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Tennessee legislators approved the Governor Bill Lee’s private school bill on Thursday, creating a new financing track to educate kindergarten students in the 12th year.
The voting of 54-44 in the House, where the Democrats and certain rural Republicans joined to oppose the program, came after four hours of debate, including dozens of unsuccessful attempts to add changes aimed at strengthening responsibility And the protections of disabled students, among other things.
The Senate later voted for 20-13 to adopt the Lee freedom of education law.
The Republican Governor described the adoption of the bill “an important step in the progression of education in Tennessee”. He should quickly sign his signature education plan.
“I have been thinking for a long time that we can have the best public schools and give parents a choice in the education of their child, regardless of income or postal code,” Lee said in a statement.
His victory culminates the journeys of the defenders of the vouchers who, for decades, saw their political dreams fail in the state of the battlefield of Tennessee.
Under the administration of Lee, they accumulated a series of remarkable victories. But the criticisms of the good bullying tactics, political maneuvers and the strong influence of pro-proteins out of the state with deep pockets.
“This is the best scam that money can buy,” said the chief of the room minority, John Ray Clemmons, Democrat in Nashville, after historical votes.
The Americans for prosperity have credited basic campaigns by pro-Proten groups that have reached hundreds of thousands of Tennesseens.
“We have been rooted in the struggle for educational freedom for many years,” said Tori Venable, director of the group’s state. “The families of Tennessee have won today.”
Tennessee now joins a dozen states that have adopted similar programs allowing families, whatever their income, to use public taxes to pay alternatives to public education for their children.
President Donald Trump this week has signed an executive decree this week which releases federal funding and favors spending on school choice programs.
Lee said he had not analyzed the executive decree to see how it could affect the new Tennessee program, financially or otherwise.
“But I think there is an opportunity there,” Lee told journalists at a press conference after the adoption of the bill.
“The president wants to support states like ours that argue for the choice of school,” he said.
The new good program should be launched in the next school year with 20,000 “scholarships” of $ 7,075 each to help families at the cost of private education. Half of them will be for students whose family income is less than a certain threshold – $ 173,000 for a family of four. These income restrictions will be deleted during the second year of the program.
According to the analysis of private schools, around 65% of good people should be allocated to students who attend private schools, with 35% of students who came out of public schools, according to the analysis of the legislature proposal.
The Democrats criticized the plan as “the government’s well-being for the rich”, especially since private schools finally decide who they are registered.
“Students and parents have no choice; This is the choice of school, ”said representative Sam McKenzie, Knoxville.
Already, students of color, children of low -income families and people with disabilities are often excluded from school choice programs due to places and the supply of private schools, transport challenges, policies of ‘Confused admission and high cost of tuition fees, national. The data show.
But a republican legislator of Memphis cited a high turnover in the largest school district of the State, which serves a high concentration of minority and disadvantaged students and recently dismissed its director.
“If (the schools of the county of Memphis-Shelby) had a competition, they would do a better job of hiring superintendents, and they would focus more on the education of children than on raw politics and the play of power that is Unroll, “said senator Brent Taylor said during the debate in his room.
The votes came on the last day of a four -day special legislative session called by the governor to occupy good schools, help in the event of a disaster and immigration.
GOP leaders, who firmly control the general assembly, accelerated the three legislative packages.
The plans will cost almost $ 1 billion this year in a state that has seen its income drop due to tax relief for companies and businesses promulgated in 2024 in another initiative by the Governor.
The law on freedom of education itself will cost taxpayers at least $ 1.1 billion in its first five years, according to state analysts. A provision allows the program to grow 5,000 students per year.
In addition to providing some families with good families, legislation will give occasional bonuses of $ 2,000 each to teachers of public schools of the State; Establish a public academic infrastructure fund using tax revenue from the sports betting industry which currently contribute to university scholarships; And reimburse public school systems for any funding for the lost state if a student has unsubscribed to accept the new voucher.
But Senator Jeff Yarbro, a Nashville democrat, said the initiative could not be maintained without public education taking a hit. The latest budgetary analysis of the Legislative Assembly provides for a drop of $ 45 million next year.
“They said they could manage this brand new program without any school system by losing any funding. We have to hold them on this promise, ”said Yarbro. “But right now, there is not enough money in the budget to do so.”
The results published this week of a major national test show that Tennessee students held their field in mathematics and reading in a year when the average results of students’ tests have decreased nationally.
Marta Aldrich is the main correspondent and covers the Chalkbeat Tennessee status. Contact it to maldrich@chalkbeat.org.
