Republican Rep. Bill Dunn of KnoxvilleNASHVILLE -- With one legislative opponent away for a surgery, a private-school voucher bill finally cleared the Tennessee House Finance Subcommittee today after years of effort.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Bill Dunn, R-Knoxville, approved on a voice vote, allows the bill to move on to the full Finance Committee.
Proponents said the bill will help lower-income children "trapped" in failing public schools. But critics say it will strip badly needed taxpayer funds for public schools and send them out of the system.
The bill had long been bottled up in the House Finance Subcommittee. But a change of chairman -- Rep. Mike Harrison, R-Rogersville, resigned his seat late last year and was replaced by Rep. Curtis Johnson, R-Clarksville, a voucher supporter.
Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, is the Senate sponsor of the bill, which passed the upper chamber last year. Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, who had raised concerns about other iterations of the bill since 2011, is OK with the bill as now written.