NASHVILLE – A defiant Gov. Bill Lee on Thursday defended his administration’s use of a non-competitive grant process and stripping funds from a defunct education account to hire a company to speed up implementation of his already controversial school voucher program.
A number of fellow Republicans in the General Assembly are furious over the Department of Education’s move to award a $2.53 million non-competitive contract and grant to Florida-based ClassWallet to implement his Education Savings Account program.
Lee’s moves came under harsh criticism Wednesday in the House Appropriations Subcommittee with its chairman, Rep. Matthew Hill, R-Jonesborough, charging the administration stonewalled efforts by the General Assembly’s Fiscal Review Committee to gain documents to understand what was going on.
(MORE: Tennessee’s school voucher program faces lawsuit)
Asked by reporters Thursday about the situation after his address to the Tennessee Press Association, the governor declared, “I care more about kids in the state than I do about a process that is trying to be hampered by those who are detractors to a process.”