School voucher expansion shows no community is exempt from preemption of local decision making.

Hamilton County schools were purposefully excluded from the initial 2019 legislation in order to ensure it passed. State Senators are now looking to expand school vouchers in Hamilton County.

As reported by the Tennessee Lookout, State Senators from Hamilton County have recently filed legislation to expand private school vouchers to the Hamilton County school district. Senate Bill 12 would expand the eligibility criteria for an education savings account by dropping a qualifying school district’s required number of schools in the bottom 10% of performance from 10 to just 5 schools, adding Hamilton County students to the list of those eligible for school vouchers, along with Shelby County and Metro Nashville students.

School vouchers, or education savings accounts (ESAs), allow qualifying students to use $8,000 in state taxpayer funds to pay tuition and other costs of attendance at private schools. ESAs were put forth as a supposed solution to strained school systems struggling with low academic achievement due to inadequate funding. However, state legislators and education experts criticize vouchers for making problems even worse by draining already-struggling school systems of much needed funds. School vouchers were highly controversial even in the state legislature, where the original legislation passed the House by only one vote after first failing 49-49. Former Speaker Glen Casada held the vote for nearly an hour while he whipped votes. It's reported that some of Casada’s former House colleagues even suspect that the FBI investigation against him specifically pertains to his alleged bribe to secure a military promotion for a different Representative in exchange for the 50th vote in favor of the voucher legislation.

In order to get it passed, proponents of the voucher program billed it as only targeting Shelby and Davidson County. It is worth noting that Knox County, like Hamilton County, was dropped from the initial legislation to ensure its passage. Casada allegedly secured the deciding vote to pass the voucher legislation by assuring Knoxville Representative Jason Zachary that Knox County schools would NOT be included in the program. Just a few years after it was enacted, however, there is already an effort to expand this unpopular program to Chattanooga. After such a quick reversal of policy, many are left suspecting a similar push to expand vouchers to Knoxville and other areas across the state.

Local communities across the state and their leaders should expect more for-profit schools pursuing school vouchers in every small and mid-sized community they can, and in the process, preempting local governments, parents, and school boards from deciding what is in the best interest of their students. In fact, this effort is part of a broader trend facing Tennessee communities, as the state legislature increasingly encroaches upon local authority in policy areas ranging from zoning, tax and revenue, housing and rental policy, and more.

If you are concerned about the rise in state interference in your own community, use the form below to join We Decide Tennessee as we fight for local decision making together.