When politicians, pundits and parents speak in support of public funding toward private K-12 academies via school vouchers, they use one word above all to sell it to the public — choice.
On the surface, this is an alluring proposition as a majority of Hamilton County public school students test below state proficiency standards. What parent wouldn’t want to have the choice to send their child to a private school that boasts a supposedly higher level of academic rigor than their public school counterparts?
Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is definitely in favor of presenting this choice to the public.
After failing to push it through the General Assembly last session, Lee is rekindling these efforts. Modeled after a pilot program for low-income students in Davidson, Shelby and Hamilton counties, Republicans filed a bill last month that would create a statewide school voucher system.
While this seems like a reasonable legislative initiative to give parents the opportunity to choose educational options for their children, it’s actually a decades-long effort — rooted in racism — to dismantle public education at the expense of the public, especially low-income people.