When Lee was elected in 2018, he resurrected a concept left for dead in the Tennessee General Assembly. Vouchers are a contentious political issue because lawmakers know most of their constituents don’t like them. Tennessee’s public schools serve 90 percent of Tennessee children and are perpetually underfunded. It’s easy to predict the fallout if we let public-school dollars “follow the student” to private schools.
In 2019, Lee signed legislation for a three-year voucher pilot program that was originally intended to include Tennessee’s four largest school systems. Opposition from parents, teachers, and school boards in all four counties was strong.
The voucher bill had passed the House by a single vote. That vote belonged to a Republican from Knoxville; he agreed to support the bill if it excluded Knox County. The bill passed the Senate after Hamilton County was excluded; its two senators, both Republicans, didn’t like it either.
The pilot launched in Shelby and Davidson counties in 2022. It launched in Hamilton County in 2023, after its senators had a change of heart.
The vouchers are currently being used by some 3,000 students at a cost of around $8,000 each. They were promoted as a way to provide “school choice” to low-income families.
Even before the pilot programs are complete, Lee is pushing for universal vouchers—all 95 counties, no income restrictions, at a cost of $144 million the first year—despite several early warning signs:
- Most low-income families can’t afford private school even with vouchers.
- Most vouchers have gone to families with children already enrolled in private schools.
- Preliminary results show Tennessee’s voucher students performing worse than their public-school peers.
School superintendents across Tennessee oppose the plan. Private schools that take vouchers don’t have to accept all students, accommodate special needs, or meet the same accountability requirements as public schools. Most rural counties don’t even have a private school; voucher students would have to leave their county or stay behind in their newly defunded public school, which might also be the county’s largest employer.
Meanwhile, Arizona’s two-year-old universal voucher program has that state on the verge of bankruptcy.
Tennessee’s Republican lawmakers appear to be falling in line despite the red flags. Reportedly some have complained about having to choose between what Lee wants and what their constituents want. But these are Lee’s constituents too. Doesn’t he want what they want?
Some Tennesseans do want public schools defunded, but Lee insists he’s not one of them. (His dogged efforts to use public-school money to build dozens of charter schools operated by Hillsdale College—a conservative Christian institution led by Larry “teachers are dumb” Arnn and financed by Betsy DeVos—suggests otherwise.) Regardless, those Tennesseans are in the minority.
Our Republican state leaders are pushing vouchers for the same reason they pushed permitless gun carry, which most Tennesseans didn’t want either. “School choice” is big business, with deep-pocketed donors and lobbyists and PACs. There’s money to be made from it. Too bad it’s so harmful.
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