Keep an eye on it
While we could not support Gov. Bill Lee’s Education Freedom Scholarships Act for various reasons, including the relatively short time given for debate on such an important issue, we nevertheless will cheer for its success.
We have always been a proponent of more education choice for Tennessee students, and we hope over time the bill and its great expenditures will be borne out. This will be especially important in those families who want more for their children than to be in poor-performing schools year after year.
But, critically, moving a child from a poor-performing school to a private school is no panacea, and those who believe it is should keep their child in a public school. Typically, a private school will expect – and should expect– a child who enrolls to be prepared to learn, to be prepared to behave, and to have the wholehearted support of parents or guardians.
Frankly, a public school ought to expect those things from their students, but they often cannot because of a child’s background.