With the start of Tennessee’s legislative session less than a week away, Gov. Bill Lee is deciding whether the General Assembly will have a special session to focus on expanding school vouchers and providing relief for areas hard hit by the remnants of Hurricane Helene.
Lee told reporters Wednesday that he hasn’t determined if — or when — that special session will take place. But the Republican governor is looking at sooner rather than later.
“If that education initiative, the Education Freedom Scholarship Act, goes into effect, then we want to be able to implement it in a timely fashion,” Lee said. “If it’s going to be implemented for this year, then we’ll have to act quickly, either in the very beginning of session or in a special session.”
Along with disaster relief, Lee is focused on his ESA school voucher program, which would allow parents to take public school dollars and put them toward private school tuition. The program is currently only available in Nashville, Memphis and Chattanooga.
More: Who killed Tennessee’s universal school voucher bill?
In a joint statement, Democratic lawmakers criticized the idea of lumping disaster relief with the voucher program.
“We could have and should have held a special session months ago to accomplish everything we need to do for these devastated communities,” said Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville. “But Lee clearly and purposefully waited almost four months until he thought he had enough votes to pass his voucher scam.”
State Sen. London Lamar, D-Memphis, pointed to test scores that show students currently in the pilot program are underperforming compared to their public school peers.
“The current voucher program in Tennessee is failing to deliver the promised benefits to students while siphoning essential funds from our public schools,” Lamar said.
Gov. Lee pointed to the same state report, highlighting a 99% parent satisfaction rate for families enrolled in the program.
“Comparing inner city students in an ESA program in Shelby County to a suburban school district around Nashville is a misrepresentation of the true facts,” Lee said.
If approved, funding for ESA would draw from lottery and sports betting revenue — the same source of funding as the HOPE scholarship for Tennessee college students.
“The funding has been adequate and, in fact, beyond what was necessary for the HOPE Scholarship in the past. So, what we believe is there’s enough money,” Lee said. “We expect those revenues to continue to grow as well. So, that’s not really a concern.”
Tennessee’s 114th General Assembly will convene on Tuesday.
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