlee, and Emerson. The AFP relationship with some board members (including Beth Burgos and Susan Curlee) has remained tight over the past two years. AFP TN Director of Communications director Tori Venable was (and may still be) in a now-secret Facebook group with Julie Mauck, Susan Curlee, and Beth Burgos, among others. James Amundsen, a current staffer for AFP, worked closely in 2014 with Franklin Alderman Bev Burger and others in their efforts against both Mike Looney and then-incumbent board member Eric Welch.

These groups are unabashedly for vouchers and other forms of privatization of public schools.

This event will also celebrate the privatization efforts of Milton Friedman, the father of the voucher movement. Friedman said:

“Vouchers are not an end in themselves; they are a means to make a transition from a government to a market system.”

He was clear that he wanted a “private, for-profit industry to develop” in service of a “radical reconstruction of the educational system.”

Milton and Rose Friedman

So these special interest groups, who want to move public tax dollars to private schools, are being hosted by the local party officials, just a few days before the election. We thought you might want to know.

The local party officers have also endorsed Richard Davis (D1), Kim Little (D3), Joey Czarneski (D4) and Stuart Cooper (D11).