The Tennessee legislature did not take up the voucher proposal because the sponsor realized it didn’t have the votes to pass.
Initially he wanted statewide vouchers but rural legislators were not interested. Then he narrowed it to four counties with urban districts. Then he narrowed it only to Shelby County, that is, Memphis. The sponsor, a conservative Republican, wanted (of course) to save poor kids in failing schools.
But many legislators were dubious that vouchers actually work. There is plenty of evidence they don’t. So the bill was shelved for another day.
We can hope that day never arrives.
Congratulations to the BATS, the Momma Bears, the Tennessee Education Association, and other fighters for public education!
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Diane Ravitch's Blog by Diane Ravitch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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Ed reformers are finally noticing “the charter sector” in Michigan is as bad as the charter sector in Ohio.
http://educationpost.org/heres-to-making-charter-schools-better-in-michigan/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Choice&utm_content=TwChoiceMIReportVk3
Someone should do a regional analysis on ed reform. The whole ideology/agenda seems to be particularly damaging in Great Lakes states. Ed reform seems to dump the worst garbage in the tier of states along the Great Lakes. It isn’t because of the GOP governors either- it’s been a disaster in Ohio and Michigan for 15 years.
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I cringed at who was reporting on the charter school problems of Michigan, but I suppose if they want to build their credibility, they have to acknowledge that everything is not hunky dory in charterland.
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I wish you wouldn’t leave out TEA when you congratulate the people who opposed this bill. TEA lobbied heavily against it, organized robo-calls with direct links to legislators for their members, activated the Legislative Contact Team, also comprised of members, and offered free parking and shuttle service from the TEA building on Monday and Thursday for the legislative sessions.
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Min,
TEA is now included
Thanks for reminder
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This has a good video in it that gives more details. It really does seem, the voucher bill not come up for another year.
http://wkrn.com/2016/02/11/tennessee-house-scheduled-to-vote-on-school-voucher-proposal/
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I am sorry for the people of Tennessee that this did not happen. The assistance to poor families would have been helpful for parents looking for opportunities that fit their children best.
Perhaps next year!
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JDHollowell, I hope you read the research study of Louisiana’s voucher program. (I posted it yesterday) The children who got vouchers lost ground in math, reading, social studies, and science. I pray the same fate does not happen to the children of Tennessee.
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“Perhaps next year!”
Nah, this would have been the good time to push the legislation through. The governor has full power now, and considers the state his playground, but these things never last long. The fact is, the voucher pushers blew it. Even in TN, and that indicates, the whole movement is in big trouble.
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I do not think the effort to give parents more viable options for their children is going to subside. Parental instincts regarding their child’s are too powerful. We better start figuring out how to offer these choices in the way that best serves students. Struggling to regain the public school monopoly seems fruitless.
Those who do not put desire for parental choice at the center of their philosophy of schooling are fighting a battle that is already over. The toothpaste is out of the tube.
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“Parental instincts regarding their child’s are too powerful.”
Exactly. Parents all over the world have realized that in certain things “choice” is bs. But Bernie Sanders popularity shows that this country has also realized where choice led in , say, health care.
Health care and education for all are too complex and too costly for any private entity to be willing to meet all their challenges, and those who pretend to take on the challenges will end up cutting corners. The end result is that “choice” becomes the choice for only the selected few.
So if anything, the toothpaste of sweeping social change is out of the tube, and even in Tennessee people will walk around with a brighter smile.
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Diane – I do plan to read the research. Thank you for posting it.
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