A bill expanding eligibility rules for Tennessee’s Education Saving Account (ESA) pilot program passed out of the House Education Administration Committee on Wednesday and is headed to the House floor for a final vote.
The bill would open the door for students in Chattanooga and Knoxville to enroll in private schools using state scholarship money.
The vote on House Bill 0433 came a week later than initially scheduled, as lawmakers had questions and wanted testimony from the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) before voting.
Committee members received testimony from neither Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn nor newly appointed Deputy Commissioner Eve Carney. Instead, the committee heard from TDOE advisor and former House member Bill Dunn. Dunn was joined by Governor Bill Lee’s Legislative Director Brent Easly and Jim Wrye, the chief lobbyist for the Tennessee Education Association.
Wrye spoke in opposition, while the other two offered their support for the program’s expansion.
Before the discussion on the bill began, State Representative Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka) asked for and received clarification that the sole purpose of the proposed legislation was to expand eligibility to Chattanooga and Knoxville. All the caps and funding included in the current program would remain unchanged.
State Representative Sam Mckenzie (D-Knoxville) asked, “Is it correct, that the goal of the original bill was to have a pilot program in Davidson and Shelby Counties?”
Bill sponsor State Representative Mark White (R-Memphis), who was chair of the House Education Committee at the time of passage, answered, “No, not that I remember.” White went on to request that the committee go out of session in order to allow for testimony from Dunn, Easley, and Wrye, to provide more clarity on the history of the legislation.
Dunn, then serving as a House Representative from Knoxville, was the sponsor of the original bill, which was passed in 2019. It had been previously pulled from the agenda at the last minute in 2016. Dunn’s bill was removed at that time in response to intense pressure brought forth by Wrye and the Tennessee Education Association (TEA).
Knox County was slated to be included in the 2019 legislation but removed from the plan under an agreement with State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville), who flipped his vote before the speaker ordered a final tally.
The full name of the state ESA program is Tennessee’s Education Savings Account Pilot Program.
Currently arguing for expansion, Dunn compared the state ESA program to the state’s Hope Scholarship, a program funded through lottery proceeds that provides scholarship money for eligible students. The former lawmaker presented a scenario where if limited to just public colleges, the scholarship program would have only provided limited options for students.
“If we had restricted it to only public colleges, in Davidson County, the only options would have been Tennessee State University or Nashville Community College.” Said Dunn, “Because we allow the family to choose, what’s added is Trevecca, Nazarene, Vanderbilt, South College, Fisk, and Belmont.”
The argument failed to win over State Representative Sam McKenzie (D-Knoxville), who asked, “Are you really comparing higher ed to k-12 education? And if so why?”
“What we are trying to do is show how a program works. How school choice works,” replied Dunn, “And so that’s why we are doing this, because if they are not brothers and sisters, they are at least cousins. Basically, you’ve got state education dollars following the student.”
Under further questioning from McKenzie, Easley confirmed that in the statute, “it is referred to as a pilot program.” Going on to address committee members’ questions about supporting data, he admitted that, currently, there is little data available to support expansion.
“There is a parent survey issued annually, a survey of sorts by the department, and the comptroller can audit the program. So we will see those data points,” Easly added, “Students enrolled in the program will take TCAP. So we will have the data points.”
TEA’s Jim Wrye raised the possibility of expansion, resulting in increased costs for local districts.
State Representative Charlie Baum(R-Murfreesboro) countered that argument, saying, “I was thinking, maybe it’s the opposite. Maybe vouchers would save local money. The answer is capital projects, a fancy way of saying building schools.”
The representative went on to explain that fast-growing districts are under pressure to build schools in order to meet growing demand. Local districts are solely responsible for the cost of building those schools at great expense. Should students elect to avail themselves of an ESA, and enroll in a private school, some of the burden to build new schools could be alleviated. Thus saving districts money.
After an hour of discussion, despite concerns about expanding a pilot program without enough supporting data, the vote was called for, and the bill passed out of committee on a voice vote. There were no audible “no” votes.
On Thursday, the bill passed out of the Calendar and Rules Committee and is now scheduled for a full house vote on Monday.
The Tennessee Star’s inquiry to the TDOE for clarification on why neither Schwinn nor Carney testified went unanswered.
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TC Weber is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. He also writes the blog Dad Gone Wild. Follow TC on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected]. He’s the proud parent of two public school children and the spouse of a public school teacher.
