Parent data accessible via data-bind syntax, but not template syntax

I'm trying to figure out how to access parent level data using template syntax (#: parentId #) as opposed to data-bind="text: parentId" syntax.  The data-bind syntax finds the parent data, but the template syntax does not.  I'm trying to create a path so I cannot use data-bind syntax.  I've created an example to demonstrate the problem here: 

http://jsfiddle.net/MadCodeMonkey/uwf5w83x/

If you remove  #: parentId # from the template, it will work again.

I assume that it is supposed to automatically retrieve parent data the way data-bind works, but perhaps it just doesn't work the same way.