Representative White Hopes To Kill School Choice Bill At Taxpayer-Funded Lobbyist Urging

Photo Credit: capitol.tn.gov – Brent Moore / CC

The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –

Representative Mark White (R-Memphis-District 83) claims to be a long-time supporter of school choice.  Last year, he sponsored an Open Enrollment bill that passed with bipartisan support.

The Open Enrollment bill, which became Public Chapter 479, added transparency, gave parents options, and kept school boards from denying students the opportunity to transfer out of a failing school or one that wasn’t meeting their needs. Public Chapter 479 is scheduled to go into effect in advance of the 2022-23 school year.

However, in this General Session, White, who is the chair of the House Education Committee,  is sponsoring a bill that will repeal all the changes made by last year’s Open Enrollment bill and allow school districts to return to how they operated in the past where each district was permitted to create their own policy.

According to our sources, districts would use school board decisions to “cherry-pick the best students and trap kids in under-performing/failing/overcrowded schools.”

Representative Mark White told The Tennessee Conservative, “I passed HB2085 last session (2021) but had considerable pushback from State School Directors so amended the Bill to state it would not go into effect for 1 year.  I am currently working with all parties to see if we can accommodate all interests before running the Bill this year.  I agree with open enrollment but of the 146 School districts one size never fits all.  Hopefully I can get a compromise moving forward.”

House Bill 2085 (HB2085) and Senate Bill 2036 (SB2036) as introduced, removes the required open enrollment period and certain open enrollment requirements; requires LEAs to create their own open enrollment policy. – Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 1; Title 49, Chapter 2 and Title 49, Chapter 6.

HB2085 and SB2036, if passed, will repeal all transparency and open enrollment from PC 479.

Tori Venable, State Director of Americans for Prosperity – TN, states, “This legislation does the opposite of what parents are demanding. Parents want more transparency, more options, not less. School districts across the state are ignoring the current public school choice open enrollment transparency law. They’ve enlisted the help of taxpayer-funded lobbyists to cover their tracks and keep decisions about which kids can transfer to which schools made in secret. It’s not fair to kids; it’s not fair to parents; and it’s certainly not fair to the Tennessee taxpayers who are funding the lobbyists working against them.”

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A Rutherford County parent told us, “I care about this issue after dealing with the open enrollment process in Rutherford County years ago. I discovered that since my child was zoned for the lowest performing (and overcrowded) school in the district, she would not be eligible for transfer. There were plenty of open seats at other schools in our school district, but they were not allowing ANY students to leave the low-performing school. They were able to do this because the school board developed their own policy to determine which students could transfer. The TSBA wants to go back to the days of ‘everyone make up their own rules and apply them as they see fit.’ This is unacceptable.”

Our sources tell us that the Tennessee School Boards Association (TSBA), who is funded by taxpayer dollars in the way of school board membership dues, convinced White to carry HB2085.   TSBA, among other things, functions as a  lobbying organization.  Their mission statement on their website reads, “…to assist school boards in effectively governing school districts. Through the years, TSBA has helped school boards and their members reach their highest potential through association programs, meetings and services. TSBA also provides school board members a collective voice in matters of legislation and public education concerns.”

According to our sources, TSBA also lobbies for the Tennessee Organization Of School Superintendents (TOSS), a government sector taxpayer-funded lobbying association, that is composed of the top ranking officials appointed by school boards who determine the number of available seats in a school. 

2021’s Open Enrollment bill passed by majority vote with the only Republican “No” Vote on the Floor coming from Tandy Darby (R-Greenfield-District 76).

HB2085 was placed on the calendar for the House K-12 Subcommittee for 2/15/22.  According to our source, a meeting for both sides to discuss the merits of the bill was scheduled for 2/14/22 but was canceled.  However, White agreed not to move the bill until the meeting takes place.

Should Public Chapter 479 be allowed to fully go into effect, legislators may have to consider a method for enforcing the law as multiple districts are not complying as of yet, utilizing the new bill as reasoning for their lack of implementation.  Many have moved their open enrollment period up to Jan-Feb vs March-May and have stated they “don’t know” how many open seats they will have because of this change.

Under the current law, every district must post open seats by grade level or program and school for 14 days before they begin open enrollment (in-district.) They must run open enrollment for at least 30 days. 

Multiple districts, like Metro Nashville Public Schools did not post the open seats as required. Other districts buried them in their websites.

Local Education Agencies (LEAs) are permitted to determine the number of open seats and can reserve space for potential population growth, teacher’s kids, and siblings of those attending. 

An investigation found that Davidson County Schools are not in compliance. The district adopted “school options”. They did not post the number of open seats at any point, nor did they post the schools that have availability for open seats. The district stated they did not know how many open seats would be available. Lottery used to determine placement and no information is available to parents on the number of open seats. 

Germantown Municipal School District was also found to not be in compliance.  GMSD has not posted the  number of open seats. They reference an internal policy (GMSD Policy #6.206 and #6.2061) that cannot actually be found on their website. Note: This is Chairman Mark White’s home district.

Knox County Schools were found to be in semi-compliance. Open enrollment info and a list of available seats were only uncovered after speaking with Brian Hartsell, Treasurer of Knox County Schools.  When our source spoke with the initial receptionist, she denied that open enrollment existed until the state law was quoted to her.  The receptionist then transferred our source to Hartsell, who had to acquire staff assistance to find the link to the information under “announcements.”  No mention was made of current law per public chapter 479.

Knox County Schools transfer application can be found HERE.

Open Enrollment would be #7 on the priority of transfers, however, KCS does not make it clear that they must grant the transfer if space is available. Most schools only list 2-3 Open Enrollment spaces per grade. 

Rutherford County Schools currently has semi- compliance with the law with Choice or Magnet Schools not being included in open enrollment The Rutherford County school board also adopted additional steps (via policy, not law) that were not required of them to enact Public Chapter 479. They also claim they cannot grant hardship or medical requests.

Shelby County Schools have their open seats posted along with FAQs.

Williamson County Schools were found to be in full compliance with Public Chapter 479 and they also list the number of reserved seats.

Wilson County Schools were also found to be in compliance with Public Chapter 479.

About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative  ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career.  Most recently, he served as Deputy Directory for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others.  He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History.  Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com