Governor Lee And Speaker Sexton Continue To Promote Educational Voucher Program
Image Credit: Gov. Bill Lee / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative [By Rebecca Scott] –
Governor Bill Lee (R-Tennessee) and Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) continue to promote the governor’s school voucher program proposal.
On Wednesday they visited Knoxville and spoke at Emerald Academy, a charter school.
Sexton spoke to concerns regarding voucher availability in rural counties, pointing out that some rural areas simply do not have private or charter school choices available to them. Regarding parents in rural areas that may be disappointed in the performance of their public schools, according to Sexton, “Those families who may work in that county move to another county to go to a public school and they work back in that rural county because there are no options there.”
While there would be 20,000 vouchers available for the upcoming 2024/2025 school year, Governor Lee’s plan provides for universal school choice for all eligible Tennessee families by the following 2025/2026 school year.
In the Governor’s words, “We prioritize those with low incomes and those with disabilities and once those priorities are met, and the students that want to access this program, from that pool of students, then we continue to open it up. That’s the way it should work, we need to make it available to those who need it most.”
In presenting the Education Freedom Scholarship Act of 2024 to Tennessee lawmakers, citizens, and education stakeholders, Governor Lee shared his insight into the program.
“Tennessee’s Education Freedom Scholarships will empower parents with the freedom to choose the right education for their child, while also giving them a say in how their taxpayer dollars are invested. In the coming months, I look forward to working with Tennessee families and members of the General Assembly to accomplish this historic legislative initiative and establish Tennessee as a leader in providing choice for families while also striving toward the best public school system in the country.”
Rebecca Scott is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Rebecca at Rebecca@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
20,000 possible scholarships out of what, 950,000 K-12 public school students?
What about education freedom for the other 98% of public school students? Why are Lockdown Lee and the Vanderbilt chop shop protectors against school choice for 98% of public school students?
And what about the tens of thousands of Tennessee taxpayer’s children that are not in the public schools? They fund the public schools via property taxes at threat of losing their homes – and are told they can’t speak or object to public school board policies pushing p*rn in school libraries – because they don’t have children there. Maybe they should also have a choice in how their tax dollars are spent.
About 10 years ago, TN had a population of approximately 6 million. 1 million in K-12 students in public school. The state is now at 6.9 million population and the number of public school students have declined 40-50,000. More and more Tennesseans are rejecting the government education welfare system.
Hey Sexton
I’m still not voting for you as governor
If course we will as a state still have to deal with woke Anti American idiots that our state public schools create with our tax dollars. Until our state is willing and able to stop the indoctrination in public schools vouchers are just a feel good policy. Are the institutions that receive these vouchers exempt from government indoctrination? Will the state be able to enforce any laws with real teeth assuming they actually pass some? Sexton’s idea of ending federal funding and the woke bs chains that come with it would do more good than vouchers imo. And of course these vouchers will not benefit most rural districts near as much as urban districts. Funny too that vouchers are supposed to make schools accountable but our moron Governor appointed Not worth a Penny Schwinn as education Secretary and her replacement is another commie. When is the legislature going to hold the Governor accountable?