Rep. Harry Brooks
For yet another year, the attempt to pass school-voucher legislation has proved unsuccessful. This year’s version — by state Senator Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown) was taken off notice for the year in the state House Finance Ways and Means Committee.
Kelsey’s House co-sponsor, Rep Harry Brooks (R-Knoxville) said he was pulling the bill to examine “particular wording,” but did not elaborate. He said he thought the bill would be back next year, though. (Voucher legislation has beeen a fixture of General Assembly sessions for at least a decade, and versions of it have — briefly — enjoyed at least the nominal blessing of Governor Bill Haslam, but no voucher bill has yet run the gauntle of legislative resistance.)
The Kelsey bill would have instituted a “pilot program” restricted to Shelby County Schools, with 5000 vouchers of a maximum of $7000 made available to students from low-performing public schools in the SCS system.
With near unanimity, Shelby County legislators, both Republican and Democratic, opposed the measure and questioned its constitutionality.
MTK
