News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
State Representative Paul Sherrell said he voted against school vouchers as a majority of his constituents in District 43 voiced their opinions against the system.
Sherrell said he kept a list of 200 people from his district on how they wanted him to vote and that 180 of those people wanted him to vote against school vouchers. Sherrell said the bill passed because it was pitched on school choice. Sherrell said he believes Tennessee already had school choice.
“We have a choice already before we even done this,” Sherrell said. “So send your child to a public school that we offer by law and our constitution or a private school you know that’s great but if you’re gonna send your child to a private school, you need to pay the bill on it not the taxpayer.”
Many legislators who voted for school vouchers said the funding for the voucher system would not come out of public education. Sherrell said that may be the case but his concern is that it has to come from somewhere.
“They say the money doesn’t come out of education but it comes out of somewhere,” Sherrell said. “And it’s coming out of the taxpayer’s money and that pot of the money that possibly it is coming out of it could run low. It could run dry so you know maybe it will maybe it won’t. I guess we’ll as this goes down the road what happens on it.”
Sherrell said he does believe there are some issues in the voucher system that questions have been asked but not answered.
“I think private schools are good but does a private school take the special needs children that the public school takes care of, more than likely not,” Sherrell said. “So we’re maybe not taking care of all of our students like we should equally. So there’s some things in it that bothers me about it too.”
Sherrell said he wished school vouchers were discussed during a regular session rather than a special session. Sherrell said he had conversations with other legislators and that a portion of them wish they had more time to discuss school vouchers rather than pushing it through a special session.
