Category Archives: Vouchers

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Hemmer vs. Lee

Nashville Rep. exposes Bill Lee’s voucher lies

Nashville State Rep. Caleb Hemmer is calling out Gov. Lee’s voucher lies – exposing Lee as unwilling to meaningfully invest in public schools while pushing a private school voucher scam.

Once again, this new version is jam-packed with all kinds of seemingly nice things tacked on to try and distract people from the fact that this is all a scam designed to defund public education. Lee and his voucher scammers want you to pay attention to the long overdue teacher raises and the newly-dedicated funding source for school construction projects promised in the bill.

But let’s face it − if they were really serious about the proposals, they would have already done them. They wouldn’t have to tie them to a bait-and-switch scheme to designed to undermine public education and make out-of-state billionaire voucher backers happy.

The new money for teachers in Lee’s latest voucher proposal is a one-time bonus, not a long-term commitment to better pay.

While Lee claims to support investment in school infrastructure, schools are still waiting for funds while the Tennessee Titans have $500 million in state money for their new (smaller) stadium.

Gov. Bill Lee promoting school privatization

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Voucher Fraudsters

Arizona voucher program supports vibrant fraud industry

Arizona’s voucher program seems to be particularly fraud-prone.

Peter Greene notes the latest:

Today, Mayes announced yet another fraud case in which a couple has been charged with 60 counts of fraud, having put in applications for 50 students, 43 of whom do not actually exist. The couple– Johnny Lee Bowers and Ashley Meredith Hewitt– apparently did not even live in Arizona at the time. They grabbed around $100K, which they used for “personal living expenses,” so this was like their job, what they did for a living.

Here’s the deal: The voucher scheme in Arizona is busting the budget – and it is rife with fraud.

As TN lawmakers consider vouchers (again), they should look at the results in Arizona – lots of fraud, little ROI in terms of student outcomes.

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Voucher Supporters are Like Toddlers

Vouchers lost big on Election Day, but voucher supporters keep insisting they should get their way

Even though voucher supporters thought they could win by putting vouchers to a vote in three states (Kentucky, Colorado, and Nebraska), and even though they were soundly defeated in all three cases, and even though vouchers have never won when put to a vote of the people, voucher supporters are still trying.

They know best, after all. And even though the votes weren’t close, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do vouchers anyway.

Peter Greene sums it up nicely – essentially, voucher supporters are like toddlers:

So perhaps the more complete version of the argument is this– nobody should be able to make me do things I don’t want to do, but I should be able to make them do things they don’t want to do. And if I want their money to help me do the things I want to do, they should be made to give it to me. Or maybe it’s “if I’m going to be forced to so something I don’t want to do, then other people should be forced to do something I do want to do.” Or maybe just “Other people shouldn’t be able to make rules that bind me.”

And then, Greene gets to the heart of the reality of vouchers:

Private schools are a way for those with might and money to escape the democratically-operated system. Vouchers are a way to funnel public tax dollars into that system while pretending that we’ll open great private school doors to one and all. But that pretense is just that– a pretense. Voucher laws deliberately protect the ability of private schools to discriminate while also protecting their right to avoid any accountability to the taxpayers.

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Voters Don’t Like Vouchers

But Bill Lee does

The top priority of Gov. Lee and his legislative allies in the 2025 General Assembly is passing a universal school voucher scheme.

It was the first bill filed for the upcoming session.

For the entirety of his time in office – since 2018 – Lee has been pushing to privatize the state’s public schools. And, it seems he just won’t stop.

Interestingly, anytime vouchers are put to a public vote, they fail. It happened in Kentucky, a state that voted 65-35 for Trump – and 65-35 against school vouchers.

In 2018, Arizona voters overwhelmingly rejected school vouchers. On the ballot that year was a measure that would have allowed all parents — even the wealthiest ones — to receive taxpayer money to send their kids to private, typically religious schools.

Arizonans voted no, and it wasn’t close. Even in a right-leaning state, with powerful Republican leaders supporting the initiative, the vote against it was 65% to 35%.

This year, voters in Colorado, Nebraska, and Kentucky rejected vouchers. In Kentucky, the margin was 2-1 against vouchers – and all 120 counties in Kentucky opposed a ballot initiative that would have allowed vouchers.

While the results of last week’s election indicate a closely divided nation on many issues, support for public schools is a consistent winner. And, when asked – in blue states and red states and in rural and urban areas – voters reject school vouchers.

Still, Bill Lee persists.

SHOCKING!
Gov. Bill Lee promoting school privatization
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Zombie Vouchers

They just won’t go away

Within hours of the recent election’s conclusion in Tennessee, Gov. Bill Lee’s top legislative allies filed their top priority legislation for 2025: School Vouchers.

Again.

They won’t stop.

SHOCKING!

This despite vouchers being overwhelmingly rejected by voters in states like Kentucky, Colorado, and Nebraska.

Yes, while Kentucky voted about 2-1 for Donald Trump, they also voted 2-1 AGAINST a ballot initiative that would have allowed public funds to be spent on private schools by way of vouchers.

Vouchers were rejected in all 120 of Kentucky’s counties.

And still, Gov. Lee and his associates continue to push for a universal voucher scheme in our state.

Legislative Democrats were quick to speak out against Lee’s insistence on bringing vouchers back from the dead:

“Once again, Tennessee Republicans are pushing an expansion of their failed private school voucher scheme. This isn’t about improving education; it’s about diverting public dollars away from underfunded public schools to private institutions that are unaccountable to taxpayers and don’t serve every student. Vouchers are a scam — they aren’t working to improve student outcomes here in Tennessee, nor have they succeeded at this scale anywhere else in the country.”

Gov. Bill Lee promoting school privatization

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Colorado Chaos

Voucher push could have chaotic consequences for Colorado schools

An effort by the forces of school privatization to direct public money to private schools in Colorado includes some highly problematic language.

Yes, vouchers themselves are budget-busters. But, this proposed amendment also includes a key provision that could create headaches for school districts, principals, and teachers.

THAT PARENTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO DIRECT THE EDUCATION OF THEIR CHILDREN

Those are the words causing great concern.

Because, what do they mean? Do words even mean anything?

Here are some of the ways this language might be interpreted:

Wouldn’t this amendment also allow parents to intrude into every classroom? If I have a constitutional right to direct my child’s education, does that not mean that I can tell my child’s science teacher to stop teaching evolution? Or start teaching evolution? Can I demand a different approach to teaching American history? How about prepositions? And how will a classroom teacher even function if every child in the classroom comes with a parent who has a constitutional right to direct their education?

A representative of the state’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA) says the law, if adopted, would amount to chaos.

And it wouldn’t just be limited to chaos in public schools. All parents would have the guaranteed, constitutionally-protected right to “direct” their child’s education – no matter the school setting.

It seems likely that if the law passed, one or several court cases would have to be heard to determine the exact meaning of “directing a child’s learning.”

If I have a right to choose a private school paid for by tax dollars but the private school doesn’t accept my kid, then what? Doesn’t the law say the “choice” is mine – and I’m “directing” the state to use its dollars to educate my child at the school I choose? Which means if the school doesn’t “choose” my kid, they are breaking the law? Infringing on my rights?

I’m not sure this law will pass, but if it does, Colorado will be in for – chaos.

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Reasons to Reject Vouchers

A Kentucky student highlights problems created by school voucher schemes

As Kentucky voters consider a an amendment to the state’s Constitution that would allow the use of public funds to support private K-12 schools, one private school student is speaking out on why that’s a very bad idea.

One of the scariest things about Amendment 2 is that it basically serves as a blank check for vouchers to non-public schools with no clear place for the funding to come from other than public schools.

Tennessee policymakers should remember, too, that just as in Kentucky, the school voucher scheme is likely to funnel tax dollars from rural districts and send them to urban and suburban private schools.

Of course, that won’t stop Gov. Lee from trying again to pass a universal school voucher bill.

SHOCKING!
Gov. Bill Lee promoting school privatization

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Voting on Vouchers

Voters in three states to weigh in on school vouchers

Election Day means a chance to make choices.

In three states this year, Election Day will provide an opportunity for voters to make their voices heard on school vouchers.

Colorado, Kentucky, and Nebraska all have voucher votes on the ballot.

Peter Greene reminds us:

These are three different approaches to the question of taxpayer-funded school vouchers, but they share the unusual feature of putting voucher programs to a public vote. All school voucher programs in the U. S. were passed into law by legislatures, sometimes over strong objections of the taxpayers. No taxpayer-funded school voucher program has ever survived a public vote.

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When School Choice Isn’t About Choice at All

The people pushing “school choice” actually want only one choice

The same people banning books from schools and seeking to ban Pride flags are the ones pushing “school choice.”

Thing is, they don’t want actual choices. They want all schools to conform to their narrow vision.

Peter Greene offers some insight:

This is not about choice. It’s about capturing the education system so that young humans can be taught the correct way to behave and think. It’s about trying to eradicate a way of thinking and being that folks on the right disapprove of. 

He adds:

And there’s an absolutely ridiculous piece of “scholarship” from the Heritage Foundation trying to discredit charter schools for being woker than public schools, because choice is supposed to provide a variety of educational viewpoints, except not Those Viewpoints.

When someone like Ron DeSantis or Ryan Walters tells you that he favors school choice and he also favors making illegal all references to certain “divisive topics” and gender stuff, he is telling you that all his talk about school choice is bullshit. 

See also: Tennessee’s Gov. Bill Lee:

Exceptionally Bad

Lee made clear his preference for Christian Nationalism as the driving force for education “reform” in Tennessee in his 2022 State of the State Address.

Since then, he’s tried to force Hillsdale College-affiliated charter schools on Tennessee communities – and thanks to his hand-picked Charter School Commission, he’s succeeded in some cases.

The challenge here is not just the transfer of public money to private school operators. It’s also the use of public money for one very specific worldview – to the exclusion of all others.

Lee and his Christian Nationalist allies – some of whom have called for violent revolution in order to impose their vision on public schools – have decided they know best.

As Greene puts it:

This is not fond hopes for the day when dozens of different sorts of schools bloom and everyone can pick the one that best suits them. 

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Rocky Mountain High

A school voucher story

Colorado voters will decide a ballot measure that would amend the state’s Constitution to allow school vouchers. And, well, it does a lot of other stuff. Or, it could.

It’s not clear the drafters understood the full implications of the proposed change.

The wording essentially makes school choice the right of every child in the state. It also explicitly gives parents the right to “direct their child’s education.”

As Peter Greene notes, this presents some interesting challenges:

Wouldn’t this language amount to a state takeover of all charter and private schools? 

And that’s not all. Wouldn’t this amendment also allow parents to intrude into every classroom? If I have a constitutional right to direct my child’s education, does that not mean that I can tell my child’s science teacher to stop teaching evolution? Or start teaching evolution? Can I demand a different approach to teaching American history? How about prepositions? And how will a classroom teacher even function if every child in the classroom comes with a parent who has a constitutional right to direct their education?

It’s not clear there’s momentum for the proposed changes to pass. But, if they did, Colorado schools – both public and private – could be in for some unpleasant surprises.

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