How rural lawmakers could prove pivotal in Tennessee voucher debate

USA Today

28-01-2025

How rural lawmakers could prove pivotal in Tennessee voucher debate
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Tennessee legislature: 3 key issues to watch
The 114th Tennessee General Assembly convenes on Jan. 14 for a new two-year term.
With pressure mounting from out-of-state groups to support a statewide school voucher program in Tennessee, rural officials oppose bringing vouchers to their community, while many rural lawmakers say they will support the policy anyway.
Tennessee's current voucher program is restricted to low-income residents in Shelby, Davidson and Hamilton counties. But Gov. Bill Lee's new proposal would offer up to 20,000 slots to Tennessee families in its first year, with only half the vouchers tied to income and no geographic restrictions.
Support in rural areas is mixed. Some of the most outspoken critics of the plan – and a few of the policy's most stalwart advocates – represent rural areas.
In an effort to win over skeptics, Lee's proposal this year includes some sweeteners: a one-time $2,000 pay bonus for every public school teacher, and a dedicated fund for school construction and maintenance, funded by sports betting revenue and reallocated from the HOPE scholarship program.
Likewise, pressure from out-of-state groups to support the plan is intense: A national group that spent millions on five Republican primaries in August has threatened to primary any GOP lawmaker who votes against the plan.
While rural leaders have voiced overwhelming opposition to the plan, proponents like Lee and House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, say the school choice program will help establish more rural private options.
And despite opposition from their district, some lawmakers say they will support the plan.
Rural lawmakers support despite local opposition
Last spring, more than 80 local school boards and county commissions passed resolutions opposing Lee's voucher proposal. Many have done so again this year.
Some rural lawmakers are among the most outspoken critics of vouchers, including Rep. Todd Warner, R-Chapel Hill.
After the special legislative session was announced to address vouchers, immigration and storm damage, mayors from Helene-impacted areas of Northeast Tennessee wrote an open letter of support for school choice.
And many lawmakers will support the policy anyway, despite their own local governing bodies' opposition.
Sen. Adam Lowe, R-Calhoun, who represents rural areas in Bradley, Meigs, McMinn and Rhea counties, co-sponsored Lee's proposal last year. He said he supports the plan because it would 'allow a small fraction of families who feel trapped in a system or school the opportunity to have more control of where their student is educated.'
'Every resolution I have received argues the adverse impacts that might happen to schools. I am not elected by schools or educators alone. I am elected by the families of my district and there is a disconnect between what parents and educators want,' Lowe told The Tennessean. 'Schools exist to serve students. Students do not exist to serve schools. I am encouraging my school board colleagues to listen to their families, not just their educators.'
Likewise, Sen. John Stevens, who represents a handful of counties that passed resolutions opposing the plan last year, also signed on as a co-sponsor. Stevens questions the validity of critical resolutions, arguing that they appear to have been drafted identically, and many were passed before language of Lee's latest proposal was released.
His support for Lee's school choice proposal is based on extensive feedback from constituents, including constituent responses to his legislative survey and 12 years of openly supporting school choice initiatives.
'Does my support for school choice effectively represent the wishes of my constituents given these Astroturfed school board resolutions opposing school choice? Absolutely,' Stevens told The Tennessean. 'I listen to parents and constituents. I am a parent of a child in the public school system and have been for the past 14 years.'
Policy will spark more private schools in rural areas
One outcome of passage will likely be a swath of new, pop-up private schools in rural areas, fueled by state voucher funds.
When asked why rural lawmakers and constituents should support vouchers, Lee indicated that while private school options may not yet be available in rural areas, they soon will be.
'It's not about just what today holds, it's what the future holds,' Lee told reporters in December. 'How we create opportunities for children that may not exist today, but might exist tomorrow.'
Sexton – who opposed Lee's first school choice program in 2019 – agrees.
'If you do nothing in rural areas, they're never going to have choice,' Sexton told The Tennessean. 'But if you … have scholarships to go to private schools, over time, there will probably be schools, not in every rural community, but they'll be in close proximity that will allow parents the opportunity to maybe make a different decision.'
Rural vouchers could destabilize rural public school funding, expert says
But such pop-up schools rarely have impressive student outcomes and often shutter within about 3 years of opening, according to a school voucher expert, Michigan State professor Josh Cowen.
The Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy has found that private school voucher programs tend to be harmful to local public schools in rural communities, while offering little actual access to private schools, as few, if any, private options exist for many rural students.
'There's a couple of particular threats to rural communities,' Cowen said, explaining that the lack of private school options won't drain funds from public schools immediately. 'The problem comes at the state level.'
Funding issues may not come in the first or even the second year, Cowen said, but state budgets elsewhere have not been able to sustain two school systems – public and private – in the long term.
'Especially for rural areas, the state portion is the great equalizer. That's the thing that protects rural communities when a recession hits … when property values go down or fluctuate and create budget uncertainties – it's the state portion that stabilizes that,' he said. 'The state portion was threatened by the voucher bill.'
Rural lawmakers face primary threats by out-of-state groups
Club for Growth President David McIntosh, whose associated School Freedom Fund PAC spent $3.6 million in August seeking to flip five legislative seats pro-voucher, recently wrote an opinion column openly threatening to primary GOP lawmakers who oppose vouchers: 'Republicans who vote against TN Education Freedom Act will be primaried and lose.'
Americans for Prosperity lobbyist Michael Lotfi thanked McIntosh in a social media post.
'The clock has run out for Republicans who chose to side with liberal unions over conservative leaders like President Trump & Gov. @BillLeeTN!' Lotfi wrote.
Last year, Lotfi circulated a memo strongly indicating primary threats to lawmakers who didn't support the plan.
Likewise, groups like American Federation for Children and Club for Growth are running ads statewide to support Lee's proposal – despite dozens of resolutions passed by local governing bodies.
Rep. Jody Barrett, R-Dickson, posted on social media that he's received more than 500 emails supporting vouchers – with only one coming from inside his district.
'This is what the DC special interest mob thinks about your elected reps who dare to listen to you and vote the way you tell us to vote,' Barrett wrote of Lotfi's post.
'Out of state special interests have corrupted our political and legislative process to push this agenda,' former state Rep. Sam Whitson wrote in a recent opinion column, noting the record spending by dark money groups in August primaries.
'The results were a mixed bag,' Whitson wrote, 'but the message they wanted to convey was clear: get on board or you're next.'
Vivian Jones covers state government and politics for The Tennessean. Reach her at [e-mail] or on X @Vivian_E_Jones.