Gov. Bill Lee on Wednesday defended his plan for universal statewide access to taxpayer-funded school vouchers for private schools — without income limits — during a Wednesday visit to Chattanooga Preparatory School.
The state currently makes vouchers of more than $8,000 available in Nashville, Memphis and Hamilton County, deposited into special education savings accounts for families that fall below certain income limits.
Lee is proposing to expand the program statewide, removing the income limitations in the second year of the expansion.
Earlier this week, some Hamilton County school board members said removing income limits to participate in the voucher program could effectively subsidize private education for those who can already afford it.
Asked by the Chattanooga Times Free Press to respond to those concerns, Lee reiterated his commitment to school choice.
“One of the things we’ve got to remember is that, to date, those who are the lowest income are generally the ones that are limited in choices,” he told reporters. “This proposal that we’ve made has a prioritization schedule. It starts with the lowest-income students. It includes students with disabilities, and then it opens up to a broader population.
“We’ve always been committed to the idea that every parent, every parent, should have a choice and should be able to be given the opportunity to decide where their kid is educated. Parents know best what’s best for their kid, and every parent ought to have that option.”
Universal access
Late last month, Lee announced his planned expansion.
His proposal would start small in its first year, limiting the vouchers to $7,075, going to 10,000 children in families at or below 300% of the federal poverty level, those who have a disability or those who are eligible for the existing voucher program.
Another 10,000 grants would be made available to a universal pool of students who are entitled to attend a public school, whether they do or not.
The program would be expanded statewide in the second year, and thousands more families, regardless of income level, could qualify for the money to pay for private school tuition and supplies or for schooling their child at home.
Another point of criticism for Lee’s plan has been over details about testing for accountability. Private schools accepting vouchers now must test those students using the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program. It’s not clear whether Lee intends to continue that requirement.
When asked about the issue in Chattanooga, Lee said, “Dollars for the Education Freedom Scholarship Act, for example, will be used in a school that has an accountability that is already set up under the Department of Education.”
In response to follow-up questions emailed to his office, Lee’s press secretary, Elizabeth Johnson, said parents would hold schools accountable.
“While details are still being finalized with legislative leadership, parents are the best form of accountability, because they have their child’s best interest in mind and will hold schools accountable to that end,” she said. “Ultimately, parents make the best decisions for their child and know when a school is the right fit for their student’s needs.”
Guardrails
Critics of Lee’s plan have asked why parents could not also be the best accountability measure for public schools — which have been criticized for “teaching to the test” in an effort to meet rigorous state assessment measures.
Some members of the Hamilton County school board expressed support earlier this week for keeping the income requirements in Tennessee’s existing private school voucher program in place if it expands statewide.
“The guardrails cannot be lost to this at all,” School Board Member Ben Connor, D-Chattanooga, said at a meeting of the board’s legislative committee. “Every dollar pulled from a public school doesn’t just follow that one child and help them, it hurts us being able to build new schools and put roofs on those schools and playgrounds and teachers and food in the cafeteria. The individual good pulls from the whole.”
The state next week plans to release letter grades for each of its public schools, based largely on scores from standardized tests. Hamilton County Superintendent Justin Robertson said the grades will likely arouse a lot of emotions for families, which may then be used to try to say public schools are not serving students well.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the year we finally decide to publish letter grades for public schools is the same year that we’re going to push through a school voucher program statewide when we have zero evidence to support its effectiveness,” he said at the meeting.
More options
On Wednesday, Lee emphasized the investments his administration has made in public education, citing a law passed earlier this year that gradually raises the minimum teacher salary up to $50,000 by the 2026-27 school year.
“We have a great public school system that we have to continue to invest in,” Lee said. “Our goal should be to have the best public schools in the country, the best public charter network in the country, the best options for choice for private schools in the country. The more options we have, the more we build upon the existing strategy that we have, the better all of our kids are going to be.”
The proposed program also includes homeschoolers, and Lee said which homeschool umbrella programs will be included, including potentially those located out-of-state, is yet to be determined.
“We want parents to tell us what they want this program to look like,” he said. “The parents of these children in this school, the parents of the local public school, the parents of a private school down the street, those parents have made that choice because they think that’s what’s best for their kid. The problem is that there are a lot of parents, primarily because of their income, who do not have that choice to make, and we want to give that option to every family.”
(READ MORE: Accountability arises as concern in governor’s voucher push in Tennessee)
Prep tour
Lee met with Chattanooga Prep leaders who touted the all-boys public charter school’s programs and spoke with students about their plans for the future and experiences at the school. Sophomore Matthew Gomez said the governor gave good advice, especially since he majored in engineering, which Gomez also wants to pursue.
Gomez and two other students gave Lee a tour of the campus, showing off highlights of the school’s academics and bringing him to various classrooms. Gomez said it meant a lot that so many people were interested in the school.
“Our hard work has paid off,” Gomez said in an interview. “It shows that everything that we went through these past five, six years was worth it.”
Lee praised the school and told students in each classroom he visited that he was proud of them.
“We’re just looking at your school because it’s different and it’s unique and it’s creating leaders,” he told a seventh-grade science class. “Just coming in and seeing this is inspiring to a lot of us who are very interested in education.”
Contact Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com