After more than four hours, tense exchanges and numerous objections, a key House committee passed a sweeping, controversial school voucher bill on Wednesday. Meanwhile the Senate version cleared its first hurdle in the Education Committee with relative ease.
The House bill differs greatly from its Senate counterpart. At the heart of each proposal is a program that would give about $7,000 for each student to put toward the costs of attending private school, with no income limits. But the House version packs in a laundry list of reforms to the public school system, which Democrats have characterized as an attempt to “buy votes.” The Senate version, while more narrow, would also allow students to use vouchers to attend public schools outside their home district.
Democrats continued voicing their opposition to the proposal, criticizing how it ties public school investments and reforms to a policy they say will undermine the system as a whole.
The bill’s co-sponsor, Rep. Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka, said he and fellow lawmakers had been wanting to make these changes to the public K-12 system for years, but they were waiting for the right “vehicle” to get them passed.
Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, responded that the legislature is the “vehicle manufacturer.”
“And we can make that vehicle look any way we want it, but for some reason we’ve chosen to create a lemon,” Parkinson said. “That vehicle now has all of these great options that are in it, but it’s tied to four flat tires.”
Democrats also strongly oppose the lack of accountability measures for private schools. Rep. Sam McKenzie, D-Knoxville, asked Education Commissioner Lizette Reynolds about how to compare the performance of voucher students with public schoolers taking the TCAP standardized test.
Reynolds said there would be no apples-to-apples comparison between the two groups. Unlike public schools, private schools wouldn’t be required to administer the TCAP, which is based on the state’s rigorous academic standards, under this bill. Some private schools may be required to take one of a handful of national normed reference tests, but others may not, depending on their accrediting agency.
Four Republicans also voted against the bill, with several interrogating how the policy might open the door to federal overreach into private schools, since they sometimes work with public schools to serve students with disabilities.
Representatives on both sides of the aisle also questioned whether taxpayer dollars could be used to pay tuition at schools formed specifically for LGBTQ+ students or schools affiliated with Satanism.
“Will this scholarship program money go to schools that are Satanic, atheist or values we don’t share here in Tennessee?” asked Rep. Todd Warner, R-Chapel Hill.
Reynolds said she couldn’t answer the question because there are too many unknowns. Reynolds and other voucher proponents doubled down on the principle that parents know what’s best for their children and should be given more choice in what schools they attend.
Warner predicted the future of the voucher bill, since the House and Senate proposals are so different.
“They’re never going to agree on it. You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it,” Warner said. “What’s going to happen is this is going to go to a conference committee at the end of session and to a back room deal that we will get one hour more than likely on the House floor to discuss.”
The omnibus House version passed 12-7 in the Education Administration committee. The Senate Education Committee passed its bill 7-1 with the lone Democrat casting a no vote. The House version now heads to Government Operations, while the Senate proposal will go to Finance Ways and Means.
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