No. 296: Who's Against School Choice, Really?

Good morning, everyone.

Can anyone provide insight into why one would oppose school choice?

Tennessee public schools are incredibly bad. This much has been true my entire life, and they've only gotten worse—unless you live in Williamson County or get into a magnet like Hume-Fogg. But that's not what's up for debate here.

A couple of weeks back, we talked to Fox News reporter Joshua Nelson who is a product of school choice in Detroit. You can listen to our conversation with him here (the interview starts at 40:15).

The more one hears of positive, life-changing experiences resulting from school choice or charter schools, the harder it is to take defenders of public schools seriously.

Onward.

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Thanks for reading.

➫ METO COUNCIL’S WAR ON THE UNBORN

Since the Supreme Court ruling, the Tennessee trigger law that protects unborn babies from being aborted past six weeks of gestation is now enforaceble.

THE MAYOR'S OFFICE TAKES IMMEDIATE ACTION

Immediately following the ruling, Mayor Cooper of Nashville contacted the Metropolitan Human Resources Department and requested an assessment of the current benefits available to Metro employees regarding abortion travel and accommodations. This set in motion new legislation in Metro City Council to not only protect but incentivize abortion travel benefits. The sausage is being made in real-time, but will Metro run into issues?

ACCOMMODATING ABORTION TRAVEL

Council Members Bob Mendes and Emily Benedict filed a bill this week that, if passed, will add some teeth to a metro council resolution that allows the Metro Employee Benefit Board to assess whether businesses in the Metropolitan area are providing transportation, accommodation, and related costs for abortions. The bill adds language to the Do Better Bill which defines certain standards to protect Metro Employees. Though the changes are touted as healthcare, they go directly against the State’s legislation regarding abortion. They will also allow Metro to play hardball with businesses operating in Nashville if they do not provide abortion travel access by withholding economic and community development incentive grants and PILOT agreements.

HIJACKING DEVELOPMENT INCENTIVES

Though businesses choosing to provide their employees with healthcare that includes travel to accommodate out-of-state abortions have been encouraged by an executive order signed by President Biden, holding economic and community grants hostage if this new provision is not provided to Metro employees is a completely different tactic. An example would be Nashville’s deal that attracted Amazon’s second headquarters to the city.

To set the stage, let’s pretend we are in an alternate universe where Metro passed this new bill and Amazon is a company that does not want to provide travel accommodations for abortion. During negotiations to bring their company to Nashville, Amazon seeks grant money from Metro for economic and community development programs. The city council denies the grants because of the company’s failure to provide the abortion travel accommodations. Since this grant money is important to our alternate universe Amazon, the company decides this denial of funding is a dealbreaker and takes their business elsewhere.

This is the kind of power that the Metro City Council can wield if this new abortion-related Metro bill is passed. The Metro abortion legislation doesn’t just help businesses provide abortion travel accommodations, it has the ability to deter businesses that don’t want to provide it from coming to Nashville. In short, all businesses with Metro employees must provide travel accommodations for abortions if they want these incentives in Nashville.

PLAYING WITH FIRE

Notorious for punching up, Metro City Council may be playing with fire. As of late, their attitude regarding the Republican National Convention has already put them in hot water with the state legislature. Top Republican leaders have alluded to going over the Council’s head by holding a Special Session regarding the RNC and possible legislative retaliation during General Session in order to push back on Metro City Council.

This partisan wrestling match isn’t exclusive to Tennessee. States, such as Texas, have pushed back on cities trying to force this kind of abortion travel accommodation. Metro Council has shown its teeth, but it remains to be seen whether the state is all bark and no bite.

HEADLINES

• State Opens Enrollment For Tennessee Education Savings Account (TCN) After a chancery court lifted the injunction on the program, it is now available for students in Shelby County Schools, Metro Nashville Public Schools, and the Achievement School District in Memphis.
• Sidewalk vendors officially banned from Broadway area (Channel 5) Sidewalk vendors are officially banned from Broadway and the surrounding areas starting Thursday, July 21. Mayor John Cooper supports the ban, but vendors said it just doesn't seem fair.
• Nashville approves contracts with new trash collection companies (Tennessean) Nashville is bidding Red River Waste Solutions — the city's onetime primary trash collector — goodbye. Red River filed for bankruptcy in October, which plunged Nashville into months of worsening trash collection delays and an extended pause of curbside recycling.
• Nashville ranks as one of the top 50 most educated cities in the U.S. (Center Square) Nashville was 48th with a score of 58.79 while Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the San Jose/Santa Clara area of California topped the list with scores of 93.99 and 82.03, respectively.
• Rutherford County School Board Rejects Classical Education Charter School (TCN) The Rutherford County School Board voted down an application by American Classical Academy, affiliated with Hillsdale College, to open a charter school in the Murfreesboro area on Monday night in a 6-1 vote.

POLITICS

• Public comment period begins on TennCare's fourth amendment requested by the federal government (Center Square) The updates address requests filed on June 30th from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services to update pharmacy requirements and present a per-person spending cap instead of an overall program spending cap.
• Metro sues FEMA over 2010 flood denial (Post) The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Nashville federal court, is related to what Metro says is more than $11 million the city spent on repairs to the K.R. Harrington Water Treatment Facility and Metro Transit Authority facilities following the record-setting flood.

DEVELOPMENT

• Texas developer releases images for planned Gulch tower (Post)
• SoBro hotel sells for $93.5M (Post)
• Hospitality sector developer acquires MetroCenter site (Post)
• Camden Gulch Looks To Add 481-Units and Retail To The Nashville Gulch (Now Next)

𝓧 BIDEN ON THE ROCKS

A recent Quinnipiac poll spells disaster for Joe Biden and Democrats heading into this year's midterms.

Question
Do you approve or disapprove of the way Joe Biden is handling his job as president?

Answer
• 29% of Whites approve, 63% disapprove.
• 61% of Blacks approve, 28% disapprove.
• 19% of Hispanics approve, 70% disapprove

That's the survey response that has been making the rounds since the release of the poll, which showed a massive swing in sentiment by Hispanic voters away from Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.

As postulated by Ruy Teixiera, the minority voting bloc that has bolstered Democrats for the past sixty years is beginning to crumble. It's possible that Democrats' reckless policies remind some Latino immigrants of communism. It's also possible that Hispanics in border districts are overwhelmed by the lack of security and the Party's lack of empathy.

The rest of the poll is worth a gander.

Source: Biden Approval Hits New Low Amid Public Discontent With Both Parties
Quinnipiac University, 20 July 2022, Read Online

⤴ CHART OF THE DAY: MORE TREES

⚔ MISSIVES ⚔

• 🤡 President Biden said he considered the environmental risks created by climate change to be “an emergency” and signaled plans to use his presidential powers “to turn these words into a formal, official government action.”
• 🦠 President Biden has been diagnosed with Covid-19, the White House announced Thursday. Biden, who is double-vaccinated and boosted, has been experiencing mild symptoms, the White House said.
• 🏛 A bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed an update of the Electoral Count Act to make clear that the vice president has no power to block the certification of the presidential election, after former President Donald Trump pressured Mike Pence to take such steps following the 2020 race.
• 🪙 During Tesla’s Q2 earnings report, the electric car company revealed it has sold 75% of its Bitcoin holdings this quarter. The company sold the coins for $963 million.
• 🇨🇳 New efforts from local Chinese authorities, banks and official media to promote the country’s sovereign digital currency are helping bolster the e-CNY’s visibility even as consumers struggle to find advantages to using it.
• 🔭 Astronomers have spotted in a galaxy adjacent to our Milky Way what they're calling a cosmic "needle in a haystack":  a black hole that not only is classified as dormant but also appears to have been born without the explosion of a dying star.
• 🇪🇺 The European Central Bank announced a larger-than-expected half-percentage point interest-rate increase and unveiled a new plan to buy the debt of Europe’s most vulnerable economies, taking bold action to protect the currency union as it navigates the twin threats of skyrocketing inflation and slowing economic growth.

THINGS TO DO

View our full calendar here.

🍺 The Pamphleteer hosts Bar Hours on the third Thursday of every month (this Thursday) at Lucky's 3 Star Bar from 6-8 PM. The first ten guests get drinks on the company tab.

🎪 Check out our favorite driving distance festivals this summer.

👨🏻‍🌾 The Pamphleteer farmer's market guide.

⚔️ Knights in Armor at the Frist starting July 1st: European arms and armor from the renowned collection of the Museo Stibbert in Florence, Italy.

🎼 Listen to the Pamphleteer's Picks, our playlist of bands playing in Nashville each week.

TONIGHT

🍀 Live Irish Music @ McNamara’s Irish Pub, 6p, Free, Info

🎸 Kelly’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info

🎻 Bluegrass Nights @ The Ryman, 7:30p, $35, Info

🎹 Intersections @ Rudy's Jazz Room, 9p, $15, Info
+ Jazz, funk, R&B

🎸 Stoner Rock @ The Basement, 9p, $10, Info
+ Bring earplugs

ON THE RADAR

🏜 Hiatus Kaiyote @ Marathon Music Works, (8/14), $35+, Info

🐂 Professional Bull Riding @ Bridgestone, (8/19-21), $20+ Info

🐖 Roger Waters @ Bridgestone, (8/27), $39, Info

🎹 Stereolab @ Marathon Music Works, (9/6), $35, Info

🎸 My Morning Jacket @ Ascend Amphitheater, (9/23), $22.88, Info

⚔️ HELMET @ Marathon Music Works, (9/24), $35, Info

🎻 Gustav Holst's The Planets @ Schermerhorn (9/29-10/2), Info

🎸 Smashing Pumpkins @ Bridgestone Arena, (10/10), $133+, Info

🎸 The Doobie Brothers @ Bridgestone Arena, (10/12), $43+, Info

🌶 The Gypsy Kings @ The Ryman (11/1), $39.50, Info

NEW THIS WEEK

FROM THE ARCHIVE

Around the Web

A visual, historical tour through historical computer interfaces, starting with the Xerox Alto in 1973, which influenced Steve Jobs and Apple Computer to produce their first Graphical User Interface (GUI) with the Apple Lisa in 1983, and ending with Max OS X.

Source: The History of User Interfaces, View Online

Words of Wisdom

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it."

Steve Jobs

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