President Donald Trump's recent suggestion that it might be time to move on from the COVID-19 epidemic, now taking more than1,000 lives daily, sounded like a political move to analyst Otis Sanford, who says it benefits the president's reelection campaign to trumpet the economy and ignore the death toll.
Another toll of the virus has been to the Tennessee state budget. Shortfalls play into a secondary debate about school vouchers, which were found to violate the state constitution's home rule provision by making the law apply only to Shelby and Davidson Counties.
Many Republicans voted for the law after assurances that the controversial program would not include their own counties. Furthermore, the governor promised not to remove funding from municipal school systems to fund private schools. Now, Republicans say that to implement the governor's voucher plan, public schools may not get their reimbursement funding after all.
