Vouchers
| It appears that Governor Lee is once again pushing
his school voucher plan again this year. As I understand it, Lee's plan
is to give $7,075.00 to 20,000 students across the state. There are
currently more than a million students in Tennessee public schools.
Those receiving the vouchers could then use the money to enroll their
children in private schools. Of course those parents would still have to
come up with the difference to pay the tuition above the $7,075.00 the
state hands out. I don't know that I have a particular position on vouchers for or against, but the state's reasoning to institute the voucher program is to allow students to have an option better than Tennessee public schools. This is the part I don't understand. The state of Tennessee essentially is responsible for running the public school system. They provide more than half of the funding, if not a lot more in many cases, to the operations of public schools. The state pretty well dictates the operations of all public schools. So essentially, the state runs the public school systems. But according to the state, the public school systems are so bad, in many places, the state needs to provide new funding to allow students to get out of the public school systems to get a better education. I guess my question would be, why doesn't the state fix the failing school systems so children could get a proper education rather than paying them to go to better schools. Why not take the $140,000,000.00 earmarked for vouchers and improve the schools that are so bad students can't get a proper education. The Loudon County school system is one of the best in the state. Doubtful that very many vouchers will come this way. Everyone knows the voucher program is targeted toward Memphis, Nashville and other failed blue city school systems in the state. Supposedly, Lee has the votes to pass it this year. Guess we'll see. Just sounds like another giant government bureaucracy. High drama in Nashville. |
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1/27/25