Education Freedom Act is Misnamed, Bad For Public Schools

Governor Bill Lee has called for a special session of the legislature to convene on January 27, 2025, to specifically deal with three issues. 

I encourage everyone to access the bill on TN.gov website and read it for yourself, looking at what it does say and what it does not say. 

First, if enacted, there will be a significant impact on how our state tax dollars are spent. Follow along with me on this logic. If a student attends their local public school, it will cost approximately $9500 to fund that education next year. If no voucher is involved, there is no increase in expenditure of your tax dollars. If a student has attended public school this year and next year utilizes a voucher to partially pay for tuition at a private school, your tax dollars will cover the $9500 of the public school and the $7000 paid to the private school for a total of $16,500. And oh, the student who has been attending a private school all their life with a $0 cost of your tax dollars who utilizes a voucher will now cost you in tax dollars $7000. Multiply the two scenarios that increase the expenditure of your tax dollars by the initial offering to 20,000 students and ask yourself is that truly showing fiduciary responsibility. Yes, those are rounded numbers based upon calculations from estimations and actual numbers from 2023 through 2025, but they are “close enough for government work.” The difference between the state’s TISA base amount of $7000 everyone is talking about and the listed $9500 is the state average local maintenance of effort which comes from the local funding bodies, whether Special, City or County. The bill in its current form does not directly address local funding for the moment. The cost involved with this bill is a yearly recurrent expenditure until graduation of each student, not a one-time cost.

Second, “carrots” have been added to the bill to sell it to a reluctant public. The first carrot is the “hold-harmless” component that is supposed to keep public schools from funding losses due to disenrollment of students who take “advantage” of the vouchers. How long do you suppose the state can afford to continue this provision spending the amounts of tax dollars listed in the first paragraph? Since the Governor is also proposing cuts in the business and corporate tax structure, and spending money in support of our fellow Tennesseans who lost all from the devastation of Hurricane Helene, as well as all the other costs of running the state, how long can we afford the “double dipping” in education for both public and private? The second carrot is the offer of a one-time teacher bonus of $2000. That is wonderful, but why does it have to be tied to the success or failure of the EFA 2025 bill, other than as an enticement to garner support only to further the “see what we did for you” mentality? And again, regarding the cost of this endeavor, multiply $2000 by the number of teachers across the state. HSSD has 127 certified teachers alone, so do the math. The final carrot is the utilization of “sports wagering tax revenue.” Currently this revenue is going toward paying college scholarships. Yes, that means college scholarship money is decreased unless it is replaced by another source of your tax dollars. The offer is reported to be 80% of this revenue to be redirected to fund school building and maintenance projects statewide, especially for emergencies and rural districts designated as at-risk or distressed. Sounds great, however the available amount is expected to be about $77 million annually. Spread that across 141 school districts equitably, and you realize that it won’t go very far at all with the current cost of construction. It also does not begin to address the state’s estimated backlog of school facility needs which is currently at $9.8 billion. But it makes for a great sound bite.

Third, the idea that the proposal will help the economically disadvantaged and those with some form of disability just does not ring true. It is estimated that 19 private institutions exist across the state that will accept the voucher rate as full payment for education. The average cost of tuition at Tennessee private institutions is $11,000. That means the parent or someone else will need to provide an additional $4000, in addition to your tax dollars, to cover the full cost of tuition each year. Public schools are mandated to provide transportation, private schools are not. Who will cover this cost, particularly if we are focused on the economically disadvantaged? Of the 20,000 vouchers proposed for next year, 10,000 will be financial based, and the good news is the bill defines economically disadvantaged to be income under $175K for a family of 4. How many families in Carroll County can qualify for this? The remaining 10,000 vouchers will be first come, first serve. Furthermore, if a private school accepts a student from a disability category, the school will have to meet the federal mandates of the ADA and/or IDEA. Sounds wonderful in principle but will be difficult to meet. Sadly, there are even more nuances regarding this aspect. I recommend speaking with one of our SPED (special education) educators or with one of our local speech and occupational therapists as they engage with this aspect daily in their occupations. They comprehend so much more than our state legislature on this aspect. My personal belief is that it simply won’t happen.

Use your common sense. Where is all the money to pay for glossy mailings, social media postings and other support materials favoring this proposal coming from? Who are all these PACs funneling money into the state of Tennessee to lobby in favor of this proposal continually? Do they love our students in Tennessee and Carroll County more than I and other school board members across our county who live with you as neighbors? And why will these shadow groups spend millions of dollars to support candidates only supportive of the voucher system?

Why would any legislator seek the disruption of public education in Tennessee, a constitutionally mandated free public education? The “I don’t trust what public school teachers are teaching” mantra carries no weight in Carroll County. These teachers are our friends, our neighbors, our families and our fellow church members. We know better! I’m proud of every staff member of the Huntingdon Special School District. I know every other school board member across our communities feels the same about their District. And that’s just for Carroll County; every Special, City and County Board of Education across the state feels the same. Lest you forget, the curriculum is set forth for us by the state legislature and the state department of education. If you don’t trust what’s being taught, go to the source. That is another rant for another time.

In closing, I, as well as my colleagues across the state who serve as local school board members, have ideas and desires to address educational discrepancies, parental engagement, interventions into the social determinants of education, teacher workflow, and most importantly student advancement. However, it seems we spend so much of our time just trying to figure out how to keep our district in compliance with the latest state mandate, usually unfunded. We don’t have a deep pocket PAC to respond to the for-profit voucher crowd. So, we depend on the good sense of the public to once again stand up for our free public schools.