Local Private School Leaders said they are not sure the impact of Tennessee’s new Voucher System.
New Colossus Academy Headmaster Daniel Bailey said the voucher system would not affect the school as the school is a church-related category four school which the bill excludes. Bailey said he supports the idea of choice.
“I think they need to do a little bit more work to try to figure out how to help these families who are paying their taxes but they are not using the public school system,” Bailey said. “And you know there are a lot of reasons why people don’t put their kids in public schools.”
Trinity Academy Headmaster Corey Wade said wants to make sure any rules of the Voucher System would not impact Christian education.
“We exist because we want to have the ability to teach in alignment with the gospel of Jesus Christ within the classroom,” Wade said. “So that’s kind of our main criteria. We just want to make sure that there’s not anything that would violate our conscious in terms of our faith and practice.”
Wade said the voucher system would allow families who would like private education but simply cannot afford it. Wade said it’s been disheartening to see the image that private education has been given around voucher systems.
“Although I’m sure there are schools in big cities that have really large tuitions,” Wade said. “In the rural setting, we have families, teachers, and staff making big sacrifices in order to pursue an education that aligns with the gospel.”
Bailey said the voucher system may not work the way some legislators think it will. Bailey said the proposed voucher system could end up being a financial disaster.
“I’m just speaking for myself at this point but I think there’s a lot more in my boat in the private school sector that are not gonna see any benefit from this in terms of new students enrolled,” Bailey said. “Because either they are gonna fall outside of the parameters of what the students are eligible to partake in it.”
Bailey said he believes there is a separate motive behind the proposed voucher system.
“It almost seems like the hidden agenda might be to open the door for a lot of these private corporations to come in and set up shop in Tennessee under government contracts,” Bailey said. “That is sort of what I’m reading between the lines if you will, because that’s happened in states like Florida and Michigan.”