Funding Fight in Tennessee, Vouchers Around the Country

Privatizers Never Sleep

In Tennessee, a group behind a series of dark money attacks on lawmakers who dare stand up for public schools is now entering the PAC game.

Tennesseans for Student Success has launched a political action committee it is calling Team Kid PAC. Who wouldn’t want to be on Team Kid, right? Of course, in order to be on Team Kid, a lawmaker or would-be lawmaker has to support handing over public money to private schools with minimal or no accountability. Challenge Team Kid? Face ruthless attacks.

Here’s more:

Even Gov. Bill Lee claims to want to secure an effective education for all Tennessee students. Heck, the team over at SCORE often claims they want effective education despite any evidence their presence in our state (or policy advocacy) has improved anything except for their payroll.

Here’s the reality: Tennesseans for Student Success spends their time and money attacking lawmakers who stand up for public schools. If you are not on the pro-privatization train, Tennesseans for Student Success is coming after you. Now, they’ll be doing it under the auspices of Team Kid.

The Funding Fight in Tennessee

Earlier this week, I joined Tennessee Education Association President Beth Brown on Nashville’s NewsChannel5+ to discuss the current fight over school funding in the state.

Here’s the deal: There really is no reason for the fight. Tennessee has a huge budget surplus - $3 billion OR MORE. Yes, we need at least $1.7 billion to even adequately fund the school funding formula (BEP). But, that’s an easy task this year given the projected surplus and early numbers. In January alone, the state brought in $380 million above projections.

On a positive note, Democratic lawmakers have released proposals that would begin to make more meaningful investments in our public schools. Of course, the Democrats in Tennessee’s General Assembly are a super-minority and will need LOTS of GOP help. That’s not likely to be happening anytime soon.

Vouchers Around the Country

The issue of privatization continues to be hot around the country, with stories out of Arizona, West Virginia, and Indiana this week raising concerns about a new the privatization pandemic sweeping the country.

In Arizona, a massive expansion of that state’s voucher scheme was passed and then pulled back in an apparent squabble among members of the GOP Senate there.

In West Virginia, lawmakers passed the most expansive voucher program in the country, then realized it was really, really expensive and pulled that one back. Now, they are trying to figure out what kind of voucher scheme they can afford. In other words, they weren’t willing to steal ALL the money from public schools just yet, but they’ll get around to it eventually.

Finally, in Indiana, a report indicates that a proposed expansion of that state’s voucher scheme will eat up 1/3 of all new investment in schools in the state budget. That’s right, Indiana’s voucher scheme, already the source of massive local property tax increases, may now become like a hungry monster eating away at state funds for public schools, even as lawmakers tell voters they’re “fully funding” the education formula there.