I want to thank and commend Dan Baker for his work on the Tennessee
Education Funding Crisis. I agree with him that we should send or give the
fact sheet that has been prepared to as many Tennessee citizens as we can.
To facilitate that goal, I have made an e-mail attachment of the document
by correcting spacing and bulleting errors that occur when it is pasted
into a microsoft word document. I will be happy to send this attachment to
anyone who wants to send this document to others.

        Ten years ago the Department of Political Science sponsored a forum with
all of the Hamilton County delegation to discuss the funding crisis in
education. (Yes we thought it was already at a crisis point way back
then--and it was!) Perhaps it is time to hold another forum on campus on
the issue. At a minimum, we should use the e-mail addresses on the web site
Dan provided in order to urge our elected legislators, and Senators in
particular, to provide some solutions, regardless of the electoral
consequences.  Personally, I see the issue as a funding crisis rather than
a spending crisis, though I know that point is hotly contested,
particularly by critics of Tenn Care.

        Thanks, Dan, for keeping us focused on this issue.





Dr. David W. Carrithers
Adolph S. Ochs Professor of Government and Head
Department of Political Science
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga, TN  37403

(423) 755-4229
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