A coalition of civil rights and parent groups spoke out against Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s proposal to create a voucher program, Chalkbeat reports.
The Tennessee Educational Equity Coalition, which champions policies that address disparities in education, said Lee’s plan to create education savings accounts would instead end up helping middle-class families. The accounts are a new kind of voucher that give families taxpayer money to pay for private school or other private education services.
The group charged that the proposed plan would exclude and discriminate against some students and questioned the state’s ability to measure the program’s success if participants are not required to take the same state assessments as Tennessee’s public school students.
Calling voucher bills moving through the legislature “a step backwards” for Tennessee, the coalition urged the governor to instead invest more money in proven school improvement strategies like Shelby County Schools’ Innovation Zone, which gives additional resources and pays for extended school days to turn around low-performing schools….
The coalition’s diverse members include the Tennessee chapter of the NAACP, the YWCA, the National Civil Rights Museum, and education funds, foundations, or urban leagues in Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga.
“Vouchers take critical resources away from our neighborhood public schools, the very schools that are attended by the vast majority of African-American students,” the NAACP said in a separate statement. “Furthermore, private and parochial schools are not required to observe federal nondiscrimination laws, even if they receive federal funds through voucher programs.”
Governor Lee met with leaders from the urban districts that would be affected by vouchers, and they gave him an earful.
“If this voucher bill passes, the private schools will pick the best of the best, and we will become a district of the academically and behaviorally challenged,” said Stephanie Love, a board member with Shelby County Schools in Memphis, recounting her message to the governor as she left the meeting.
In all, more than 20 board members and four superintendents from Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and Jackson met with the governor, according to Tammy Grissom, executive director of the Tennessee School Board Association, which organized the gathering….
Meanwhile, the administration revised its proposed budget to move the $25 million previously allocated for the controversial program to go instead to fighting hepatitis C in state prisons. Lee’s finance commissioner, Stuart McWhorter, said the funding shift is not a sign of trouble for the governor’s education plan.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Public schools and public school families aren’t even permitted to attend the marketing events for vouchers. The events are planned carefully to exclude any real questions or input.
Yet every one of these voucher cheerleaders happily imposes all variety of dumb gimmicks and expensive mandates on the public schools who aren’t invited and have no seat at the table.
Ed reformers direct policy for our schools, but they exclude our schools from all ed reform events and promotions. We’re not represented.
Public school families have the worst result possible. They’re subject to any and all ed reform mandates, but excluded from any input into ed reform decisions. It’s all downside for public school students, teachers and families.
That’s why we’re seeing all the teachers strikes. We don’t have any representation in government in these states. It’s the only way public schools can be heard.
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DeVos held another marketing event yesterday, in Kentucky, where public school leaders were deliberately excluded:
“BetsyDeVosjoined GovMattBevin and WayneDLewis for a roundtable discussion on school choice and how her #EducationFreedom Scholarships proposal will help Kentucky families.”
She’s shut down any input from the schools that educate 90% of children. They’re simply not invited to publicly-funded ed reform events. What are they so scared of that they disallow any dissent? Is it proper for the US Department of Education to exclude participation by public school leaders, students and families? Why are we paying these people if they refuse to work for our schools?
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SecEd Devos was in Kentucky and met with supporters of school choice/vouchers, including the governor, who is a solid supporter of school choice. Gov. Matt Bevin has indicated that he would sign a school choice bill, if it ever comes to his desk. see
https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article229330984.html
SecEd DeVos has not “shut down” input from public schools, she gets input and information from them constantly. That is why she supports families who wish to opt-out of them.
I do not believe that the current SecEd is afraid any dissent.
It is proper for the SecEd to meet with supporters of school choice. And it is perfectly proper for her to decline to meet with public school leaders/students/families, while discussing alternatives to public schools.
The federal Dept of Education, is working for education. And this work includes both public and non-public schools. The focus and mission of the Dept of Education, can be read at their website. see
https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/mission/mission.html
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I see your point, Charles. You say it is swell for her to ignore the 85-90% of kids who attend public schools. And swell for her to advocate for the disinvestment in public schools while advocating for alternatives that are proven failures.
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I do not think you are seeing the point as well as you think. I said
Q SecEd DeVos has not “shut down” input from public schools, she gets input and information from them constantly. END Q
The SecEd receives input and information from public schools constantly. Why would anyone think differently? There is no reason to think that the Dept of Ed, is “ignoring” the public schools of this nation. (See the mission statement of the Dept of Ed).
The feds only provide about 10% of the funding for public K-12 schools. If the people of the states/municipalities want to spend more on public education in their states, they are certainly free to do so.
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Here’s another echo chamber example:
“The Education Systems Leadership and Policy Institute is a week-long interactive seminar designed for current and aspiring leaders working in public and private sector organizations engaged in education systems transformation and redesign. Participants learn in partnership with their peers and with prominent researchers and accomplished practitioners through real-world scenarios and critical dialogue. Potential and past participants include current and prospective school board members, mid and senior level managers and executives working in non-academic leadership positions in school districts, charter management organizations, state education agencies, community service providers, and advocacy groups, and teachers, parents, and social sector entrepreneurs.”
The only people permitted to present are people who espouse the rigid ed reform doctrine. There’s only one view permitted. There’s some small variance within that view, but the speakers must advance the ed reform doctrine or they simply aren’t at the table.
The working assumption is there’s only one way to do this, and all debate must be conducted inside that frame. The worst part is all of these views will then inform policy for PUBLIC schools, who have no role at all in developing it. We’re the passive recipients of ed reform policy.
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I have not read the bill, but I would be very surprised if it were not a cookie cutter bill from another source. My legislator told me that he could see no scenario in which he would approve of spending public money on private schools. We will see.
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I’m willing to bet the bill came from ALEC.
Many years ago, a conservative legislator in Tennessee introduced a bill to allow virtual charter schools. He presented ALEC model legislation and forgot to change the name of the state until one of his colleagues pointed out that the bill was written for a different state, not Tennessee. Since then, the TN Virtual School has consistently been one of the worst “schools” in the state and no one has been able to shut it down. Not even Kevin Huffman. No accountability. Must be a lot of campaign contributions protecting it.
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Devos is an advocate for sending federal dollars into “education service providers” who choose their students and provide religious indoctrination. She is advocate for a corrupt charter industry with the Waltons now eager to fund charter schools that are explicity and proudly segregated. Billionaires and supporters of charter schools see no need to have civil rights laws bearing on public schools. “Consumer choice” is the proper law of the land.
See this report from Mercedes Scneider about Howard Fuller receiving money from the Waltons to advocate for racially segregated charter schools, run by and for black children and by owners who are black.
Well informed educators know the deep history of segregated schools and the hard won effort to get civil rights laws bearing on education.
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