National education reform groups are pushing vouchers in Tennessee, including the American Federation for Children and StudentsFirst. Image courtesy Tennessee School Choice

Governor Bill Haslam vaguely referenced school vouchers in his State of the State speech last month, and now his limited proposal is up for debate in the legislature. Committees begin their work on the bill this week.

Haslam’s plan limits the program to paying private school tuition only for poor students from failing schools. But many lawmakers would like to see a much wider reach, including the sponsors tapped to carry the governor’s legislation.

“What I’ve told people who really want to expand it, you know down here, votes are everything,” says Rep. Bill Dunn (R-Knoxville). “If you can come to me with 50, 55 votes saying they want the expanded version, then we can talk to the governor about expanding it.”

State Sen. Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown) is the other sponsor. He led several failed attempts to allow vouchers, though no bill had the weight of the governor behind it.

Haslam pumped the breaks on Kelsey’s voucher push in 2011, organizing a panel to study the issue. The governor was initially skeptical that vouchers were the answer to improving education in Tennessee, acknowledging a program of any size does take money from public schools and shift it into private institutions.

Shifting Support

A dozen states already have voucher programs, which have primarily been championed by Republicans. But vouchers have grown in popularity among education reformers, including former Washington D.C. school chancellor Michelle Rhee, whose lobbying group has been hard at work in Tennessee.

“As a lifelong Democrat I was adamantly against vouchers,” Rhee writes in her new book titled Radical. “Here’s the question we Democrats need to ask ourselves: Are we beholden to the public school system at any cost, or are we beholden to the public school child at any cost?”

Republicans have been the bigger supporters of vouchers, saying they give parents more choice in the matter. Tennessee Democrats have largely opposed vouchers.

“We see that a program that would take public money and put it into private schools would do nothing to help either one,” said House Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh (D-Ripley).

But geography is turning out to be a factor for many lawmakers, not just party affiliation.

In Memphis, which has the highest concentration of struggling schools, Democrats like Rep. John DeBerry have become open to vouchers.

Vouchers begin to lose support from some Republicans if the program were opened up to more than just poor students at the state’s lowest-performing schools. Rural GOP lawmakers are already hearing concerns from their local school boards.

“They’re worried that it does take money away from public schools,” says Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey (R-Blountville). “I’m not convinced of that.”

Nuts and Bolts

Under the governor’s plan:

– To qualify, a student has to be enrolled in the bottom 5 percent of schools in overall achievement. This includes half a dozen schools in Nashville. Most are in Memphis.
– The student also has to be part of a household where the income is low enough that he or she qualifies for free or reduced lunch. For a family of four, that’s roughly $42,000.
– The program is currently capped at 5,000 students next year, bumping up to 20,000 by the 2016-2017 school year.

For the schools taking vouchers:

– A private school would have to accept the voucher of roughly $6,000 as total tuition payment, even if the tuition is more than that.
– They would have to give voucher students the state’s standardized tests and show achievement growth.
– Consecutive years of test scores “significantly below expectations” would disqualify a private school from taking voucher students.

Cost:

– There is no cost estimate for Haslam voucher proposal.
– In theory, it wouldn’t cost the state any more money.
– However, local school districts say they will feel the pinch when money follows students who leave for a private school.