Vouchers and School Budgets

At a time when the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is creating uncertainty for school budgets, Gov. Bill Lee’s voucher scheme received full funding in the state budget that passed just before the General Assembly left town on recess.

Williamson County School Board member Eric Welch makes this point succinctly in a tweet expressing frustration over the impact of the revised state budget on the district’s plan to invest in teachers:

Yes, with the coronavirus crisis wreaking havoc on local economies and school system and county budgets, Lee chose to stand with the Betsy DeVos agenda he’s long supported.

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COVID-19 and School Budgets

Even as the coronavirus highlights the value of public schools to our communities, school systems are facing significant budget uncertainty. Chalkbeat reports on how schools in Memphis are looking ahead and what COVID-19 might mean in 2020-21 and beyond.


Before a global pandemic closed Memphis schools indefinitely, Shelby County Schools was already planning staff cuts in its central office and in schools.


As of Saturday, Superintendent Joris Ray’s administration was expecting to eliminate 139 central office positions and 115 teacher positions, according to budget documents Chalkbeat obtained. Anticipated teacher raises would be 1% after state funding cuts last week. Overall spending for the $1 billion budget would be down $11.5 million, or about 1%.


Now as the new coronavirus spreads, the proposed 2020-21 budget is constantly changing as federal, state, and local governments adjust their spending plans for education.


And county officials, who provide local funding for schools, are researching what it would cost to get virtual classrooms fully functioning while also calculating an expected decline in sales tax money as households spend less on businesses that had to close or cut back operations during the pandemic. State officials rely on sales tax money for schools and are anticipating a significant drop in revenue.


“This is going to force us to be disciplined about what we invest in,” said Michael Whaley, who leads the county commission’s education committee. He added poverty should not be the reason students do not have access to online learning. “That’s just not fair to those students. I think this lights a fire to figure out how to do this.”

Funding is down under a recently approved barebones emergency budget, including money for teacher raises and other initiatives. Gov. Bill Lee has not yet earmarked money for districts to purchase equipment to launch online classes, so only districts that already had enough laptops for every student are fully switching to digital learning.

While state funding for investments in public school decreased from Gov. Lee’s original proposal, the budget does include more than $40 million to fund vouchers.

The legislature is slated to reconvene in June and it’s possible they could address long-term budget concerns for school districts based on the impact of the COVID-19 shutdown.

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COVID-19 and the Value of Public Schools

Donald Cohen of In the Public Interest talks about how the COVID-19 outbreak underscores the value of our nation’s public schools.

The worst of the COVID-19 outbreak is likely yet to come. But it’s worth taking a moment to think about why it took so long to close the nation’s public schools.

School districts nationwide finally began to close brick and mortar schools at the end of the second week of March, a full week after many college and universities sent students home.

Students, teachers, and parents are now embarking on the largest experiment in online instruction this country has ever seen—and many important questions remain. Will there still be standardized testing? What about kids who don’t have reliable internet access? How will districts ensure data privacy for students and families?

Another question: why’d it take so long to begin the experiment?

It’s simple. Public schools are public goods. They provide basic educational, social, emotional, and even physical needs to not only students and families but also entire communities. Closing them has effects that ripple out beyond school doors. As Erica Green wrote in the New York Times, mass school closings could “upend entire cities.”

Just look at the numbers:

The nation’s public school system serves more than 50 million students, many of whom have parents who work and need childcare during the day.

The federal National School Lunch Program serves food to over 30 million kids annually. Many families rely on school to feed their children meals throughout the school year.

There are more than 3.1 million public school teachers, many of whom are already struggling to get by. Teachers, paraprofessionals, front office workers, bus drivers, janitors, and other school staff rely on public school jobs to make ends meet.

But perhaps most importantly, public schools provide kids with the opportunity to learn alongside their peers. Schools are where the community comes together to learn and grow regardless of skin color, income level, sexual orientation, or any other difference.

Only public institutions—not private markets—can make sure that these basic needs are available to everyone.

The next few days, weeks, and months are uncertain, but one thing’s for sure: we’ll be learning how much public schools really matter to all of us. Some—teachers, administrators, and school staff—already know how important they are.

Chicago Public Schools has already handed out more than 90,000 meal packages including three days’ worth of breakfast and lunch.

Teachers in Noblesville, Indiana, decorated their cars and drove through students’ neighborhoods to honk and wave.

Bus drivers in Washington State’s North Mason School District are delivering bagged breakfasts and lunches to bus stops throughout the rural district.

(The Network for Public Education is compiling stories of how the public school community is serving the nation during the outbreak.)

Public schools matter because we all benefit from them regardless of whether we have a kid in school. Public schools matter because they’re public goods.

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Clarksville Schools Closed Until May 1

Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools announced today they will be closed through May 1st. This marks the latest date of closure so far announced by any Tennessee district. Hamilton County previously announced closure through April 13th.

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Vouchers vs. Teachers

There’s a budget showdown looming this afternoon pitting Tennessee teachers versus Gov. Bill Lee’s voucher scheme. Erik Schelzig has more:


Tennessee lawmakers are gearing up for a long day Thursday in which they hope to come to an agreement over deep budget cuts before going into recess until the coronavirus crisis subsides.


One of the biggest sticking points is Gov. Bill Lee’s plan to keep funding in the budget to launch his school voucher program this fall while cutting a planned 4% teacher pay raise in half.

More on vouchers, teacher pay, and Lee’s amended budget>

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Public School Advocates Push Back on Vouchers in Tennessee

Even as Gov. Bill Lee’s amended budget cuts planned improvements to teacher pay while maintaining funding for a voucher scheme, this article details the persistence of public school advocates in Tennessee. Here are some highlights:


Another factor making it difficult for vouchers to move smoothly through the process in Tennessee has been grassroots resistance. Ahead of the voucher vote, parent groups and civil rights organizations joined together to express opposition. But those groups didn’t stop just because a group of powerful white men got their way the first time around. 


Rather, they kept organizing. Using social media to stay connected, groups like Tennessee Teachers and Parents Against School Vouchers and Tennessee Strong focused on the long game—stopping implementation of a voucher plan expected to cost as much as $335 million.


The unrelenting focus of grassroots activists helps keep every single misstep of the voucher scheme in the public eye. Whether it’s the no-bid contract for the vendor overseeing administration of the program, or how the scheme’s rules were written in a way that allows for discrimination, no bad voucher deed goes unreported. 

Read MORE about the voucher fight in Tennessee.

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Make that 2%

In Governor Bill Lee’s initial budget address, he proposed a 4% adjustment to the BEP salary component (effectively a 2% raise for teachers). Now, in the face of the coronavirus threat, his revised budget adjusts that to a 2% increase. That effectively means most teachers will see a raise of less than 1% or, in many cases, no raise at all.

Here’s the budget amendment.

It reduces the BEP inflationary adjustment and cuts in half the initial proposed increase in the teacher salary component. It also completely deletes the charter school slush fund.

Also, according to Chalkbeat, the budget proposal retains $37 million to fund the first year of Lee’s voucher scheme:


Lee retained $37 million for education savings accounts, a controversial program set to start this fall to let eligible families in Memphis and Nashville use taxpayer money to pay for private school tuition.

Meanwhile, the proposal adds significantly to the Rainy Day fund.

Yes, instead of using the state’s billions in reserves to keep schools and other services moving forward, this budget proposal actually ADDS to the rainy day fund while cutting improvements to teacher pay.

It’s up to the General Assembly to approve this measure, of course, but there’s little indication Lee’s moves will be challenged.

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Everything is Waived

Legislators today are advancing a bill that would grant the Commissioner of Education broad authority to waive various requirements related to public schools in light of the advancing Coronavirus (COVID-19). This includes waiving TNReady testing, the 180 day attendance requirement, and portfolio and value-added evaluation of teachers, among other items.

Here’s more on what’s included from Chalkbeat:


For the 2019-20 school year, other provisions of the proposal would:


Ensure that districts receive full state funding for the school year, even if students cannot be present;


Drop the requirement that high school students must pass a civics test to graduate;


Drop the requirement that 11th-graders take an exam to assess their readiness for college;


Require the state Board of Education to revise requirements so that no senior who is on track and eligible would be prevented from graduating on time because of school closings.

The move comes as districts across the state are announcing closures well into April. Currently, the latest announced closure is Hamilton County (April 13th).

As of this morning, the legislation was moved to the full House Education Committee.

Here’s a bill summary:


And here’s a response from Commissioner Schwinn:

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RESOLVED: End TNReady

While reports indicate Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn has asked the US Department of Education for a waiver to TNReady testing requirements, the Columbia Daily Herald reports state Rep. Scott Cepicky is pushing for action on the issue.


State Rep. Scott Cepicky, R-Columbia, called on Gov. Bill Lee and the Tennessee Department of Education on Monday to end the state’s annual standardized testing cycle.


“These are perilous times,” Cepikcy said in the letter. “Tennessee has unique circumstances as a result of devastating tornadoes and COVID-19. We cannot be certain that our state will not require additional school closings during the entire testing widow. However, Tennessee can’t administer assessments that are reliable and valid during this academic year.”

The federal Department of Education has issued guidance suggesting they will grant such waiver requests:


Guidance released by the U.S. Department of Education says it will consider waiving requirements for state-wide tests, currently mandated in grades 3-8 and once in high school. State testing occurs throughout the spring, and some school closures were already running into planned testing windows.  

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COVID-19 and School Nutrition

The Tennessee Department of Education tweeted that they’d received a waiver from the federal government that will allow school districts to continue school nutrition programs. Here’s more:

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