Sumner County schools pass resolution against school choice, 'vouchers are not the answer'
The Sumner County Board of Education met in a special-called session last week to vote on a resolution against Gov. Bill Lee’s Education Freedom Scholarship Act.
The Education Freedom Act would provide vouchers for students to attend private schools in the 2024-25 school year, allocating about $7,075 for each student, according to tneducationfreedom.com. The bill was sitting in the Senate's Finance Ways and Means Committee Wednesday and its unclear if it will head to a final vote.
Though 20,000 scholarships are expected to be available in the first year, that number is set to continually increase until every Tennessee student applicant is awarded one.
Sumner County Board of Education officials discussed how the act would negatively impact funding for public schools among other issues.
“The number one reason that most children succeed in education is not so much which school they go to, it’s their parents backing them. It’s parents who push them. And the reason in my opinion that children do well in private schools is because their parents spend a good deal of money to send them there and would like to see some return on their investment,” Sumner County Board of Education member Josh Graham said.
“If we just simply sent kids to the ‘good schools,’ then all underprivileged kids would go to Merrol Hyde (Magnet School) tomorrow. That’s not what makes the school good. Merrol Hyde is an outstanding school because it has exemplary students. They tested to get in. These are children who are going to excel academically. It would not make any sense to take a failing student and put them in Merrol Hyde and say, 'you’re doing great.'”
As an influx of students receive vouchers for private schools in the area, Graham worries that immediate and artificial demand for private schools will lead to a rise in tuition costs, ultimately pricing out many families.
“We’re going to divert public funds to private schools so they can grow, and then the wealthier students and their families will be the only ones with access,” he said.
“There’s just got to be a better way, a better way to address underachieving school systems … do what you’ve got to do in the failing school districts, leave exemplary school districts alone,” Sumner County Board of Education Vice Chairman Tammy Hayes said.
In the resolution, school board member Sarah Andrews shared parts of the House’s act that she and other board members support outside of the school vouchers, like the addition of a $75 per student infrastructure fee – which roughly translates to $2.26 million for Sumner County – additional funding for teacher pay and health insurance, decreased standardized testing hours, more flexibility on teacher evaluations, corrections to the third and fourth grade retention law and flexibility on teacher certification.
“Let’s continue to invest in our public schools, our public education … vouchers are not the answer,” Andrews said.
Sumner County Board of Education officials approved the resolution in a 9-1 vote. Sumner County Board of Education Chairman Tim Brewer abstained from the vote.
Katie Nixon can be reached at knixon@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Sumner school board says no to Tennessee Education Freedom Act
