Beacon Center of Tennessee
Programs
Budget
$300,000.00
Description
The Beacon Center believes the state should fund students, not systems. Tennessee began to change that paradigm in 2015 when by passing the Individualized Education Account Program for students with special needs, making the Volunteer State just the fourth in the nation to offer access to Education Savings Accounts or "ESAs", considered to be the most state-of-the-art and modernized approach to education reform out there today. Lawmakers followed that victory with another win for Tennessee families by passing the Course Access Program in 2016, a program that gives public high school students statewide access to course curriculum not offered at their individual school.
Most recently under the leadership of Gov. Bill Lee, Tennessee passed the Education Savings Account Program, giving 15,000 children trapped in districts with a high concentration of failing schools a real opportunity to achieve a great education, for many the first in their life.
Beneficiaries
Families
Children and Youth (0 - 19 years)
Program Areas Served
Education
$300,000.00
Description
The Beacon Center believes the state should fund students, not systems. Tennessee began to change that paradigm in 2015 when by passing the Individualized Education Account Program for students with special needs, making the Volunteer State just the fourth in the nation to offer access to Education Savings Accounts or "ESAs", considered to be the most state-of-the-art and modernized approach to education reform out there today. Lawmakers followed that victory with another win for Tennessee families by passing the Course Access Program in 2016, a program that gives public high school students statewide access to course curriculum not offered at their individual school.
Most recently under the leadership of Gov. Bill Lee, Tennessee passed the Education Savings Account Program, giving 15,000 children trapped in districts with a high concentration of failing schools a real opportunity to achieve a great education, for many the first in their life.
Beneficiaries
Families
Children and Youth (0 - 19 years)
Program Areas Served
Education
Description
Beacon is implementing a plan of education, engagement, and reform to fully abolish corporate favoritism in Tennessee. We are also working to spread this model to other states, encouraging competition through more meaningful pro-business reforms, rather than competing with taxpayer handouts. We're proud to announce the release of our new corporate welfare mini-documentary, Rigged: The Injustice of Corporate Welfare. It shows small business owners who have been directly affected by their competitors receiving taxpayer-funded handouts. Rigged has gained over 303,000 views, attracted screenings on multiple college campuses, received film festival awards and nominations. Rigged serves as the hub of our educational efforts to build support for reining in corporate welfare, and can be viewed at www.endcorporatehandouts.com.
Program Areas Served
None
Beacon is implementing a plan of education, engagement, and reform to fully abolish corporate favoritism in Tennessee. We are also working to spread this model to other states, encouraging competition through more meaningful pro-business reforms, rather than competing with taxpayer handouts. We're proud to announce the release of our new corporate welfare mini-documentary, Rigged: The Injustice of Corporate Welfare. It shows small business owners who have been directly affected by their competitors receiving taxpayer-funded handouts. Rigged has gained over 303,000 views, attracted screenings on multiple college campuses, received film festival awards and nominations. Rigged serves as the hub of our educational efforts to build support for reining in corporate welfare, and can be viewed at www.endcorporatehandouts.com.
Program Areas Served
None
Description
The rising tide of licensure requirements in the marketplace has been drastic. Just five percent of workers required a license or certificate in 1950. Today, it's close to 30 percent. Among those careers now requiring a license to earn a living are fortunetellers, party planners, florists, shampoo assistants, beekeepers, librarians?and that's just scratching the surface.Often touted as a way to protect the consumer, occupational licensure more often used to shield big companies from competition. When someone who wishes to earn an income by simply shampooing hair is forced to get a license that requires more educational hours than an EMT, at a cost of more than $15,000, then our state is allowing a stacked deck against those trying to participate in the market. These barriers arbitrary, destructive, and unfair?especially for low-income people.We will challenge the state legislature to hold these unelected licensing boards accountable to the public.
Program Areas Served
None
The rising tide of licensure requirements in the marketplace has been drastic. Just five percent of workers required a license or certificate in 1950. Today, it's close to 30 percent. Among those careers now requiring a license to earn a living are fortunetellers, party planners, florists, shampoo assistants, beekeepers, librarians?and that's just scratching the surface.Often touted as a way to protect the consumer, occupational licensure more often used to shield big companies from competition. When someone who wishes to earn an income by simply shampooing hair is forced to get a license that requires more educational hours than an EMT, at a cost of more than $15,000, then our state is allowing a stacked deck against those trying to participate in the market. These barriers arbitrary, destructive, and unfair?especially for low-income people.We will challenge the state legislature to hold these unelected licensing boards accountable to the public.
Program Areas Served
None
Description
Beacon continues to work with state lawmakers to be incubators of freer market healthcare options for Tennesseans that expand quality and access to patients across the socio-economic spectrum. Most recently, the Tennessee General Assembly overwhelmingly passed direct primary care legislation, paving the way for patients with unaffordable deductibles or those who are uninsured to contract directly with their primary care physicians for an average cost of $30-$50 per month. Lawmakers also obtained the most robust reforms to certificate-of-need laws in the state's history by repealing more than half of these antiquated regulations, ranging from restraints on the number of hospital beds to the number of MRI machines available to patients. In doing so, patients across the Volunteer State will now have greater access to essential services and care, while costs decrease as the ceiling expands to new competition in the healthcare marketplace.
Program Areas Served
None
Beacon continues to work with state lawmakers to be incubators of freer market healthcare options for Tennesseans that expand quality and access to patients across the socio-economic spectrum. Most recently, the Tennessee General Assembly overwhelmingly passed direct primary care legislation, paving the way for patients with unaffordable deductibles or those who are uninsured to contract directly with their primary care physicians for an average cost of $30-$50 per month. Lawmakers also obtained the most robust reforms to certificate-of-need laws in the state's history by repealing more than half of these antiquated regulations, ranging from restraints on the number of hospital beds to the number of MRI machines available to patients. In doing so, patients across the Volunteer State will now have greater access to essential services and care, while costs decrease as the ceiling expands to new competition in the healthcare marketplace.
Program Areas Served
None
Description
Property rights are essential to the preservation of a free society. The Beacon Center is committed to the protection of property rights in all forms, and works to promote greater freedom and individual liberty, with much of our most recent focus spent on ensuring that property owners of short and long-term rentals, such as Airbnb, HomeAway, and VRBO hosts, have their constitutional rights to the discretional and responsible use of their properties protected.Additionally, we have and will continue our efforts to end the abuse of eminent domain, which permits government to confiscate the property of Tennesseans across the state when they've arbitrarily determined it to serve a greater "public good.' In these circumstances, property owners are often times offered far less than market value for their land or home, while government often times fails to deliver on the "public good" they claim the taking to serve.
Program Areas Served
None
Property rights are essential to the preservation of a free society. The Beacon Center is committed to the protection of property rights in all forms, and works to promote greater freedom and individual liberty, with much of our most recent focus spent on ensuring that property owners of short and long-term rentals, such as Airbnb, HomeAway, and VRBO hosts, have their constitutional rights to the discretional and responsible use of their properties protected.Additionally, we have and will continue our efforts to end the abuse of eminent domain, which permits government to confiscate the property of Tennesseans across the state when they've arbitrarily determined it to serve a greater "public good.' In these circumstances, property owners are often times offered far less than market value for their land or home, while government often times fails to deliver on the "public good" they claim the taking to serve.
Program Areas Served
None
