Some Tennessee Lawmakers Flat-Out Condemn Lee’s School Voucher Expansion
Image: Governor Bill Lee visits Emerald Academy, a public charter school in Knoxville. Image Credit: Gov. Bill Lee / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –
On Tuesday Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) announced his plan to expand taxpayer-funded school vouchers through a program known as the Education Freedom Scholarship Act, and proponents of Tennessee’s public education system are anything but happy about it.
Protestors even showed up to the Governor’s announcement event to display their opposition to the program.
“It is moral and fiscal malpractice for Tennessee to dismantle and destabilize public education,” stated Metro Nashville Public Schools Board Chair, Rachael Anne Elrod.
If the Education Freedom Scholarship Act is passed by Tennessee’s General Assembly during the upcoming 2024 legislative session, vouchers would be made available for 20,000 Tennessee students in the ’24-’25 school year.
“Public schools are for the good of the community,” said Democrat Rep. Gloria Johnson (Knoxville-District 90). “Public tax dollars should not be for schools that pick and choose which kids they’ll take.”
“It’s definitely crossing the line between church and state,” said Knox County School Board Member, Jennifer Owen. “Taxpayers want their taxes to go to public services, not to be funneled into private institutions they have no oversight on.”
Even some Tennessee Republicans have spoken out against school vouchers in defense of keeping the public and private sectors separate.
Sen. Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville-District 7) has stated that he does not support public dollars funding private schools and Sen. Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains-District 8) said he worries that if private schools are receiving government money, the state would get to control what those private schools teach.
However, there are Republicans like Rep. Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville-District 14) who support school vouchers.
While Zachary has said “the devil is in the details” when it comes to Gov. Lee’s proposal, the Knox County lawmaker believes vouchers could really help students stuck in failing schools.
Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis-District 83) also believes that the program will be beneficial.
“This is an opportunity for us in Tennessee to do what is best for the individual child,” said White. “In my opinion, whenever you have competition in a system you breed the best and you work hard to keep your students.”
In a recent video, The Tennessee Conservative’s own Brandon Lewis summarizes some failures of the state’s public education system and gives his perspective on school choice.
“Only about 53% of dollars make it into the classroom. The rest of it is wasted in bloated government bureaucracy,” he notes. “If you do a great job, there’s not much difference in pay. If you do a terrible job, there’s no difference in pay. […] There’s no incentive to perform whatsoever.”
“[Proponents of the public education system] know that if the free market ever has an opportunity,” he continues, “that it’ll kick the living ‘you know what’ out of the government school systems, and I hope we see it happen in Tennessee.”
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. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
The teacher’s union in the Tennessee public school system is not doing a good job at educating our students. Tennessee public schools is ranked at #31. Our schools should be at least in the top 10. Until that happens, school vouchers should be supported to allow parents finacially unable to send their children to private schools for quality education to provide the necessary tools to succeed. The public school system and the teacher’s union teaching/indoctrination of the liberal woke addenda, which is no justice to our young people’s ability to succeed in life.
What union lol? Tennessee conservatives are so hell bent on blowing out their back before they’re 62 for some wealthy CEO who couldn’t care less about them so they constantly vote to enact anti union legislation. It’s ok, conservatives are a dying bread. Keep listing to the microwaves messages sent by your god Donald trump through sounds of freedom, and give rich families welfare. I can’t take anything serious from the type of people who will drink fish tank water over taking a medical vaccine and believe some magical 2,000 year old carpenter is realer than thousands of years of scientific research.
Questions >
# 1- Will it cause a tax increase? (Will public schools still have to be prepared to educate all kids? If so, they will have to build enough schools, hire enough teachers, etc.)
# 2 – Are the ESA’s only for students in “failing schools”?
# 3 – Can rich people use them?
# 4 – Can kids who are already in private schools use them?
# 5 – How much are they per student? They shouldn’t be more than $7,000 per student.
From the other article >
“That will include 10,000 ESAs worth an estimated $7,075 each for the 2024-25 school year for students at 300% of the federal poverty level, who have a disability or who are eligible for the current ESA pilot in Davidson, Shelby and Hamilton counties along with 10,000 more universal ESAs.”
Da’gubmint’s total fail pubic ejikashun debacle which only those invested seek to perpetuate…
There is no such thing as public education. There is only public indoctrination and grooming.
Um, the carpenter is older than 2,000 years and smarter since he made the universe. If you took what is a misnomer called a “vaccine” then I can understand why your thoughts are muddled.
Exactly.
After Lee’s support for the 2 marxist comm of ed’s he’s promoted his judgment is not to be trusted. Consider: what the guvmt funds, it controls. They are reaching thru this to get to the kids in private and homeschooling. It will not end well.