This week the Governor’s latest assault on public education got underway with a special session. Now there are certainly valid reasons for assembling a special session on public education. The biggest would be to address the climate of fear and anxiety so many children, parents and teachers feel when another tragic school shooting incident occurs.
But rather than address the gun violence issue, Bill Lee is conducting an attack on the schools. He’s resumed lobbying and pushing for his voucher system, which does nothing positive to aid educational opportunities for deserving children, but instead creates a two-tiered education system that siphons folks hard-earned tax dollars away from the public schools that serve the majority of our Black, brown, poor and disabled children. This system seeks to funnel those funds into private schools that are unaccountable and inaccessible to most of the population.
Contrary to what Lee keeps saying publicly, his bill isn’t about giving a majority of parents school choice. It’s about setting up a special fund that mostly benefits students and parents who don’t need help. His bill would fund 20,000 private school scholarships of just over $7,000 each. In exchange for this blanket appropriation of public school funds, Lee’s bill offers this in exchange. Every public school teacher in the state would get a one-time bonus of $2,000. The bill would also create a dedicated fund for school facilities maintenance and construction, and guarantee continued state funding for school districts at current levels in perpetuity, even if students disenroll to participate in the program.
But there are problems galore with this legislation, starting with the fact that last year legislators approved a recurring $144.2 million in the state budget for the as then voucher program. Lee has said that if his proposal passes, it’s a priority to get the program up and running as soon as possible – possibly in time for the 2025-26 school year. But Lee’s proposal aims to directly fund 20,000 scholarships of about $7,000 each: 10,000 income limited scholarships and 10,000 available to any student in the state regardless of income. The scholarship amount is based on the state’s share of per-pupil funding sent to public school districts each year ― which is projected to grow, state analysts say. The estimated amount for the scholarships next year is $7,075.
So right away the total cost just to cover the scholarships alone would be $141.5 million. The Tennessee Department of Education, assuming it would still exist. would need to hire staff and engage a scholarship account management contractor to facilitate the program, as it does for the existing Education Savings Accounts voucher program in Shelby, Davidson and Hamilton counties. Administrative costs are not expected to exceed $5 million, analysts say.
Lee’s proposal includes a one-time $2,000 bonus for each public school teacher in the state. About 86,000 teachers are expected to receive a bonus from the legislation, according to state analysts, bringing the total cost of the teacher bonus item to $172 million.
There will also be costs associated with administering teacher’s benefits due to the one-time bonus, state analysts say. Those remain unclear. Lee’s proposal reallocates 80% of state sports wagering revenues to a dedicated fund for public school facility construction and maintenance. Those funds currently go to fund HOPE scholarships for higher education.
Bottom line, Lee’s done a lot of juggling and fiscal mumbo-jumbo, but ultimately what he wants to do is take a bunch of funds from public education and give them to parents who not only don’t want their children in public school, but who can also afford to send them to private schools. If the private schools are so anxious to get more children from working class families, let them establish scholarship programs. But public education does not need its funds reduced to help private schools. When you cut through all the rhetoric, this is just one more step in the Republican campaign to turn back the clock on progress.
If you want to argue that the schools need to do a better job with safety, or in their basic mission of educating students, The Tribune in turn asks how do you do that by reducing resources and funding? A better question is why doesn’t Lee put all his time and energy into improving public education, and let the elite and upper class types whose children populate private schools pay for them. If they don’t want to be involved with public education and schools, that’s their right. But don’t take money from the public schools budget and give it to schools and parents who don’t even need it, while numerous parents and children are calling for safer and better funded public schools.
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