This week, Governor Bill Lee introduced his plan for school vouchers, aka school choice, aka education freedom. For many, the plan sounds great. Parents get to take their tax dollars out of failing public schools and direct those funds to private schools or homeschool costs.
The problem, of course, is that what might seem like a great plan on the surface oftentimes comes with unseen entanglements and negative consequences.
We have a couple of questions. (1) Why are Tennesseans not being told that federal law requires education savings accounts to fund private school education for illegal immigrants? (2) Why are leftist billionaires funding PACs and 501c4 organizations that promote school choice programs across the country?
Admittedly because we have not seen any bill language yet for this proposal, we have a few more questions than answers. But we believe that the questions themselves should be alarming considering that the answers we are finding in other states lead us to believe that once again, Bill Lee is selling us a false bill of goods.
This ESA proposal seems to direct tax dollars into the private sector all while still funding the same failing public school system that we want to see held accountable. Additionally, the threat of future government regulations following that money into private schools and home schools is ominous.
