Tennessee school voucher supporters hope for 2017 progress

School education pencil tile
School education pencil tile
photo Sen. Todd Gardenhire, right, listens to Sen. Bo Watson Tuesday, January 5, 2016 at the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

NASHVILLE - Tennessee school voucher proponents hope 2017 will prove to be their break-through year in their ongoing quest to use tax dollars to send some low-income students to private schools.

"It was very close last year," said Rep. Bill Dunn, R-Knoxville, who pulled his proposed voucher bill from the state House floor last spring when it didn't look like he had the votes to pass it. "So I presume it will be close."

Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, who passed his voucher bill in the Senate, said he believes the "the temperature in the Senate is still very good" to get it through again.

Dunn sees two beneficial factors at work.

"Obviously some of the people who were against vouchers were beat [in November elections], and so we hope people who take their place will stand up for children and do what's best for them," said Dunn, who has seen three efforts over the last six years fail despite Republican control of the General Assembly. "So that's very positive."

Moreover, Dunn says, having Republican Donald Trump as president could help bring more focus on the issue.

"I think that with Donald Trump saying that he believes in school choice, and [Vice President-elect] Mike Pence, who is from Indiana where they've had school choice with great success, I think it's a way," Dunn said. "When President-elect Trump was campaigning, he was saying to minority communities, 'What have you got to lose? We've got other options available for you.'

"We'll see when we get down here," Dunn said of the 110th General Assembly that convenes Jan. 10.

Trump campaigned for a voucher plan to use $20 billion in federal funds, with hopes states will ante up $110 billion. But many details are unknown at this point.

This year, groups favoring vouchers - their preferred term is "opportunity scholarships" - and seeking fewer restrictions on public charter schools poured money into legislative party primaries and the general election.

The main voucher proponent, the Tennessee Federation for Children, spent at least $500,000 on campaign-related activity. It received much of its money from its national parent, the Federation for Children. That group is headed by Betsy DeVos, Trump's announced pick for secretary of education.

In opposition was the Tennessee Education Association (TEA), which represents thousands of public school teachers and opposes vouchers, among its other issues. TEA spent upwards of $500,000 in contributions, research and related campaign expenses.

Expenditures by both sides ranged from state legislative contests to county school board contests.

"I'm not sure much if anything has changed" since the elections, said Jim Wrye, TEA's chief lobbyist.

Though he said a number of primaries, both Republican and Democratic, were focused on vouchers, "politically, people in Tennessee just don't think it's right to use public dollars for private schools."

Two voucher critics - Curry Todd, a Republican from Collierville, and Kevin Dunlap, a Democrat from Sparta, lost their re-election bids. But Todd had other problems. He was arrested for theft and briefly jailed after a videotape showed him yanking up his opponent's yard signs and tossing them into his truck.

The GOP choice bill would limit offer about $6,200 a year to certain slow-income who are zoned for or attend schools that perform in the bottom 5 percent statewide. The program would expand to 20,000 students by the fourth year, and unused vouchers could go to students in districts with at least one school in the bottom 5 percent.

The bill would start in just five districts. Four of them, including Hamilton County schools, are urban systems. Those systems fret about losing financial support for their public schools. Rural systems worry they could eventually wind up on the list too.

Gardenhire says the solution to that fear is better public schools.

"If county districts don't want to have vouchers available to them, the best way to do it is to have a good school system without priority schools," Gardenhire said. "If a school system can't do the job right, you can't punish the parents for wanting a better education for their children."

Hamilton County school board member David Testerman, a retired educator in both public and private schools, said he was open to vouchers when he worked in a church-supported school in the 1970s, but over the years has changed his mind.

"It's something that has to be that citizens are demanding and not politicians," Testerman said. "And that was the difference between the '70s move and today."

He said that as a private citizen, "I question those that are pushing it and I'm talking about lobbyists and those who build profit from it. The old saying is, 'Follow the money.'"

Problems with public education, he said, often come down to children who live in impoverished homes. Promises that vouchers will solve such issues, Testerman said, amounts to modern-day "snake oil."

Gardenhire said the lobbying is coming from "the 'education-industrial complex,' not necessarily educators themselves. Those who want to protect the status quo."

He thinks Tennessee's 2017 voucher bill will be a "state issue" separate from D.C. politics, but added: "It's good to have that support there and it's good not to have the threat of the Obama administration for withholding funds for issues they didn't agree with."

Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow on twitter at AndySher.

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