Image: Senator Todd Gardenhire reads a “brief summary” of his bill to the Senate Education Committee. Image Credit: capitol.tn.gov
The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –
A bill to extend Tennessee’s Education Savings Account (ESA) to even more students has been recommended for passage in committee by a vote of 6-2.
On February 8th, 2023, the Senate Education Committee considered Senate Bill 0012 (SB0012). Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga-District 10) is the bill’s primary sponsor as well as a sitting member of the committee and Sen. Jon Lundberg (R-Bristol-District 4), the committee chair, is one of the bill’s prime co-sponsors. Senator Bo Watson (R-Hixson-District 11) is also a co-sponsor.
This bill would expand the eligibility criteria for the Tennessee Education Savings Account Pilot Program, to include students attending a school in a Local Education Agency (LEA) that has at least five schools identified to be in the bottom 10% of schools in the year 2017 and identified as priority schools in the 2015, 2018, and 2021 priority school cycles.
Currently the program only extends to LEAs with a minimum of at least ten such schools and largely provides funding for eligible students in Davidson and Shelby counties to assist with expenses related to students’ education. This includes things like tutoring costs, post-secondary education course fees, and tuition related expenses for approved private schools.
During the Education Committee’s meeting this Wednesday, Sen. Gardenhire gave a brief description of SB0012, saying it “just adds Hamilton County to the ESA Pilot Program and no other county but Hamilton County is added to it.”
Sen. Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis-District 29) and Sen. Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald-District 28) maintained the two nay votes in committee and Sen. Rusty Crowe (R-Johnson City-District 3) was present for the meeting but abstained from voting on SB0012.
Before casting her vote, Sen. Akbari made a statement to clarify her position saying, “I am opposed to this bill and the reason why is our pilot program has already been put in place. I don’t think there’s been enough time to even see if it will be successful. I was opposed to it being piloted in Shelby County and Davidson County as well. I know this only affects your county [directed at Sen. Gardenhire], I just want to explain to you why I’m voting no.”
The committee made no further comments on the legislation and Republican Senators Gardenhire, Lundberg, Haile, Pody, Powers, and White voted to pass the bill out of committee. The legislation is now waiting to be scheduled for a vote on the Senate floor.
Watch the full meeting of the Senate Education Committee HERE.
The corresponding House Bill 0433 (HB0433), sponsored by Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis-District 83), has been assigned to the House K-12 Subcommittee but has not yet been put on the calendar for consideration at the time of this article’s publication.
While this legislation does allow for more Tennessee students to have better access to these educational resources, there are still many across the state who would remain ineligible. As the Tennessee ESA Pilot Program progresses, it may be worth considering another expansion of the program’s criteria in order to allocate some of its resources to more rural school districts and those generally smaller in size, instead of solely focusing on the state’s larger school districts.
Representative Bryan Richey (R-Maryville-District 20) introduced a bill this session that would have expanded the ESA program to allow all students eligible to enroll in a Tennessee public school in any of the grades kindergarten through 12 to participate, regardless of a local education agency’s academic performance or the student’s household income level. In addition, his bill would have allowed a participating student who is enrolled in a home school program to receive an education savings account.
However, his bill failed for this session because a sponsor in the Senate could not be acquired.
Richey speaks of his bill in a recent interview with The Tennessee Conservative’s founder, Brandon Lewis. Watch the interview HERE.
About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee.
