I Must Respectfully Disagree, Senator Harper

I've reread over and over again a quote attributed to Sen. Thelma Harper (D-Nashville) with regards to the TN Lottery scholarship report that shows, from 2004-2006, a decrease in black students receiving scholarships (10% down to 8%), while whites receiving the lottery went up from 85% to 87% in the same time span.

"What it [the report] says is that poor people are sending wealthy kids to school, children that will be going to college anyway," Harper said.

Senator Harper was also heard on WKRN this morning speaking about the report and promised John Dwyer a copy of the report in order to make a better assessment of the information. Senator Harper, I would also like a copy of this report if you don't mind. I think it would be very interesting to know how a decrease in black students applying and receiving the Lottery Scholarship has anything to do with "wealthy kids" taking their money.

While I would absolutely agree that we need to make sure every student in the state of Tennessee knows about and has access to the scholarship, blaming the drop on "wealthy kids" who have taken better advantage of the scholarship program rather than "poor kids" seems political at best and outright inappropriate at worst.

Hate the scholarship because it tends to suck poor people in with delusions of winning, hate the scholarship program because it doesn't allow all Tennessee high school graduates the opportunity to have a tuition free ride to an in-state school. But don't hate the player (i.e. the "wealthy kids"), hate the game (i.e. Tennessee's education system).