The House Government Operations Committee advanced Governor Bill Lee’s Education Freedom Scholarship Act Monday with a positive recommendation following a sometimes testy debate on accountability and costs.
The legislation would expand on the concept of the existing Education Savings Account (ESA) pilot program in Davidson, Shelby, and Hamilton counties to allow families across the state to send their children to private school with taxpayer dollars.
Democratic lawmakers have argued the bill will take resources from public school districts and Representative John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, took that a step further during Monday’s meeting.
“Are there any rules or rulemaking processes outlined in here that are gonna outline how our state will reimburse our LEAs (local education agency) and our local public schools for the money that you’re trying to steal from them,” asked Clemmons.
Committee chair John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, immediately ruled Clemmons out of order.
“Sir, you will amend your language appropriately. Nothing is being stolen,” said Ragan. “Your choice of words is inappropriate.”
The House and Senate are currently in the process of advancing starkly different plans through the committee process. Each would allow up to 20 thousand families to participate but the House plan also provides changes to school district funding, teacher evaluations, and state testing.
Supporters say those changes have been requested by school leaders, including a proposed reduction in the number of state tests traditional public school students take.
“It’s not really reducing accountability by reducing these tests, it’s really just making the accountability more efficient,” said Representative Kirk Haston, R-Lobelville. “By reducing the amount of tests that we are requiring, we’re gonna increase instruction time close to 277 hours. And trusting our teachers and trusting our students to really have time to improve upon, you know, the curriculum that’s before them but also giving them a chance to really shine and produce well on the tests that are still there for accountability that matter the most.”
Representative Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, was among those criticizing what she called a lack of accountability in the bill with regards to testing. Johnson takes issue with the fact students taking part in the program would not have to take the same criterion-referenced tests that are aligned to state standards that public school students take.
“Seeing that there is not the same type of testing and that these schools can teach any curriculum they choose, how are we going to know they’re being accountable with our public tax dollars,” asked Johnson. “If we are saying the reason we are spending these state dollars to go to private schools is because we want them to get better grades and do better on the test and that’s not what is happening. Why do the private schools, why are they not required to take these criterion-referenced tests.”
Under the House plan, students attending private schools would take norm-referenced standardized tests. Representative William Slater, R-Gallatin, pushed back on Johnson’s criticism that those tests wouldn’t provide adequate accountability.
“I think it would be incorrect to assume that just because a test is a norm-referenced test that the questions themselves do not contain content. Norm-referenced tests are filled with content questions in (English) language arts, and mathematics, and social studies, and science as well,” said Slater. “And though norm-referenced tests may not be perfectly aligned with state standards, the fact that they are offered is valid and reliable tests.”
Voucher plans expensive in other states
Committee members also discussed challenges other states have faced paying for similar plans, frequently referred to as vouchers.
Representative Caleb Hemmer, D-Nashville, presented research showing other states are facing major budget overruns with voucher programs.
“I was curious, I looked at other states and how they started the fiscal funding for it and what it occurs now. Doesn’t really look good. So Wisconsin 120 percent over budgeted costs, Louisiana 153 percent over budgeted costs, Ohio 414 percent over budgeted costs, Florida 519 (percent), Indiana 810 (percent), Georgia 891 percent, and Arizona above all, 1346 (percent) above budgeted costs,” said Hemmer.
Republican supporters argue that won’t be a problem in Tennessee as, unlike other states, the Education Freedom Scholarship Act would be limited to 20,000 thousand families the first year and a 20 percent annual growth afterwards that would have to be approved by the General Assembly.
“Looking at other states and the shortcomings that they’ve had in their legislation, we’ve addressed that in Tennessee to where now we have control over it, of its growth directly here in the General Assembly of what we want to expand it,” said Representative Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka.
The bill now heads to the House Finance, Ways, and Administration Subcommittee. The Senate’s version will also face a vote in that body’s Finance, Ways, and Means Committee.
