NASHVILLE – Tennessee Republican lawmakers will meet early Wednesday in a conference committee in an effort to iron out hard-set differences between the GOP-led House and Senate over Gov. Bill Lee’s education savings account bill.
It comes after the Senate on Tuesday approved its version of the bill.
Lee’s signature plan calls for spending an estimated $110 million in state funds and more from local tax revenues to create an education savings account program to provide $7,300 in public tax dollars for up to 15,000 parents of students living in targeted, lower-performing public school districts and help them pay for private school tuition and related expenses such as uniforms.
But majority Republican Senate and House members have been at odds and passed different versions.
The list includes which counties are in and out of the bill, with senators’ version including only Metro Nashville and Shelby County schools, as well as the state’s Achievement School District.
The House bill includes Hamilton and Shelby counties, as well as Metro Nashville and the Achievement School District. Both bills exclude Knox County.
Another difference, said by some to be a big sticking point, is a Lee provision calling for $25 million in annual funds for urban districts to soothe concerns among the urban systems over loss of money from departing students.
Led by Deputy House Speaker Matthew Hill, R-Jonesborough, Republican rural representatives staged a raid on much of the special funding in exchange for going along with the bill. But the Senate refused to do so.
Other provisions where the chambers are at odds include whether parents who home school their children will be in the program, as well as veiled efforts by Lee and the House to exclude undocumented immigrant children from the program.
Senators want home schooled children in the bill, while the House doesn’t.
Meanwhile, House Republicans wary of illegal immigration, fearing they’ll be attacked in 2020 GOP primaries on the issue, want Lee’s provisions that require parents to submit government documents such as birth certificates, Social Security cards and passports or green cards to be eligible.
Critics say that’s constitutionally suspect under a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that held school officials can’t inquire about students’ immigration status.
With the ostensible purpose of the House provision claimed to be the information is needed for auditing and similar identification purposes, senators have chosen what they consider to be a more legally defensible version.
It simply asks for parents to provide a pay check stub or W-2 form to school officials.
The measure, House Bill 939, has been heavily lobbied and President Donald Trump recently weighed in with support for it.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow him on Twitter @AndySher1.