Bill in Tennessee to Expand New ESA Program
While Tennessee’s recently enacted Education Savings Account program is currently limited to students attending Memphis and Nashville schools, Chalkbeat reported that Representative Mark White and Senator Todd Gardenhire have proposed a bill expanding the program to Knox County Schools, which would cover all four of the state’s urban districts.
Representative Gloria Johnson, a Democrat from Knoxville opposed to the vouchers, contended, “They’re going to push the envelope until all of Tennessee’s public tax dollars for education are going to private schools and charter schools. And none of those schools are being held to the same standard as our traditional public schools.”
After much litigation, the Republican-backed voucher program cleared all hurdles in November. Citing the inability of counties and families to prove their case on how students would be harmed by a Tennessee school voucher law, a three-judge panel upheld the program, allowing tax dollars to be funneled directly to families to help with the payment of private school tuition, reported the Associated Press.
“[The panel] concluded that any concerns raised now,” reported the AP, “are ‘speculative and representative of (opponents’) disapproval of policy.’ Plaintiffs are ‘simply asking the court to wade into a policy debate, something we cannot do.’”
The ESA provides eligible families with approximately $8,100 to assist with preapproved expenses, including private school tuition.
While plaintiffs argued that schools and students would be negatively impacted by the voucher program due to the loss of funding for each student who participated in the program, the three-judge panel cited a provision in the law that would replace diverted funds through a state legislature appropriation “school improvement fund” for at least three years, reported the AP.
If Tennessee ultimately expands its ESA to include all students across the state, it would be following in the path recently cleared by West Virginia, Arizona, Iowa, Utah, Arkansas, and Florida.
- J. Finegan