NASHVILLE – State senators on Thursday passed a Republican-backed school voucher program for low-income students in the state’s four largest counties, including Hamilton.
The “Equal Opportunity Scholarships” bill passed on a largely partisan 18-10 vote. It could start moving in the House on Wednesday.
“I see it as an attack on public schools, and I see it as an attack on the large school systems,” Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Jim Scales said Thursday night. Officials in Knox, Davidson and Memphis and Shelby County schools also opposed the bill.
Should the bill become law, Hamilton County schools would lose an estimated $4,600 in taxpayer support for each voucher student. Students would take that money with them to private or religious schools.
Scales questioned a situation in which public school teachers, schools and students are subject to tougher standards while possibly losing money to private and religious schools where standards are often unknown.