Tennessee governor pitches school voucher expansion as state revenues stagnate

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Nearly five years after narrowly convincing lawmakers to let a select few families use taxpayer money for private education, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee stood before the Republican Legislature on Monday with a much more ambitious position: make school vouchers universal across the state. .

It’s a proposal that would be ambitious for any governor in Tennessee, a state traditionally skeptical of using public money for private schools. This year, however, Lee also faces stagnant state revenues and a staggering last-minute expense of $1.6 billion related to a business tax created to avoid a looming lawsuit.

That’s because state officials became aware last fall of a potential legal challenge over the structure of Tennessee’s 90-year-old franchise tax, with some 80 companies coming forward to request refunds, the Lee administration said. To avoid a possible lawsuit, Lee’s team wants to offer companies an ongoing tax break of $410 million and $1.2 billion in refunds to companies.

Lee argues that the state still has enough money to distribute more school vouchers to families, properly fund public schools, hand out raises to state employees and even set aside more money for the rainy day fund.

“Because we have budgeted wisely through years of extraordinary revenue growth, Tennessee is now equipped to solve this tax problem and make Tennessee an even better place to live, work and raise a family,” Lee said.

The governor presented his school voucher proposal during his annual State of the State address. The speech outlined his top priorities for the coming months, including legislation designed to protect songwriters, artists and other music industry professionals from the potential dangers of artificial intelligence; and a bill to give parents more control over their children’s social media activities. In addition, the governor said he wants to increase the number of state troopers and invest more in preserving Tennessee’s state parks and waterways.

In total, the governor’s office has outlined a $52.6 billion spending plan for the upcoming budget year, a modest 0.5% increase from the previous year.

The speech, which lasted just under an hour, was punctuated by frequent interruptions as people shouted from the galleries and railed against the governor’s comments — ranging from cries for gun control to Medicaid expansion to better funding for public schools. The bickering led to an increase in standing ovations from Lee’s Cabinet members and many Republican lawmakers. At one point, the governor interrupted his speech to speak directly to the crowd, insisting that “civility is a strength, not a weakness.”

However, a majority of those present in the galleries ignored the governor and continued their interruptions until the end. Yet no one was thrown out. Some tried to shout support for Lee: one person shouted, “Let the governor speak!”, and another shouted, “Minorities love the governor!”

Lee’s school vouchers have quickly attracted the most attention. School choice advocates are quick to line up to praise the idea, while public school advocates counter that expanding vouchers will only further hurt struggling schools.

Key GOP legislative leaders largely agree with Lee’s voucher proposal, but it is still largely unknown what the rest of the GOP supermajority will want to get the bill across the finish line.

When Lee first asked lawmakers in 2019 to consider expanding school vouchers, the plan was to allow parents of students in certain low-income districts with three or more schools in the bottom 10 percent to receive $7,300 to be received from an account authorized by the government. pay for approved expenses.

After much editing, Republicans narrowly passed a program that applied only to Democratic strongholds in Davidson and Shelby counties, which include Nashville and Memphis. Lee’s victory came as some GOP members received assurances that this would never apply to their own districts.

The program, known as education savings accounts, has since added Hamilton County, where Chattanooga is located.

It currently awards eligible families approximately $9,100 in tax dollars to help cover private school tuition and other pre-approved expenses for up to 5,000 students with low incomes or disabilities.

Under Lee’s ambitious expansion plan, the state would create a new type of school vouchers called “educational freedom” grants. The first year of the program would cost $144 million to provide 20,000 scholarships to Tennessee families. Half of those grants would be available to families who meet certain income requirements, while the rest would be open to everyone.

Democratic lawmakers were quick to condemn Lee’s voucher proposal.

“I grew up knowing that education should be the great equalizer for all people in this state, but today you heard Governor Lee propose a private school voucher program that would give wealthy families a $7,000 tax break so their children could attend private schools. ” said Senator London Lamar, a Democrat from Memphis.

Lamar pointed out that many Republicans remained seated as Lee laid out his voucher proposal.

“Our tax dollars should be used for our public school system,” she said.

Programs funded through vouchers, tax credits, or grants have been around since the 1990s and are now available in most states. Whether students who change schools with the help of tax dollars achieve better educational outcomes is up for debate.

Initially, the programs were aimed at lower-income students, but that is changing. Since last year, nine states have adopted programs that phase out, eliminate or significantly increase income limits.