Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has proposed controversial new legislation around school voucher programs affecting public schools. If passed when the Tennessee General Assembly reconvenes in January, the new universal vouchers could potentially have a dramatic impact on the already ailing public schools.
Calling it the “Education Freedom Scholarship of 2024,” the overall thrust of the legislation is its intention to offer universal vouchers to all school-age students. If enacted, eventually all Tennessee’s publicly educated schoolchildren K-12 can opt out of attending a public school and instead be given $7,075 each to apply to a private school or home school of their choice.
Tennessee currently has a school voucher program with less than 2,000 participants in the three most densely urban counties: Shelby, Davidson and Hamilton. When that program was approved, it was aimed at low-income inner-city schools where student need is driven by economics. The new legislation aims to eventually offer it to all students regardless of where they live or their financial need.
The “Education Savings Account Program,” the name of the current voucher system, is still new and it will take time to gauge its success. It hasn’t been vetted or properly tested in terms of application or effectiveness, but that hasn’t stopped Lee from attempting to massively expand it.
Tennessee is jumping on the bandwagon of universal vouchers that so far includes states like Iowa, Utah, Florida, Ohio, West Virginia, Arkansas, Arizona and, most recently, Florida. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas supported Lee on stage as he made the announcement on Nov. 28 at the Tennessee State Museum to much fanfare.
What do local school officials have to say about this trend that has drawn national attention? Director of Schools, Dr. Grant Swallows, says while the school voucher system hasn’t affected Warren County Schools yet, he feels it is only a matter of time.
“This program began as a way to provide better opportunities for students who have no choice in where they are able to go to school, particularly in areas where schools do not provide adequate educational experiences,” explained Swallows. “It has now turned into a universal approach to ‘fix’ a lack of student achievement on standardized tests. My concern is that we are simply responding to a symptom and not the issue at hand.”
According to Swallows, one of the dangers of universal vouchers, despite it sounding like a reasonable idea to give choice to families and their students, is “These vouchers are going to divide the system of education in Tennessee and divert even more public funding away from our traditional schools.”
Warren County School Board Chairman Chris Cope is not in favor of the governor’s proposal either.
“I’m not in favor of diverting money away from public schools to invest in private education. I’m not supportive of the governor’s new proposal,” Cope remarked. Much like Swallows, he feels in the short term the proposed universal voucher system won’t affect the local system, but eventually it could.
“I think on the surface the charter plan was a decent idea, but I’m not sure if there’s a lot of evidence they are making big gains or outperforming our public schools. And it’s not really fair to compare the setting and environments of charter/private schools to our public schools. It’s like apples and oranges,” said Cope.
Charter schools are another component of educational reform that public schools have had to contend with in recent years. Basically, charter schools are public schools operated by independent, non-profit governing bodies that must include parents. In Tennessee, public charter school students are measured against the same academic rulers as public school students.
Adam Friedman, reporter and numbers analyst with The Tennessean and the Tennessee Lookout, argues that while for-profit charter schools are not allowed in Tennessee, it doesn’t mean certain groups aren’t finding a way around it. Lee attended a ground-breaking of such a school as recently as Oct. 15 this year in Rutherford County, “Rutherford Collegiate Prep” owned by Noble Education Initiatives (NEI). Lee’s reelection campaign received $43,000 in donations from executives affiliated with NEI.
Education proponents, teacher unions and some political pundits fear that more educational choices, which is how Lee is pitching this legislation to the public and lawmakers, will weaken public schools, potentially cutting personnel, art and athletic programs. The money leaving the public school systems to follow each child that opts out will have to be made up somewhere. It is unclear at this time how Lee and his political supporters touting choice expect to do this.
