On the Front Lines of the Voucher Wars
Some Tennessee Republicans resist turning public funds over to private schools
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has long supported shifting public funds meant for education to unaccountable private schools.
In 2019, Lee won a small victory on that front - a voucher program limited to Memphis and Nashville. That program was later expanded to Chattanooga.
Then, this past legislative session, Lee sought to go all in on school vouchers. He proposed two different voucher initiatives. Combined, they would amount to a universal voucher program in the state - any student, any location.
The first year cost: $140 million. The cost at full implementation: $700 million (or more).
The only thing standing in the way of this transfer of taxpayer dollars to private operators - schools that would not be subject to state tests or other measures of accountability - was the General Assembly.
Seems easy, right? Lee’s party has a supermajority in the House and the Senate. They could have entire sessions and conduct business even if no Democrats showed up.
Lee could afford to lose more than 20 votes in the House and still pass his plan.
There were competing versions in the House and the Senate and as the legislative session wore on, it seemed clear that the minimum 50 votes wouldn’t be there.
One reason vouchers struggled was because the evidence from Tennessee’s early program suggests they don’t actually improve student outcomes.
Test results show that ESA participants performed lower than public school peers in their county, and below the statewide average.
In fact, the state’s own analysis found that students accepting the vouchers achieved growth rates that were less than expected.
Students in grades 3-8, for example, entered the school year with an average score of 55% on English Language Arts (ELA) and tested at an average of 50% after a year of using the vouchers at private schools.
To be clear, students in the current (pilot) voucher program do take state tests. However, Lee’s universal voucher scheme would not require students accepting vouchers to take the state tests.
At a minimum, it seems that multiple years of data on the current program should be collected before spending close to $1 billion to expand it.
Another reason vouchers failed this past year?
Rep. Todd Warner.
No, not Warner alone. But, rural Republicans like Warner who see little to no benefit from vouchers for their constituents.
As ProPublica reports:
And yet, one May afternoon in his office, under a TV playing Fox News and a mounted buck that he’d bagged in Alabama, he told me about his effort to halt Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s push for private school vouchers in Tennessee. Warner’s objections are rooted in the reality of his district: It contains not a single private school, so to Warner, taxpayer money for the new vouchers would clearly be flowing elsewhere, mostly to well-off families in metro Nashville, Memphis and other cities whose kids are already enrolled in private schools. Why should his small-town constituents be subsidizing the private education of metropolitan rich kids? “I’m for less government, but it’s government’s role to provide a good public education,” he said. “If you want to send your kid to private school, then you should pay for it.”
If Lee can’t persuade lawmakers like Warner, he’ll have to replace them. While Warner doesn’t have a primary opponent, Lee is backing Republicans in the upcoming August primary who back his voucher agenda.
And Tennesseans for Student Success is backing a pro-voucher Democrat in a Knoxville race against incumbent Sam McKenzie.