NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Tennessee lawmakers are considering a sweeping expansion of a voucher-like program that is estimated to cost $71 million and could leave taxpayers in the dark about how their money is being spent.
The state Department of Education has told The Associated Press that the names of businesses making money by providing education-related services in a far more limited version of the program that began this year -one that deals with the most severely disabled - are protected by federal privacy laws.
The Senate Education Committee is set to decide on a bill Wednesday that would expand the voucher-like program to all public school students, not just the ones with the most severe disabilities.
Supporters of the new proposal say it gives parents unprecedented choice and allows them to customize their children’s education in a way that best serves them. They want parents to have an alternative when they’re stuck with a failing neighborhood school system. Opponents, however, have called it vouchers on steroids and say the plan lacks accountability, threatens public-school funding and helps wealthier parents pay for private schools.
Traditional school voucher programs typically let parents take public education funds and use them to pay for private schools. But the legislation being considered in Tennessee would let parents choose more than just a school. Under the proposal, parents would get the money used to pay for a public school - roughly $7,000 per child per year - and use it for approved expenses. The money could pay for such things as private school tuition, homeschool curriculum, tutoring, transportation, field trips and computer equipment for online courses.
“This is putting the parent in the driver’s seat,” said Roger Kane, R-Knoxville, the main House sponsor of the Empowerment Scholarship Account Act. Parents, he said, would be able to do what’s best for their children by customizing their education. Delores Gresham, R-Somerville, is the main sponsor of the Senate bill.
Public school advocates say it’s broader than even the current voucher bills circulating in the legislature and will drain money from public schools.
“We see this as a wide-open voucher bill,” said Sara Bunch, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents. “And while we respect parents wanting to do what’s best for their children, we also want to do what’s best for public education.”
The proposal is an education savings account plan. ESAs are the latest trend in the school choice movement. Five states have passed laws allowing some form of ESAs, including Arizona, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Nevada, said Josh Cunningham, a senior policy education specialist with the National Conference of State Legislatures. The Nevada Supreme Court has since struck down that state’s law, ruling that the funding mechanism is unconstitutional.
The legislation would allow parents to get a debit card that is loaded with quarterly payments. Parents would not be able to spend the money on anything except approved education-related expenses, Kane said. And the accounts would be subject to audits.
Parents who don’t use all the funds in one year would be able to roll up to 50% of the money over each year and use it to pay for college.
If the proposal becomes law, it would go into effect in the 2018-2019 school year. The program would be limited to one-half of one percent of the estimated statewide public school population of nearly 1 million students. The program would increase enrollment by one-half of one percent each year afterward.
Cost projections prepared by legislative analysts say the proposal would shift more than $71.5 million from the public schools into the program beginning the second year.
Kane and Gresham were the main sponsors of a law that allowed disabled kids to get education savings accounts. The program for disabled kids, which began January, has 35 children enrolled.
State officials released the names of nine schools in that program. A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said that the names of vendors providing services could not be released because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA. The 1974 federal law protects the privacy rights of students.
“I actually just touched base with our team here, and these expenses are protected by FERPA, so I cannot disclose the names of any providers or vendors for you - my apologies,” state Education spokeswoman Sara Gast said in an email last week to the AP. The AP has not requested the names of students or families.
The state, she said, does intend to issue an annual report disclosing the types of educational expenses. The final form of that report has yet to be determined.
In a follow-up phone conversation, Gast said it is too early for the state to have paid any vendors in the program for disabled kids. A legal team, she said, is currently deciding what information will be open to the public.
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