News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Tennessee State Senators passed their version of a school voucher bill Thursday only applying to Shelby County and Nashville districts.
White County Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger said the bill has high potential to spread into smaller cities across the state.
“We won’t be affected initially, but I could see at some point where an area as populated as the Cookeville area might pick up some private schools,” Dronebarger said. “They might have an influence and be able to swing people away from public education. In some of our rural counties, that could happen as well.”
Senators voted 20-13 in favor of passing the bill, two days after the House of Representatives voted 50-48 in favor of a different yet similar voucher bill. The House proposal would apply to the state’s four metropolitan areas.
Both bills would create Education Savings Accounts (ESA), allowing parents to use public money to pay for private school tuition costs.
Dronebarger said the state needs to implement certain expectations in private schools in order for the voucher system to work.
“If you’re going to take the same public tax dollars to educate students, then you need to have the same accountability, meaning you have to take the same amount of TN Ready tests and EOCs,” Dronebarger said. “These schools don’t have to have licensed teachers, they don’t have to do RTI and all the other mandates we have to do. I’m fine with competition if the competition is fair, and right now it’s a very unbalanced system.”
Dronebarger said supporting students will ultimately help public school systems across the state.
“If you have a community that says school isn’t important, you don’t have to go, the teacher’s not good or the principal’s not up to par, then it’s going to be hard to get the students motivated,” Dronebarger said. “We see that here in White County. We have students where their parents just don’t care, the students don’t try as a result, and they don’t do very well. However, we have students that do excellent. We have students who have gone to the Ivy League out of White County schools… I have a hard time believing it’s the school system in itself.”
Senator Paul Bailey, who represents White County, voted against the proposal during the Senate’s session Thursday. However, Representative Paul Sherrell, also of White County, voted in favor of the bill Tuesday.
The Senate’s version of the voucher program will still need approval by the House of Representatives before it goes before Governor Bill Lee for final approval.
