Universal school voucher bill clears hurdles
Gov. Bill Lee’s proposal to create a school voucher program cleared its first Senate hurdle but took a split vote and five-plus hours of often contentious debate to pass out of a House committee.
The legislation passed 7-1 out of the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday, with the panel’s lone Democrat voting against.
In the House Education Administration Committee, the measure advanced 12-7, including four Republicans voting against it. Passage came even as Maryville City Schools Director Mike Winstead, a 2018 finalist for National Superintendent of the Year, called vouchers “a bitter pill, maybe (even) a poison pill” that he believes will destabilize K-12 education across Tennessee in the long run.
“You can coat (it) and make it go down a little easier,” Winstead testified before the panel. “But in the end, we’re being asked to ingest a poison pill.”
Meanwhile, supporters pounded on the theme of parental choice.
“This is about parents finding the best ... environment for their students,” Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds said.
Lee’s Education Freedom Scholarship Act must clear more committees before it can be voted on by the full House and Senate. The House bill now heads to that chamber’s government operations committee, while the Senate bill will be heard next by its finance panel.
Both proposals would start a new voucher program this fall with up to 20,000 students who could use taxpayer funding to attend private schools. Lee wants the program opened up for any K-12 student, regardless of family income.
The pieces of legislation remain vastly different, however, both in cost and scope.
The Senate bill, starting at $95 million and jumping to $333 million in the program’s second year, requires voucher recipients to take tests that can be used to rank students, but not the same rigorous tests public school students take under the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program. The legislation would also allow public school students to enroll in any district, even if they’re not zoned for it.
The House version, starting at $398 million and growing to $425 million in the program’s second year, has no testing requirement for voucher recipients. It includes a long list of enticements aimed at public school supporters, including reducing testing time for students, increasing the state’s contribution toward health insurance costs for teachers, requiring fewer evaluations for high-performing teachers and giving districts an extra $75 per student — or about $73 million in all in the first year — to help with building costs.
Rep. Chris Hurt, a Halls Republican who voted against the bill, expressed concern that the public school measures could get “stripped out” of the final legislation if Senate and House negotiators head to a conference committee to work out their differences.
And Rep. Charlie Baum, a Murfreesboro Republican who sits on the House Finance Committee, worried about the proposal’s high cost. He noted Tennessee’s government faces a $400 million shortfall in its current budget.
“I understand ... we’re adding the additional sections to ... sweeten the pot,” said Baum, who later voted for the measure. “But it seems like in order to pass a $140 million freedom accounts (voucher) bill, we’re spending an additional $350 million” for public schools.
Baum asked sponsors to consider separate bills to vote on the private school voucher and public school provisions based on their costs and merits. But Rep. Scott Cepicky, a Maury County Republican who is carrying the bill for House Majority Leader William Lamberth, of Portland, declined.
The voucher proposal, Cepicky said, was the right vehicle to address longstanding challenges for public educators.
Rep. Antonio Parkinson balked at that statement though. The Memphis Democrat said lawmakers have the power any time to create legislation to address matters related to public education.
“For some reason, we’ve chosen to create a lemon,” said Parkinson, seizing on the same automotive analogy. “And that vehicle now has all of these great options that are in it, but is tied to four flat tires.”
The House debate waded into the potential for voucher money going to undocumented students or to private schools teaching atheist, Satanic or Muslim curriculum.
Questions also were raised about whether federally required services for students with special needs would lead to new federal regulations on private schools that accept vouchers. There was little discussion, however, about whether voucher recipients with special needs would receive adequate services from private schools.
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@ chalkbeat.org.
Bureau Chief Tonyaa Weathersbee contributed to this report.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.