Gov. Bill Lee said he supported the idea of having a school voucher legislation for Tennessee students during his state of the state address Mar. 4
Some University of Memphis students are concerned about this stance.
“The specifics about education proposals, we haven’t gotten there yet, but I am an advocate for this choice, and I think you’ll see going forward, that I will advocate for parents to have choices,” Lee said.
This is not the first time a Tennessee governor has tried to get vouchers placed into schools.
Former Gov. Bill Haslam lobbied for the legislation in 2016, but it got pulled mid-section due to the low amount of votes. Each time the idea was brought to light, it sputtered and eventually scrapped.
Critics have said public funding should not focus on private school’s coffers and divert away from underfunded districts.
Lee’s proposal would only serve a small percentage of Tennessee students, which may be a disservice to public schools.
Steven J. Mulroy, a law professor at the University of Memphis, said there should be a different approach to help students.
“Voucher programs steal much-needed funding from an already underfunded public school system,” Mulroy said. “If advocates wish to incorporate principles of competition into public school management, they should do ‘public school choices’ instead, where parents have options to choose among schools already within public school systems.”
Dravian McKinney, a junior criminology and criminal justice major at the UofM, had opposing views on the possible establishment of vouchers in schools.
“I don’t agree with what the governor’s stances are on the vouchers,” McKinney said. “It’s virtually making the public schools more and more like charter schools and he’s not thinking about those in the public schools, but more so the private schools.”
Alexis Young, a journalism communications major at the UofM, also does not agree with the possibility of school vouchers.
“I don’t like the idea of a voucher for students,” Young said. “I think the voucher does more harm than good for the school system, especially public schools who don’t have much money to begin with.”
Mulroy said the possible vouchers will affect the present and future, citing the school system’s loss of funds.
“It (vouchers) will drain limited budgetary dollars from current and future school budgets,” Mulroy said.
During Lee’s State of the State address, he said the legislation will offer $7,300 to a family to support a school transfer for anyone wanting to leave one of the schools listed in the state’s bottom ten percent.
Lee also stated that student enrollment will be limited to 5,000, but will increase by 2,500 if the maximum enrollment number is met.
