NASHVILLE - The Tennessee House on Wednesday approved Republican Gov. Bill Lee's controversial bill to create a stand-alone state charter school commission with authority to overrule local school systems' rejections of charter applicants.
Representatives approved House Bill 940 on a 61/37 vote after a sometimes-raucous debate. The Senate companion bill is pending.
During debate, opponents from urban counties charged the publicly funded, privately run charter schools, located mostly in their counties, including Hamilton County, already are harming local systems' budgets.
They warned Lee's bill to move current authority over hearing charter operators' appeals of local rejections from the Tennessee Board of Education to the commission would open the floodgates and spread the financial blows to local systems' budgets to suburban and rural districts that now don't have charter schools.
"These people are making money off of our children and you're doing it," charted Rep. Bo Mitchell, D-Nashville. "And you're about to spend more money."
Education Committee Chairman Mark White, R-Memphis, and others said the bill has been sufficiently amended to provide "guardrails."
One change came from Hamilton County. Lee's original bill said the new nine-member board would have three members from each of the state's three grand divisions. Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, R-Signal Mountain, successfully moved an amendment she said, "ensures the majority of the members would be from counties that actually have charter school."
That means five of the nine members would come from counties such as Hamilton, Knox, Metro Nashville, Shelby county and Madison counties.
On Tuesday, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Bo Watson, R-Hixson, and colleagues inserted a similar provision.
There are now 116 charter schools operating in Tennessee. Hamilton County has four such schools that were approved by the county school board. But Shelby County and Metro Nashville have dozens.
Several Democratic lawmakers sought to remove their counties from the bill but were blocked. Rep. Yusuf Hakeem, D-Chattanooga, had a similar amendment to withdraw Hamilton County.
Recognizing it was a futile effort, Hakeem withdrew the amendment. But he told the chamber that in Hamilton County "we have not been anti-charter schools. The reality is we've been thoughtful reasoned in the process."
Hakeem said he remained concerned about the "loss of control" locally. "The process works as it is in Hamilton County," he added.
Lee's original bill would have created a dual track for charter operators wishing to get approved. They could either go to a local school board or the new state commission.
But in the face of widespread blowback, the governor retreated and the process will remain as it is now: charter operators would still have to go first to the local districts. If rejected, the operator could then appeal to the new state commission.
Bill sponsor White told the chamber that "nothing is more important in our state other than our faith and our education."
Tennessee governors and lawmakers over the past decade have "challenged ourselves" repeatedly in order to improve public K-12 education, White said, pointing to improving student test scores.
The bill is "nothing more than moving the appellate process from the state board to a commission," White argued.
He said removing hearing of appeals from the Tennessee Board of Education's purview and putting it in the new commission makes sense because the board of education has multiple duties ranging from making education formula change recommendations to teacher licensure.
"The key is we want the best commission," White said. "Why? Because we want the best charters."
Local representatives voting for the bill included Hazlewood; Mike Carter, R-Ooltewah; Esther Helton, R-East Ridge; Robin Smith, R-Hixson; and Ron Travis, R-Dayton.
Hakeem voted no as did Rep. Mark Hall, R-Cleveland, one of a number of Republican lawmakers who opposed the measure.
Contact staff writer Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow on Twitter @AndySher1.