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Tennessee’s New Education Chief Says Implementing Policy Is Her Strength and the Governor’s Priority

Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds takes her oath of office as Tennessee’s new education commissioner, effective July 1, from Gov. Bill Lee. Beside her are her husband, David, and son Luke. Courtesy of the State of Tennessee

Three weeks into her job as Tennessee’s education chief, Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds says her charge from Gov. Bill Lee is to implement existing major policy changes — from how reading is taught to the continued rollout of private school vouchers — not to craft new initiatives.

She feels prepared for that role, having overseen state-level education policy work in Texas for nearly a decade, including six years as its No. 2 administrator. She also has years of policy and political experience at the federal level, and most recently led policy work for the advocacy group ExcelinEd, founded by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

“Implementation is kind of my sweet spot,” Reynolds said. “When I was chief deputy commissioner in Texas, that’s what I did.”

Among her priorities in Tennessee: executing new programs to develop stronger readers; troubleshooting the switch to a new K-12 funding formula as of July 1; strengthening school models to prepare students for success after high school; and operating and expanding Lee’s controversial voucher program that gives taxpayer money to eligible students to attend private schools.

Meanwhile, much of the work to roll out a comprehensive new school safety package, approved this spring after a mass school shooting in Nashville, has shifted under a new law to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security.

Since her official start on July 1, Reynolds’ schedule has been packed with meetings with staff, lawmakers, government officials, and education stakeholders. 

Among the latter is JC Bowman, executive director of the Professional Educators of Tennessee, who described Reynolds as “straightforward and direct.” 

“She made it clear that she is here to serve students and educators in Tennessee. … I think she will do well here if she will stay above the political fray,” said Bowman, who was a frequent critic of Reynolds’ predecessor, Penny Schwinn.

This week, the new commissioner travels to Memphis, home to the state’s largest school district, for introductions with local officials and community leaders.

Last week, in her first media interview since Lee announced her hiring in May, Reynolds sat down with Chalkbeat to talk about her background, priorities, and leadership style. Since she’s on a learning curve in a new state, questions about policy specifics were off the table.

But she was open about her own K-12 experiences as a public school kid growing up in Harlingen, Texas, a heavily Hispanic community in the Rio Grande Valley near the U.S.-Mexico border. 

She described how, as a Hispanic American and a female, she experienced discrimination. As a first-generation college graduate and the oldest of four children of working-class parents, she benefited from scholarships and financial aid. And, as a parent of three children, one of whom was diagnosed with a disability in elementary school, she tapped both public and private schools to find the best fit for her family.

Reynolds said she jumped at the chance to join the administration of Lee, a Republican businessman who pushed for sweeping changes to education in his first term and was easily reelected last year.

“Tennessee has always been the bellwether state of doing things that challenge the adults in the system to continue to do better,” she said. “I want to be part of that story.”

Below are highlights of Chalkbeat’s interview, which has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Getting to know you on a personal level, describe your own education experience. Did you go to public schools? Private schools? How did they shape you?

My only early experience in a private school was attending a Catholic school in pre-K. From kindergarten through 12th grade, I went to public schools in Harlingen.

From an early age, my mom drilled into me that “you got to go to college.” So I was always in a competition to be at the top of my class. I was going to be an astronaut, by God!

I loved math but, when I took trigonometry in high school and it wasn’t connecting, my teacher was like, “You know, you’re a girl. You really don’t need to be doing this. You probably should just drop my class.” So I did. 

I was shy and I couldn’t wait to get out of Harlingen. I was blessed with a great school counselor. When I told her I wanted to go to college, she said, “OK, here’s what you need to do.”

I got a merit scholarship to attend Southwestern University, where people in the financial aid office became my best friends and I was able to cover tuition increases through a combination of work-study and Pell grants. By then, I wanted to become an accountant. But after taking a political science class with a truly dynamic professor, I changed my mind. I wanted to save the world.

Your selection was announced by the governor’s office on the same day that Schwinn’s impending departure was announced. How did you come to this job?

A lot of the work I did for the Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinEd) was not only to advocate for its policy agenda but to work across the country with other advocates and supporters and philanthropy. I was on the proverbial “list” of people across the country who might be interested in being a state-level deputy or chief. And I’ve paid my dues. I had thought maybe I might lead the Texas Education Agency someday. But I wasn’t actively looking. I’d been at ExcelinEd almost seven years and loved my job. 

This spring, the governor’s office here called and wanted to talk about Tennessee’s chief position and I said, ‘Of course I’ll talk.’ What a great opportunity to meet Gov. Lee, who had a great relationship with Gov. Bush. (During the week of April 11) I came to Nashville and met with (Chief Operating Officer) Brandon Gibson and then interviewed with the governor the next day.

When I walked into his office, everybody was so awesome. Gov. Lee looked at me and said, “Why do you want to be commissioner of education in Tennessee?” I basically said, “Who wouldn’t want to be commissioner here?” Tennessee has always been the bellwether state of doing things that challenge the adults in the system to continue to do better. It’s still strong in accountability and assessment. There’s great work passed in this administration and previous administrations. And then, just the fact that the governor really cares about education, that it’s a priority.

Tennessee is just a good place to be. I want to be part of that story and the continued success of this state with kids. At this agency, we don’t touch kids every day, but we help influence what happens in the classroom because of the supports and resources that we provide.

When I walked out of the governor’s office, I said to myself, ‘I want to work for that man and I’m going to be really disappointed if I don’t get the offer.’

About a week and a half later, I got the offer.

What did you and Gov. Lee talk about in your interview? Why do you think he picked you?

Bottom line, this job was going to be about implementation and execution of the agenda passed through the legislature and through his leadership and (Penny Schwinn’s) leadership at the agency. A lot has already been done. Now the hard work is the implementation piece and that is kind of my sweet spot.

When I was chief deputy commissioner in Texas, that’s what I did: Making sure resources are there, thinking about the right resources, bringing folks in to support those implementation efforts — all the pieces of the puzzle that need to come together to ensure that kids and educators get what they need to be successful.

But sometimes implementation also requires you to say no to some things or to certain vendors. 

Because of your policy work with ExcelinEd, with its focus on school choice and privatization, many stakeholders think your selection suggests that voucher expansion and advancing choice programs are Job One for you under this administration. How would you respond?

First of all, it’s not about privatization. Our No. 1 priority at ExcelinEd was to improve the system because we know that about 90 percent of our kids are in a public school system. Second priority is the options outside the system, which includes ESAs (education savings accounts, a kind of private school voucher), charter schools, open enrollment, public school choice, letting parents go where they want to go in the public school system. Third priority is reimagining the system, so really thinking about what other ways we can develop these comprehensive high schools. That’s how we think at ExcelinEd, and that’s why I think I was a good candidate for this job.

Yes, ESAs are part of the package, but it’s not the only package. There is no silver bullet when it comes to education. ESAs are great, but they’re not for everybody. It all depends on the parents and the families and what they want to do and what options they want to pursue.

It wasn’t that long ago that a Tennessee governor wouldn’t think of choosing an education commissioner who didn’t have teaching experience. But you don’t, nor do you have a teaching license. How will you have “street cred” with educators here, given that your background is primarily in policy and politics?

As a parent of public school kids, I’m as close to the classroom as you’re going to get because I’m a consumer of the public school system. To say that my experience is irrelevant, I don’t think it’s very fair. But in that vein, I also want to listen and learn. Earlier today, for instance, I met with folks at the Tennessee Education Association (the state’s largest teacher group). 

I’ve got to come at it with empathy and support. Have I done their job every day? No, I haven’t. But we’re all in this together. I’m going to listen. I’m going to engage and implement in a way that is fair and where the decision-making is transparent. 

The department has had a number of significant departures in recent months, including Chief Academic Officer Lisa Coons and Deputy Commissioner Eve Carney, who was a veteran manager responsible for many of the state’s biggest education programs and initiatives. How are you building out your cabinet and filling out gaps in leadership? Will you look inside or outside of the state?

I’m looking for the best qualified folks, but my preference is to find people in Tennessee. We just hired Kristy Brown from Jackson as our chief academic officer. We need to fill the role of chief program officer, and I’d love to find a Tennessean for that. I don’t feel the need to look outside of the state because I think there’s a lot of qualified people here. Tennessee is where reform really percolated and expanded and continues to live.  

Have you and your family officially moved from Texas to Tennessee, or do you plan to?

I’m here and I’m moving soon into a place in East Nashville. My husband is staying in Austin with our youngest son, who’s a rising junior, until he finishes high school. Our son wants to look at colleges here, so I’m super excited.

I don’t know if I’ll go back to Austin to live. We’ll see.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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Lee Touts Parental Choice in Education in Election Victory Speech

Photo: State of Tennessee

Gov. Bill Lee cruised to a second term in office in Tuesday’s election, partly on his campaign pledge to Tennessee parents and teachers to “make the most of the next four years” on education. But he offered few details on exactly what that will mean.

The Associated Press reported that election results showed the Republican governor easily defeated Dr. Jason Martin, a Nashville physician and the Democratic Party’s nominee, whom he declined to debate. The ruby-red state hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office since 2006. 

Lee’s landslide victory sets up the governor to claim a mandate for whatever he proposes through 2026, or to support any ambitions he might have for national office.

In his victory speech Tuesday evening, the governor said he will continue to elevate parental rights. He also touted public school investments under his administration, as well as expanding choices for families “who want something a little different for their kid” than traditional public schools.

“I’ll remind you for the next four years … that those two ideas are not in conflict with each other,” Lee said. “We can fund public schools and provide alternative opportunities for children at the same time if we are committed to funding students and not systems.”

During his campaign, Lee has been short on details about his second-term agenda for education. Instead, he’s emphasized staying the course on his first-term accomplishments, including rewriting Tennessee’s 30-year-old education funding formula, expanding middle and high school access to career and technical training, and grounding reading instruction in phonics.

Lee’s final 30-second campaign ad — part of a $3.2 million campaign spending blitz in October — also touted safer classrooms and ended with this promise: “Parents and teachers, you have my word that we’ll make the most of the next four years.”

Campaign spokeswoman Laine Arnold said the ad signaled Lee’s “intent to continue making education a top priority.”

Asked on the eve of Election Day for specifics about his education priorities for his second term, Lee said he again wants to invest more money toward teacher pay and further expand education choices through charter schools and private school vouchers. He also wants to continue prioritizing vocational, technical, and agricultural education.

“These are all things that we have implemented in the last four years, but we now have to make certain that those are growing, that they’re invested in, and that there’s significant improvement in all areas,” the governor told reporters during his final campaign stop in Franklin, south of Nashville.

But Democrats — who are still smarting that Lee pushed through a private school voucher law with a controversial, razor-thin vote during his first year in office — are interpreting the governor’s vague TV promise on education as an ominous threat.

They expect Lee and another GOP legislative supermajority to try to expand his education savings account program to shift more taxpayer money from public to private schools. Currently, the program is limited to Memphis and Nashville.

Democrats also expect more proposals to censor books and instruction in public schools.

In 2021, Tennessee became one of the first states to enact a law, which Lee signed, to restrict K-12 classroom discussions about the legacy of slavery, racism, and white privilege. 

This year, Lee pushed through a law requiring reviews of school and classroom library collections. He signed a second measure that authorizes the state textbook commission to ban challenged materials statewide if its appointed members deem them “inappropriate” for students’ ages and maturity levels.

As for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Lee has said students should be taught that the deadly 2021 insurrection was a day of “lawlessness” by individual attackers. He has not referenced the broader plot, still under federal investigation, to disrupt the transfer of presidential power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.

“Republicans have already started to systematically eradicate history in textbooks and ban teachings related to race, gender identity, and sexuality,” said Rep. Vincent Dixie, a Nashville Democrat who chairs his party’s House caucus. “Four more years under this leadership will only lead to more micromanagement of school curricula and stricter fines and punishment for our already overworked and underpaid educators.”

A businessman and farmer from affluent Williamson County, near Nashville, Lee surprised both political parties four years ago when he survived a bruising primary race and won his first bid for public office to become Tennessee’s 50th governor.

Campaigning for more education choices for families and vocational training options for students, he made education a top priority and used the state’s GOP muscle to pass much of his agenda. 

But Lee suffered a humiliating blow this year after inviting the president of Michigan’s conservative Hillsdale College to bring up to 100 charter schools to Tennessee, only to have Hillsdale’s charter group withdraw its first three applications after a Lee-appointed panel found the proposals weren’t up to snuff.

Lee also was stung by public outrage — and criticized by numerous members of his own political party — after a leaked video showed him sitting silently at a private reception in June as Hillsdale’s president, Larry Arnn, mocked teachers, their training programs, and diversity officers. The governor declined to disavow Arnn’s remarks or disaffiliate with Hillsdale. Instead, he blamed “left-wing activism in public education” as hurting the “genuine work of our teachers.”

At the time, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally called Arnn’s comments “ill-conceived, unfortunate and untrue.” This week, the legislature’s top GOP leader said Lee’s accomplishments have offset any of the governor’s missteps over Arnn’s comments. 

“I think voters have been looking at his entire record,” said McNally, who’s from Oak Ridge. “He was dealt the worst hand of any governor I can remember — with COVID, floods, tornadoes, and protests. I think he’s handled it very well.” 

But Martin, a critical care doctor, said it was the governor’s hands-off approach to the COVID pandemic that spurred him to run against Lee. The Democratic nominee also criticized Lee-backed school voucher, charter, and censorship policies for giving the state ultimate control over those decisions at the expense of locally elected officials.

Other critics have said it’s hypocritical for Lee’s campaign ads to claim that children, families, and moms have been his “top priority,” when he has not supported expanding Medicaid to accept billions of dollars in federal health care benefits for the working poor.

The governor also helped to grow the state’s rainy day fund to record levels while its Department of Children’s Services — the state agency charged with caring for abused, neglected, and foster children — is severely understaffed and short of beds for children taken into custody.

Fresh from his Election Day victory, Lee will kick off budget hearings Wednesday to prepare for his 2023-24 state spending proposal, which he’ll present to the Tennessee General Assembly several weeks after lawmakers convene on Jan. 10.

Budget discussions about K-12 education with Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn are listed second on the four-day schedule.

Months before his reelection, Lee pledged to invest an additional $1 billion in students and schools next fiscal year, when federal pandemic relief funding is set to run out and the state’s new funding formula kicks in.

But while Lee was considered a heavy favorite for a second term in office, Schwinn’s future has been less certain. 

The former Texas academic chief shepherded the governor’s major initiatives, including strategies to improve literacy and help students recover from pandemic learning loss, as well as expanding grow-your-own teacher training programs and implementing a new education funding formula that lets money follow the student, plus sets aside more money for students with higher needs. 

But employee turnover at the state education department has been high under Schwinn’s leadership. And early on, she frustrated lawmakers for rolling out initiatives and taking administrative shortcuts without ample legislative input, review, or approval, even as she led Tennessee through the pandemic, considered the biggest education upheaval in modern history. 

Asked last month if she expected to continue her role for a second term, Schwinn said she and Lee “have had those conversations.”

“I plan to be here, and we’re moving full steam ahead,” she told Chalkbeat. 

She cited the state’s strategic plans on literacy, student acceleration, innovative school models, grow-your-own teacher training programs, and the state’s new funding formula. 

“We are really proud of these big pieces of legislation that have passed and the interventions and work,” she said. “Now we have to double down and stay the course.” 

This story has been updated with comments from Lee’s victory speech.

Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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Tennessee Asks Court to Dismiss Private-School Voucher Lawsuit

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

The Tennessee attorney general’s office urged a judicial panel Monday to dismiss remaining legal challenges to the state’s private school voucher law after a string of court victories cleared the way for the program’s launch this school year.

But attorneys for several plaintiffs, including county governments based in Memphis and Nashville, argued for a full hearing on several remaining constitutional claims over a 2019 law that applies to only two of the state’s 95 counties.

The plaintiffs also charged that after July, when the court lifted a 2020 order blocking the program’s start, the state “rushed” the rollout in a way that violates the law.

This week’s court hearing kicked off a new phase in the nearly 3-year-old legal dispute over the education savings account law, part of a nationwide tug-of-war between those wanting to use taxpayer money to give parents more education choices and others who say that approach strips funding from already underfunded public schools.

Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s administration continues to approve vouchers worth about $7,000 annually to eligible families for their children to attend private schools in the state’s two largest cities. 

As of Friday, the state education department had approved 128 student applications in Memphis and 131 in Nashville to apply toward tuition at 39 private schools. In all, the state has received 857 applications, with 134 deemed ineligible so far. 

The Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the voucher law in May, rejecting the argument by Davidson and Shelby counties that the statute was unconstitutional because it applied only to them, without local approval. 

But several legal claims remain in two lawsuits that the court consolidated. The state constitution says Tennessee is obligated to maintain a system of free public schools that provides for equal educational opportunities for its residents. Plaintiffs say vouchers would create unequal systems and divert funds from traditional public schools to private schools.

Arguing to dismiss the case altogether, the state’s attorneys said none of the plaintiffs have legal standing to challenge the law — nor have they demonstrated local harm from the law, which also establishes grants to offset any financial losses to the districts during the program’s first three years. 

Attorneys for the plaintiffs balked at those arguments.

“The state’s position boils down to: They don’t think anybody has standing. They don’t think anybody has the ability to challenge what the General Assembly has done,” said Allison Bussell, associate law director of Metro Nashville, representing both counties.

While the program’s financial impact remains to be seen, Bussell said the two county governments — which help fund local schools — ultimately will bear a financial burden that other counties are shielded from under the law. 

But Stephanie Bergmeyer, a lawyer for the state, countered that Tennessee lawmakers had their reasons for applying the law to families in the state’s two largest school systems, where more students and private schools were likely to participate. 

“It (would yield) a good metric to see how the program will help these students with their educational opportunities in the first few years of the program,” Bergmeyer said. 

Also at issue is the state’s speedy rollout of the program within weeks after July 13, when the court lifted its order blocking the launch. To accommodate the governor’s order to get the program up and running in time for the new school year, the education department opted to disburse state funds directly to participating private schools, rather than set up education savings accounts for individual students to deposit money in, as directed by the law. 

“The ESA act does not permit direct reimbursement to private schools; it doesn’t even contemplate that concept,” Bussell said.

Chancellor Anne Martin, who is hearing the case with Judges Valerie Smith of Memphis and Tammy Harrington of Maryville, asked Bussell whether that difference ultimately matters.

“I think the General Assembly has told us what the potential injury is,” Bussell responded. “The reason they set it up this way is because they wanted to … set up very specific processes for how to prevent fraud, to make sure that funds are spent effectively, to make sure this is being managed in an appropriate way.”

Martin said the panel will issue its rulings later.

But with the program already under way, rolling it back becomes harder. Students who’ve already received vouchers could have their school year disrupted. According to the education department, 81 approved student applicants had submitted proof of enrollment in a participating private school as of late Monday.

Chris Wood, a Nashville attorney representing parents and taxpayers in a second lawsuit opposing the law, said such disruptions aren’t the point. 

“If it’s unconstitutional, it’s unconstitutional,” Wood told Chalkbeat after the hearing. “We tried very hard to get the state to hold off on any launch while the case is still being argued, but the state has insisted on pressing on.” 

An attorney for the Arlington, Virginia-based Institute for Justice, one of several pro-voucher groups that have intervened in the case, said the “bigger disruption” is for families whose public schools are “failing to meet the needs of their students.”

“The ESA program is a godsend for them,” said Arif Panju, the institute’s senior attorney.

Research on the effectiveness of vouchers is mixed. Recent studies have found that switching to private education using a voucher tends not to help — and may even harm — students’ test scores, especially in math. Other studies, though, have found neutral or positive effects of vouchers on high school graduation and college attendance. 

Tennessee is among more than 20 states that have either started or expanded voucher-type programs in the last two years.

West Virginia and Arizona have gone the furthest on school choice, creating options to provide so-called education or empowerment scholarships to most or all of their public school students. Both face hurdles, with a legal challenge blocking West Virginia’s program and an effort to put Arizona’s measure to voters.

Voucher laws are also being legally challenged in Kentucky, Ohio, and North Carolina.

“A lot of the claims come down to voucher programs violating duties and guarantees under the education clauses of their state constitutions,” said Jessica Levin, deputy litigation director at the Education Law Center, one of several anti-voucher groups involved in Tennessee’s case. 

This story has been updated to include the number of approved ESA applicants who have submitted proof of private school enrollment to the state.

Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent who covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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Private School Voucher Opponents Ask Tennessee Court to Block “Rushed, Haphazard” Rollout

State Capitol (Credit: Tennessee State Government)

Opponents of Tennessee’s private school voucher program went to court again Friday in another attempt to block its launch as a rapidly growing number of families and private schools signed up to take part.    

Lawyers behind one of two long-running lawsuits asked judges to halt the state’s work on its education savings account program, which aims to provide families in Memphis and Nashville with public funding to pay for private schooling. Lawyers in the second lawsuit, representing parents in those cities, were expected to file a similar motion later Friday.

Gov. Bill Lee has ordered his education department to roll out the program for the school year starting in early August, prompting the latest flurry of legal activity.

As of Friday, about 1,500 families and at least 76 private schools had submitted forms this week indicating their interest to participate, said Brian Blackley, a spokesman for the state education department.

“None of these have been vetted for eligibility; the next steps are formal applications,” Blackley said.

In their legal filings, lawyers representing local governments in Nashville and Shelby County called the state’s rollout “haphazard” and “rushed” and said the consequences of the state’s 2019 voucher law “go far beyond politics.”

The state “plainly will stop at nothing to see this Act implemented,” said the 45-page motion. “The fallout will be disastrous, and it will be irreparable. A temporary injunction is the only solution.”

A spokeswoman for the state attorney general’s office did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment about the latest filing.

The Tennessee Supreme Court upheld the state’s voucher law in May. That set the stage for a three-judge panel last week to lift an earlier order that had blocked the program’s original launch in 2020. 

That same panel will hear the latest legal challenge. The judges are expected to decide quickly — maybe as soon as next week — whether the program will proceed or pause while lawyers challenge the law’s constitutionality based on several remaining claims in the case. 

Meanwhile, the number of families and private schools interested in participating essentially doubled in three days.

On Wednesday, before Lee flew to Memphis to meet with private school leaders there, he told reporters near Nashville that the response had been swift and that 600 families and 40-plus private schools had completed online forms published a day earlier to show “intent to participate.”

The state education department has scrambled since the order was lifted, and Lee’s education chief, Penny Schwinn, told Chalkbeat earlier this week that “we’re really trying to catch up and meet the governor’s office’s expectations on this.”

On Friday, the department hosted a webinar for families interested in applying to move from public to private schools. 

While the law allows up to 5,000 participants in the program’s first year, Blackley acknowledged that the expedited launch is challenging because the state must manually review applications to ensure families and schools meet the state’s eligibility standards. 

It’s likely that families who want to participate immediately will have to start the 2022-23 school year in public schools, then pivot to private schools if they’re approved for the program.

“This process is moving rapidly, and we are doing the best that we can to handle it,” Blackley said.

The state also must set up systems and processes for redirecting public education spending in Memphis and Nashville, the only two cities where the program is operating, to private schools and vendors.

Research on the effectiveness of vouchers is mixed. Recent studies have found that using a voucher tends not to help — and may even harm — students’ test scores, especially in math. Other studies, though, have found neutral or positive effects of vouchers on high school graduation and college attendance. 

The two lawsuits challenging the program cite provisions in the state constitution that guarantee equal protection under the law. They argue that while the state is obligated to maintain a system that provides for substantially equal educational opportunities for its residents, vouchers would create unequal systems by targeting two counties and diverting funds from their public school systems to private and home schools.

“The General Assembly intentionally and unapologetically excluded every other school district in Tennessee from the Act’s application to ‘protect’ those districts from the Act’s harmful impact,” the motion said. “And it did so without any justifiable rationale and without tailoring the program to any educational goal.” 

Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent who covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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Chalkbeat: Tennessee’s Private School Voucher Law Survives Local Challenge In State Supreme Court

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

The Tennessee Supreme Court has declined to reconsider its recent decision upholding the state’s 2019 private school voucher law.

In a brief order issued Monday, the high court stood by its 3-2 ruling on May 18 in favor of the state and against the governments of Metropolitan Nashville and Shelby County, the only two counties affected by the law.

The decision marks another legal win for Gov. Bill Lee’s education savings account program, the signature legislation of his first year in office, although other court challenges loom. 

The program aims to provide taxpayer money to pay toward private education for eligible students in public school districts in Memphis and Nashville, but it has never launched because of the fierce legal battle.

In 2020, a judge overturned the law on the grounds that it violated the Tennessee Constitution’s “home rule” clause, since it was imposed on the two counties without their approval. But on appeal, the high court disagreed last month and said the home rule clause governs the actions of local school districts, not the counties that sued, even though they help fund those schools.

Attorneys for Nashville and Shelby County quickly asked for a rehearing, arguing in part that the home rule clause should apply because Nashville’s school system is part of a metropolitan form of government.

But the court declined to wade again into their claim.

“The court previously considered the issues raised in the petition in the course of its resolution of the appeal,” the court wrote in a four-sentence order.

A spokesman for Nashville Mayor John Cooper expressed disappointment over the order, while Nashville Law Director Wally Dietz said his office is “evaluating next steps for the remaining claims in our lawsuit.”

Meanwhile, Lee’s mothballed education savings account program remains stuck at the starting gate.

Litigants behind a second lawsuit in the case say they intend to press ahead with up to four remaining claims challenging the law’s constitutionality. And Dietz and his legal team are considering a similar move on behalf of local governments based in the state’s two largest cities.

In addition, a program with the complexities of vouchers requires significant preparation before a rollout and likely could not be ready before the start of the new school year in August.

Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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No to Vouchers

One of the more significant pieces of news reported on Tuesday was that Governor Bill Haslam had met in Nashville with the superintendents of Tennessee’s four largest urban school systems, including Shelby County

Schools (SCS), in an effort to avert litigation against the state on behalf of those systems.

Apparently, the governor made some efforts to meet the superintendents halfway on their joint concern that the state’s funding of their districts is woefully inferior to what is required. SCS head Dorsey Hopson was typical of the other superintendents in his optimistic assessment afterward that the governor is “committed to improving education outcomes in Tennessee.” For his part, Haslam acknowledged the urban districts’ special needs in saying, “Our challenge in a budget is always how do you make everything work.”

As we were reflecting on that challenge, we were struck by a statement submitted to us this week by Shelby County Commissioner David Reaves, a Republican like Haslam and a former member of the SCS board. Reaves’ words, which address the prospect of ongoing school-voucher legislation in the General Assembly, are relevant to the governor’s dilemma and bear repeating:

“The state of Tennessee has proven that it is not willing to adequately fund education. And the proof is in the pudding as the state ranks 47th in education funding and places a significant tax burden on county governments to make up the rest. This is the main driving force behind the high tax rate in Shelby County. Sixty percent of our county property tax rate is made up of county education funding and the associated debt. 

“Case in point is Governor Haslam, as he promises to raise the funding for pay increase for teachers while systematically cutting the Basic Education Program allocations in other areas. … [T]he State of Tennessee requires certain standards and ratios for things like classroom size that cannot be changed. If fewer tax dollars are available, the difference will fall to local tax authorities or either a cut in quality education programs. 

“Vouchers will take already underfunded schools resources at the state level and place more burden on local governments to make up the difference, while at the same time raising the classroom sizes and cutting course offerings. 

“To do this across the backdrop of the low literacy rate in the State of Tennessee is a disaster for traditional public education for Shelby County and a disaster for our tax rate. If the state would fund education appropriately, I would support a voucher program for school choice. But I contend that, if we funded education appropriately, we probably would not need a voucher system. 

“The reality is that we want quality education for all but do not want to pay for it. A voucher would give a quality education to a few and leave the rest behind. And I cannot support it.”

The point made by Reaves is well taken. We have previously made a similar point about private-school vouchers, which could ultimately drain some $70 million annually from Tennessee’s public schools under the formula embedded in the voucher plan now up for consideration in the legislature. 

Resisting the lure of vouchers will not fully resolve the challenge of which the governor spoke. But it’s a start.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

A Memphis Wish List

CREDIT: Danziger

‘Tis the season to be wishing, as we were reminded on
seeing a list of legislative requests prepared jointly by
Mayors A C Wharton and Mark Luttrell and presented to the Shelby County legislative delegation on Monday, on behalf of both city and county governments. It encouraged us to tote up some of our own wish-list items for the forthcoming legislative session.

Number One: We tend, with some trepidation, to favor efforts which have now become perennial in the General Assembly, to allow the sale of wine in grocery stores. Up to this point, that change in state law has been blocked by the powerful liquor lobby on Capitol Hill. We understand the concerns of liquor store operators, who feel needful of protection as small business owners faced with competition from big-box grocers. But the grocery business itself in these parts is tilting toward monopoly, and a little diversity in wares might encourage some variety in venues, too. This should be balanced by also allowing liquor and wine vendors more leeway in the diversity of products they sell.

Number Two: We oppose efforts, also perennial, to further enlarge the scope of gun-carry legislation. Wyatt Earp himself would have been scandalized at the liberality envisioned in something called “constitutional carry,” a measure which would essentially allow anybody anywhere anytime to pack a concealed weapon. This bill might end up, er, dead on arrival, but not the renewal of efforts to allow guns to be kept in locked automobiles in parking lots. The National Rifle Association, a lobbying organization so powerful as to be a virtual organ of government, backs this one, as it did last year, when a bill to that effect was barely bottled up, thanks to opposition from several of the state’s high-profile business employers, including FedEx here in Memphis.

The NRA managed to exact vengeance on state representative Debra Maggart, the Republican caucus chairperson who kept the guns-in-parking-lots bill from coming to a floor vote last year. It backed her opponent in this past summer’s GOP primary and contributed mightily to her defeat. This obvious object lesson notwithstanding, we hope the state’s legislators have the gumption to hold firm against the bill again this year. No one needs to be reminded of the cases, local and statewide, in which the easy availability of a sidearm has contributed to needless fatalities.

Number Three: We understand that Governor Haslam is likely to back legislation on behalf of school vouchers — i.e., public money doled out to pay tuition at private schools. A formerly tabled bill to that end will be retooled and reintroduced by state senator Brian Kelsey with enhanced prospects for passage.

Kelsey’s bill was focused on what he calls “opportunity scholarships” for low-income students, and we appreciate the good intentions, but such a bill is the proverbial nose of the camel inside the tent — or, to switch metaphors, the slippery slope itself. Any way you cut it, diverting taxpayer monies to private institutions is a dangerous precedent and one likely to further erode public school systems already straining to stay functional.

This is just a first installment, Santa. We’ve got more things on our mind, which we’ll communicate in due time.