The expanded school voucher bill would fund 20,000 private school scholarships each year across the state.
Author: Kevin McNamara
SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. — Governor Lee’s expanded school voucher bill would fund 20,000 private school scholarships each year across the state. Each family would get just over $7,000 to pay for tuition, and the governor wants to give every public school teacher in Tennessee a one-time bonus of $2,000.
“The big question I hear from some of my teachers in West Tennessee is, ‘Could this create a system that could be harboring segregation?’ We’re creating a 2-tiered system because what will be left will be minorities in public schools,” said JC Bowman, Executive Director of the Professional Educators of Tennessee.
Here in the Mid-South, $7,000 wouldn’t come close to the full cost of tuition at some of the area’s best known private schools.
Schools like MUS charge more than $22,000 a year, Christian Brothers High School more than $14,000 and Lausanne Collegiate School as much as almost $27,000 in annual tuition, according to numbers from the Memphis Business Journal.
“Keep in mind, there’s only about 3,000 to 4,000 empty seats in the entire state for private schools. So even if you go to that, that means they know going into 16000 of the seats that they’re projecting out are going to be the kids already enrolled in private school,” Bowman said. “That’s why people call this a tax subsidy.”
According to a Vanderbilt University poll from late last year, Tennesseans are equally split when it comes to support and opposition to school vouchers.
In every state that had a school voucher initiative on the ballot in the past election — states like Nebraska, Colorado and Kentucky — they were rejected by voters.
Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton said when you look at the poor academic performance of kids in Memphis Shelby County Schools, vouchers are an obvious remedy.
“The family should have the best situation. If the school situation cant work, why are we telling people and telling families they have to go to it?” Sexton said. “Why should we not allow the same opportunity to everybody in Shelby County? That’s what choice is about — it’s about the opportunity. But it’s also about letting them figure out what’s best for their child, and right now, I don’t think that school system is best for anybody that’s in it.”
Expanding school vouchers statewide means families regardless of income — and who may already be paying for private school tuition — would also qualify for the voucher money.
