Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman leads a school voucher task force meeting Wednesday in Nashville, Tenn.NASHVILLE – A task force appointed by Republican Gov. Bill Haslam has skipped over the question of whether to create a school voucher program. Instead, the panel’s most spirited debate Wednesday was over how soon vouchers could be offered in Tennessee.
Former state Sen. Jamie Woodson of Knoxville, now the head of the State Collaborative on Reforming Education, said that even if lawmakers approve a voucher program in the spring, properly implementing the program would take until the 2014 school year.
Republican state Sen. Brian Kelsey, of Germantown, Tenn., said he was surprised at that timeline, arguing that if the legislation is passed by March, the first vouchers should be issued by fall 2013.
“It blows my mind that we would even consider not implementing it immediately,” he said. “I thought the whole point was to get it started and see how it does and move forward from there.”
The panel, which is scheduled to make its full recommendations to the governor in November, also discussed whether private schools participating in the program should be allowed to charge parents any more than the vouchers are worth.