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.
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.
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.
“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.”
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.
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.
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.
The right-wing plot to privatize public schools runs through Tennessee
Peter Greene reports on efforts by right-wing bill mill ALEC – American Legislative Exchange Council – to implement vouchers in 25 states by 2025.
No surprise, Tennessee is on the map.
ALEC’s map of school privatization targets
As Greene notes:
ALEC has set a new goal– 25 by 2025. That means having 25 states adopt school voucher programs by the end of next year. To push that goal, ALEC has a new initiative called the Education Freedom Alliance, and it is a scary crew.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee pushed an effort for universal vouchers this past legislative session – despite his past promises that he wanted to see results from the state’s pilot program before making the scheme universal.
The effort failed in 2024, but as you can see, Tennessee is a 2025 target. Lee and his legislative allies have pledged to push vouchers again next session.
Of course, Lee has long sought to extract public funds for the benefit of school privatizers.
“With a grocery store executive recently admitting that their company gouged shoppers on select items above inflation, it’s clear we need accountability measures to address corporate greed and protect working families from undue financial strain, especially in Tennessee where families are the hardest hit,” Rep. Behn added.
At the start of the 2024-2025 school year, nearly 100 students have returned to Rutherford County Schools (RCS) after trying out the county’s new charter school: Rutherford Collegiate Prep Academy.
“The opening of RCP [Rutherford Collegiate Prep] has been a disaster,” said Lea Maitlen, parent of a recent RCS graduate. “On the very first day, multiple children were lost by the school for hours as parents became increasingly frantic. One parent referred to the day as ‘apocalyptic.’”
RCP’s charter was rejected by the Rutherford County School Board, but that decision was overruled by Gov. Bill Lee’s handpicked charter school commission.
As Gov. Bill Lee and his legislative allies continue to push expansion of Tennessee’s school voucher program, warnings come pouring in from other states.
” . . . the cost is projected to grow 263 percent in just five years. This expansion is predicted to force public school districts to either make severe cuts or ask taxpayers for more money through public referendums.”
Part of the supposed allure of charter schools is that they are held accountable. Some proponents even suggest they have more accountability than traditional public schools. After all, based on poor performance, a school board or charter authorizer can close a charter school.
Except that rarely happens.
Instead, as Peter Greene points out with an example from Pennsylvania, once opened, charter schools are rarely forced to close. And, even if an authorizer does take action to close the school, legal battles can keep a school open for years.
The charter system was sold with the idea that charters would be accountable to authorizers, that they would have to earn the right to operate and continue earning it to maintain that operation. The Franklin Towne situation shows a different framing, one that is too common in the charter world–once established, the charter doesn’t have to earn its continued existence. It doesn’t need authorization from anyone; instead, authorizers build a case to close down the charter. Authorization to operate, once given, can never be withdrawn without protracted legal battles.
Tennesseans have definitely seen this myth play out. In fact, the authorizing of charter schools at a local level has also been superseded by Gov. Bill Lee’s handpicked charter school commission.
The state commission can force districts to take charters that local elected officials don’t want. And that commission can then allow those charters to stay open – even if they aren’t meeting community needs. Even if they are actually harming the students they take in by way of poor performance.
By voucher and charter and other means, profiteers want access to public school funds
In a recent story in The Education Report, I note that privatizing profiteers are using the rhetoric of the culture wars to gain ground in the quest to access funds meant for public schools.
What’s interesting is that local communities aren’t clamoring for charter schools. Instead, these schools (and also school vouchers) are being pushed by Gov. Lee and a cabal of privatizers who seek to dismantle the public education system.
In the piece, I take a look at work by Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider that seeks to illuminate the current state of the battle over public schools.
As the pair of public education defenders note, the true story of public schools is one that largely looks like success – higher test scores, for one and other outcomes that bode well for society writ large.
But, they say, this is expensive – and deprives oligarchs of an opportunity to turn a profit.
Here’s how they explain it:
It’s very common to hear that our public schools are failing. And it’s very useful rhetoric if you’re running for office, or if you’re a policy elite intent on convincing people that they need you. But it simply isn’t true. If you look at polls, a majority of Americans do believe that the nation’s schools are mediocre; yet that same percentage of people report that their own children’s schools are doing quite well. So, which one are they likely to be more informed about—the schools down the street, which their children attend, or the 98,000 schools they’ve never set foot in? The simple fact is that for the past four decades, since the Reagan administration’s “A Nation at Risk” report, we have been telling ourselves a story about failing schools that doesn’t match reality on the ground. And, by the way, if test scores are the currency that you value, scores are up across that period.
In a report on Florida’s experiment with full-on school privatization by way of charter schools and vouchers, Peter Greene notes that the endgame for those supporting “school choice” is getting the government completely out of the “education business.” While that may sound great in terms of “free market,” Greene highlights some pretty important implications:
Privatization is not just about privatizing the folks who get to provide education (or education-flavored products). It is about privatizing the responsibility for getting children an education.
Getting government out of education means ending the promise that every child in this country is entitled to a decent education. Regardless of zip code. Regardless of their parents’ ability to support them. Regardless of whatever challenges they bring to the process.
End that promise. Replace it with a free(ish) market. End the community responsibility for educating future citizens. Put the whole weight of that on their parents. End the oversight and accountability to the elected representatives of the taxpayers. Replace it with a “Well, the parents will sort that out. And if they don’t, that’s their own fault and their own problem.”
This sounds a lot like what Gov. Bill Lee and his legislative allies are attempting in Tennessee.
Tennessee teacher shortage persists as pay remains low
While current reports suggest that the shortage of teachers in Tennessee is improving a bit, the reality is a significant number of classrooms will start the year without a full-time, permanent teacher.
