Despite the best efforts of the billionaire voucher lobby, the Tennessee legislature rejected vouchers!
Vouchers are dead for this session, although they were Governor Lee’s top priority. Republicans have a supermajority in both houses of the Legislature. But some Republicans listened to their constituents, not the out-of-state money.
Democrats have long opposed the program, likening the voucher program to “coupons” for wealthy families who already send their children to private school, and warned it could endanger funding for public schools.
Dozens of school boards — many in conservative parts of the state — and other local officials, along with major teachers groups, opposed the bill.
Despite Republican leaders frequently signaling optimism for the negotiations, the bill was constantly delayed in committees. For months, there has been little public indication that any significant progress was made toward a compromise.
Parents, teachers and other citizens won the day!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Great news.
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More states are catching on to the fact that vouchers are wasteful and financially irresponsible public policy. It is thanks to the efforts of bloggers and independent media for shining a light on what the mainstream media have largely ignored.
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Yaaayyy!
One instance in which Tennessee’s Republicans have been defeated in their pursuit of policies most Tennesseans oppose. Hopefully, gun control, voting rights and reproductive rights are next.
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As a generalization, Republicans who hold a super majority don’t care about popular opinion or democracy.
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A complete perversion of the job they chose to run for…
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That news also signals what may happen in Tennessee, like it already has in Texas, as the extreme right billionaire owned MAGARINO controlled Republican Party goes after the Republicans who voted against that bill during the next election’s primaries to replace them with loyal fascists.
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In other news, go ask any chatbot AI to write a poem and see what you get. What you will get is what people who don’t know jack about poetry think poetry is–a string a sickeningly flowerily cliches with zero intellectual content about love or nature or being nice. ROFL. Call it ALCDBS. That would be Artificial lowest-common-denominator bullshit.
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And in Missouri…
Missouri’s school voucher bill passed is on the way to the governor to sign.
It expands its very limited first version operational this year. It opens them to anyone eligible in the state, not designated cities. ”Eligible” is defined as a family income 300% above the free and reduced lunch line (about $170,000 for a family of four). Vouchers are for private school tuition, religious schools (via a tax credited contribution to separate foundations) and home schools! (The home schoolers fought against it – ha – rumor was because it designates them as schools they’d have to abide by no guns in school law).
Missouri is a republican supermajority legislature and every other state office. Still – the Senate had to add over 15 actually good education bills to get the voucher bill passed in the Senate. A “Raising teacher salaries” add-on (mandated minimum increase), some grants, incentives for a 5-day school week and much more swung a few “no” Republicans to yes. Many republicans voted no in the House but it passed it with the minimum number of votes needed.
This is Missouri where KIPP teachers have unionized and walked last Friday and another charter school (an actual ok independent one) is battling scabies (yes) – with a nurse out on leave – – teachers and parents are not happy.
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