Tennessee voucher bill advances, Lee says ‘too early’ to consider higher cost estimates

A $400 million bill that would overhaul public school achievement testing, teacher evaluations and benefits, and increase funding weights for small and sparse public school districts in Tennessee – and establish a statewide universal school choice voucher program – passed another hurdle in the House on Monday.

House Bill 1183 gained a positive recommendation from the House Government Operations Committee, despite objections from Democrats on the panel. It now moves forward to the House Finance Subcommittee.

“Those public dollars are tax dollars that come from the public – they come from the pockets of taxpaying citizens. By giving it to a private school or a public school, we’re educating the children of those taxpaying children,” said Rep. Sabi “Doc” Kumar, R-Springfield. “Failing schools do exist. It is morally wrong of us to condemn a child – that’s too strong a word, forgive me – but to lock a child into going to their school.”

A companion bill is moving forward in the Senate, but it remains significantly different – and about $250 million less expensive – than the House version. The Senate bill is limited primarily to establishing the governor's Education Freedom Scholarship program and opening inter-county school enrollment. It does not include the House provisions increasing state payments for teacher health insurance plans, changes to teacher and principal evaluations, or changes to testing requirements.

Details of the final legislation are widely expected to be hashed out in conference committee with House and Senate negotiators.

Lee says ‘way too early’ to consider $250M in added spending

As the two vastly different bills continue to advance, Gov. Bill Lee told reporters Friday that he is “encouraged” that the House and Senate are both considering his proposed school choice program. But he did not commit to supporting the $250 million extra required by the House version.

“The House and Senate are in the middle of a process that will create a path forward for Education Freedom Scholarship Act," Lee said Friday. "The implications of that to the budget are really yet to be determined."

Lee did not yet commit to supporting the significant spending in the House version. The governor has stressed the need for fiscal responsibility, as state revenues have begun to level off.

“I haven't considered that because it's way too early to consider it,” Lee said

Committee chair shows favoritism toward GOP, draws accusations of double standard

Government Operations Committee Chair John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, enforced procedural rules strictly during debate ― but gave Republicans noticeably more leeway than Democrats.

When called on, House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, asked the sponsors about any “rulemaking process to reimburse public schools for money you’re trying to steal from them?”

Ragan immediately slammed down his gavel, demanding Clemmons “amend your language appropriately,” because “they’re not stealing it.”

“Are there any rules or rulemaking processes outlined in here that are going to replace the money that this bill will steal from my kid’s public schools?” Clemmons repeated, later noting that his question "is within the jurisdiction of this body and this committee.”

“Your choice of words is inappropriate,” Ragan retorted, then skipping Clemmons and moving on to the next committee member on his list.

Ragan also repeatedly required Democrats on the panel to phrase comments on bills into questions for the sponsor, and required members and witnesses to seek his recognition before speaking. But he did not hold members of Republican leadership to the same standard.

After testimony on his personal success with school choice from witness Walter Blanks, a national spokesperson for the American Federation for Children, House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, thanked Blanks for his testimony. Lamberth said Blanks had been “scorched online and in other venues for your testimony, and it’s being questioned.”

Rep. Justin Jones, D-Nashville, called a point of order to observe the double standard.

“This is not American Idol where we tell people our personal feelings about where we want to see people going in their lives,” Jones said.

“Do you have a point of order, sir?” Ragan interjected, to which Jones asked whether members were allowed to opine or comment without asking a question.

Later, when House Republican Caucus Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, made a motion to end debate and vote on the bill – procedurally referred to as "calling the question" – he did so without obtaining Ragan’s recognition to speak.

Yet Ragan accepted the motion and moved forward with a vote. When the vote failed to get the required two-thirds majority to end debate, Ragan started to move on with a final vote on the bill, but allowed further debate after several Democrats noted the vote fell short.

Undocumented students excluded from voucher program

Meanwhile, a point of debate in the bill is how the House version would exclude non-U.S. citizens from the Education Freedom Scholarships voucher program. Currently, the Senate version does not specifically exclude students based on their immigration status.

Jones noted the U.S. Supreme Court decision Plyler v. Doe, which barred states from withholding school funding for educating children of immigrants in the United States unlawfully, and questioned the legality of excluding certain students from the voucher program.

Rep. Scott Cepicky R-Culleoka, said any students regardless of immigration status would still be able to enroll in any public school. But he called the proposed scholarship program a public benefit.

“We have the ability to enact limiting factors on who can receive a public benefit,” Cepicky said. “One of the nuances of this bill is because this is a public benefit, we can restrict this to U.S. citizens.”

Catholics Concern for Education in Tennessee, a group representing faith, business and education leaders, condemned the proposed exclusion as a hindrance to the Catholic Church’s ability to serve one of its major constituencies.

“The Catholic Church continues to offer assistance and pastoral care to migrants, immigrants, and refugees aiming to treat the stranger as we would Christ himself,” the group of 60 wrote in a letter to House and Senate leadership. “We cannot in good conscience support vouchers that will exclude non-citizens.”

The Catholic Church runs the world's largest parochial school system. Catholic schools in Memphis and Nashville have been among the existing voucher program’s greatest beneficiaries and could stand to further benefit from the prospective expansion.

The Catholic group also raised concerns about the proposal's overall impact on public education, citing similar programs in other states.

Committee members also heard testimony Monday from Williamson County mother Candace Ashburn, who shared about her experiences finding services for her child with Down syndrome in public, private and homeschool settings. Most schools currently participating in the state’s existing Education Savings Accounts program do not accept or provide services to students with significant learning disabilities, Ashburn noted.

“I placed him back in the public system because that was the only choice that provided him an appropriate education,” Ashburn said, noting that her son’s withdrawal forfeited $20,000. “It is not as simple as it has been alluded to simply take our children out of a private school without a lot of mental, emotional, and financial distress.”

Proponents tout benefits for public schools

Bill sponsors touted the House version’s benefits for public schools, citing feedback from teachers and school districts. Currently, the House version would increase the state payment for teacher health insurance from 45% to 60%, with a goal of helping rural school districts retain teachers. It would also provide a $75-per-student infrastructure payment toward school facilities and maintenance, and increase state funding for students in small and sparsely populated school districts.

Teacher and principal evaluations and state-mandated student testing would become less frequent.

“We test too much: we’re addressing that in the bill. You evaluate me too much: we’re addressing that in the bill,” Cepicky said, citing conversations with teachers and staff. “What teachers have told us across the state is if you want better results in public education, you’ve got to give us more time to teach the kids. We’re addressing that.”

When finally called on, Clemmons asked sponsors if they would still vote for the bill if public school benefits are taken out in conference committee. Rep. Kirk Haston, R-Lobelville, for one, said he would not.

“It’s telling that we had to dress this bill up in so many ways to pass the voucher plan," Clemmons said. "You talked about all the things you heard from teachers and you heard from colleagues, but you didn’t say any of them asked you for vouchers.”

Liam Adams contributed to this report.

Vivian Jones covers state government and politics for The Tennessean. Reach her at [email protected]. 

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee school vouchers: Bill continues its advance in House