Governor Lee to propose school voucher plan expansion on Tuesday
The proposal would provide $7,000 to 20,000 to students across the state to attend private schools.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is expected to announce a plan to help pay for thousands of students statewide to attend private schools at a press conference on Tuesday.
The proposal, if passed by the state legislature, would give about 20,000 students across the state a voucher that can be used to attend private schools.
The voucher plan is something the governor has been pushing since he was first elected.
Finding a way to help all students in Tennessee get a better education is personal for John Little.
“My son’s name is Carson, my other son’s name is John. How do we make sure Carson and John get the best education,” Little said. “If we can send a man or woman to the moon, I think all kids deserve a great education to be able to live the American dreams, and sadly we have just not been seeing it.”
Lee believes he’s found that solution, and some members of the legislature like Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, agree.
“A program that we would like to offer education opportunities and choice to all students across the state no matter what their family income and/or their particular status is,” White said.
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The proposed plan is being referred to as the Education Freedom Scholarship Act. The proposal is to give about $7,000 to 20,000 students across the state, helping them attend a private school or get a better education.
“There are too many children locked into a system where it is not serving them so this whole system is set up not to discriminate but to help the child that doesn’t have the option, that doesn’t have the parents with the income that can send them to another school,” White said.
However, Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, said the proposal will actually have the opposite effect.
“What you find with voucher programs in other states, as well as Tennessee, is that an overwhelming majority of the students who use the vouchers are already in private school, so it’s just an additional benefit or a tax break essentially,” Clemmons said.
Clemmons said that $7,000 scholarships also barely cover tuition for most private schools and eventually takes money away from public schools.
“What you’re looking at here is something that ultimately going to benefit again a select and leave all the other children behind,” Clemmons said.
WSMV4 asked White if this was true and whether this change would eventually affect public schools.
“I think in the long term you are exactly right. If a child is not enrolled in the public school, then that particular school would not get the money for that particular student,” White said.
But while White said funding should be for children to get the best education, and if that’s not happening, time is being wasted.
Little said everyone’s missing the point.
“Go sit in a classroom in North Nashville or East Nashville, go site in the classroom of some of our wealthier communities and see what some of the things that are working in both and get together and see how we can replicate that,” Little said. “As long as we keep saying this side or that side and forgetting about the kids in middle, we’ll continue to lose.”
Lee is expected to break down his proposal during an announcement scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
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