NASHVILLE—In his haste to steal money from public schools statewide, Governor Bill Lee’s administration rushed a set of “emergency rules” through the State Board of Education yesterday with no allowance for public input. Similar to the manner in which Lee’s voucher scam was crafted, these rules and decisions that will detrimentally impact every school in Tennessee were made behind closed doors.
Governor Lee’s impatience and over-eagerness to enact a scam that he shamefully considers his “legacy” has now resulted in administrative rules that make our state more vulnerable to rampant fraud and abuse of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and expose the state to litigation.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Ray Clemmons shared his initial concerns with the emergency rules:
“It comes as no surprise that Governor Lee rushed these rules through with little to no sunlight or public input. He refused to stand by his word and allow for his so-called voucher ‘pilot project’ from 2019 to produce data that justifies expansion. Then he tied this voucher scam to flood relief funds and pushed it through during a four-day special session. The reality is that Lee’s scheme to defund our local public schools is overwhelmingly unpopular among Tennessee families, so he, of course, wants to start funneling taxpayers’ hard-earned money out of public schools and into the private hands of his business friends and allies before anyone knows what is happening.”
Chief among the many concerns that Tennessee families should have with Lee’s emergency rules is the exposure they create for our state. The hastily drafted rules leave the door wide open to rampant fraud and abuse of taxpayer funds by private entities, and they will also likely expose our state to litigation.
Some of Chairman Clemmons’ initial concerns with the emergency rules are as follows:
* Private schools that receive taxpayer funds are not required to provide educational services in a physical location in this state;
* There is no clear, delineated process or timeline to reimburse LEAs when a student returns to their zoned public school after disenrolling from a private school, and it is unclear where any reimbursed funds will go when they are returned to the state;
* Parents are forced to waive their child’s right to an Individual Education Program (IEP) and all special education and related services before accepting a voucher;
* Parents are also required to waive their rights under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act which are their child’s civil rights protections against disability discrimination;
* Parents must contractually engage with a private school prior to an award of any voucher funds, exposing low-income and middle-class families to unrealistic contractual, financial burdens;
* There is no substantive accountability metric for testing that will allow the state to accurately and adequately track education outcomes and/or progress in voucher recipients;
* The rules, despite language to the contrary, clearly expand the regulatory authority of the state and impose additional rules, regulations and requirements on private schools;
* The “first-come, first-served” approach to awarding vouchers unfairly discriminates against certain eligible student groups who are alleged to be the intended beneficiaries of the program; and,
* Facilitate the significant de-funding of public schools statewide that will have a detrimental educational, economic and societal impact on every child, community and local economy in every county of this state.
The emergency rules were approved Thursday in a “special called“ meeting of the State Board in an effort to ensure that Lee’s voucher scam launches before the start of the next school year. Permanent rules will still have to be passed by the board.
