Superintendents across Tennessee blast voucher expansion
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From the Smoky Mountains in the east to the Mississippi River in the west, schools directors across Tennessee expressed loud opposition to Gov. Bill Lee's proposal to expand private school vouchers.
Why it matters: School superintendents carry clout in their hometowns and their opposition could persuade the rank-and-file Republican lawmakers whose support Lee needs in order to pass universal vouchers into law.
- In some parts of the state, the local school system is the largest employer.
State of play: Vouchers give students state funding to spend toward private school tuition. The program hasn't had much of an impact yet on the statewide education system because only about 2,400 students from urban school districts, including Metro Nashville Public Schools, have been approved for vouchers so far.
- Lee proposes a voucher expansion that would offer about $7,000 to 20,000 students statewide next year. Income requirements would apply to half of those students at first, followed by universal eligibility for all 20,000 beginning with the 2025-26 school year.
- Local superintendents decried the program for its negative financial impact on public schools as well as the inequitable way Lee's proposal would be implemented.
What they're saying: Gary Lilly, superintendent of Collierville Schools, a suburban district in West Tennessee, explained to the Memphis Commercial Appeal how widespread vouchers will hurt a school district's bottom line.
- "The reality is when we lose students to vouchers, we're not going to lose a class at a time," Lilly said.
- "We're going to lose some here and some there in every class across the schools. What that means is that we're not going to need fewer teachers and support personnel and utilities."
- "We're going to need all of those things at the same level we currently need them, but we'll have fewer funds to pay the teachers, the support personnel and the utilities. We will have less resources to provide the academic and extracurricular programming that we currently offer."
The other side: A Lee spokesperson says it's "factually incorrect" to claim money is being taken away from public schools. Money for vouchers would come from the state's general fund, not from funding earmarked for public schools.
- Spokesperson Elizabeth Johnson also touted Lee's commitment to public education, pointing out teacher pay has increased substantially, and education funding has gone up by $1.5 billion since the 2019 fiscal year.
Reality check: Under a plan Lee pushed in 2022, schools get funding on a per-student basis, so enrollment drops due to vouchers could decrease money for public schools.
Superintendents have also sounded the alarm that private schools won't be subjected to the same standardized testing and grading system as their public school competitors. The state is rolling out new letter grades for public schools, based on student achievement and improvement on the annual standardized tests.
- "Any bill that proposes to allow public dollars to go to private schools MUST also include a requirement that those schools must take the same assessments and receive a letter grade," Murfreesboro City Schools director Trey Duke said in a post on X.
- "Fair competition is dependent on an even playing field," Germantown Municipal School District Jason Manuel said on X. Manuel pointed to the crush of state laws such as the new third grade reading retention law that public school systems must abide by.
Zoom in: The Tennessean reported last month that students using vouchers "performed lower than their public school peers during the first year of the program in 2022-23."
- "Private school vouchers undermine our public schools and have failed to support the learning needs of students who have used them in other states where they have been tried, and data show the same happening in Tennessee under the pilot program," MNPS director Adrienne Battle tells Axios in an emailed statement.
Details: Johnson, Lee's spokesperson, points out that private schools "already use a variety of national norm-referenced tests and TCAP scores to measure performance, similar to their counterparts in traditional public schools."
- Lee is pushing the voucher expansion because he says parents deserve choices when enrolling their children in school. Supporters say competition will lead to a better education system in Tennessee.
- Lee also pointed out that the proposal is in its early phase and could face changes during the legislative process.
- "There is no question that today is the time that we need to allow parents who know best what's best for their child as it relates to education, that we need to give those parents choices," Lee said at the public unveiling of his proposal.