Tennessee State Senator Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) joined Friday’s edition of The Matt Murphy Show on SuperTalk 99.7 WTN to discuss Governor Bill Lee’s universal school choice plan, known as the Education Freedom Scholarship Act.
Lee’s universal school choice plan, according to the undated draft leaked to the media last week, would make 20,000 scholarships available for Tennessee students in the 2024-2025 school year while universal eligibility would be available to students in the 2025-2026 school year and beyond – prioritizing currently enrolled students, low-income, and public school students if the demand exceeds available funding.
During Friday’s interview, Campbell called Lee’s plan a “scam,” saying it “privatizes public education,” adding she plans to introduce a bill in the Senate to repeal the governor’s plan.
“I’ve got a bill to repeal it coming up because this is a scam and I think Tennesseans need to know that. The reason we need to know that is because this is going to blow an $800 million hole in our budget from the downbeat and then taxpayers are going to be on the hook in perpetuity and it’s just going to get worse,” Campbell said.
Campbell continued by comparing Lee’s plan to Arizona’s school voucher plan, as she said 80 percent of the vouchers used in Arizona were used by students who did not attend public schools.
“I’ve got a chart here in front of me – 80% of the kids in Arizona who took these vouchers never went to a public school so what you’re doing when you give a kid $7,000 to go to a private school is you’re subsidizing people who are already sending their kids to private schools or home schools. And that ends up being a net loss for taxpayers because you have to continue to fund public education and then on top of that you’re going to have to find the money to be able to subsidize these private school educations,” Campbell said.
Murphy argued Campbell’s comparison of the governor’s plan to other states is invalid, noting how lawmakers have not yet read the language in the unfiled bill.
“You don’t know what it’s about because you’ve never read the bill but you’ve already presented a repeal of a bill that you’ve never read…You’ve never read. The language of the bill has yet to be presented Heidi, let’s not lie about things that I know aren’t true. You’ve never read this bill. You can look at me angry all you want, you’re lying to the people when you say that you know what’s in this bill,” Murphy said.
When Campbell said she would be “all for” the bill “if it was about choice,” Murphy called the state senator a “hypocrite,” noting how she and her children have all attended private schools instead of the schools they were zoned to attend.
“You’re a hypocrite because you attended private school all of your education, you claimed that you sent your kids to private school yet you refused to give parents the financial ability to do the same thing that you had the financial ability to do and you claim that you’re defending those parents. That is a hypocritical position,” Murphy said. “Your actions demonstrate that you’re acting in a hypocritical fashion. You say that this is not about money yet you’re willing to spend the money above and beyond your taxpayer dollars to send your kids to private school.”
Campbell at first brushed off Murphy’s arguments as “personal attacks,” however, soon walked out of the interview when Murphy said she was lying about having read the contents of the governor’s bill.
“Matt, I’m not going to be called a liar by you,” Campbell said before Murphy said, “Well then you can leave. Goodbye…I mean, if you’re not going to be called a liar I don’t want to insult you.”
“Senator Heidi Campbell for the last time on the Matt Murphy Radio Show on SuperTalk 99.7 WTN,” Murphy signed off.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Heidi Campbell” by Senator Heidi Campbell.
DUI Heidi showing off as usual
being a hypocrite is one of the behaviors that democrats exhibit most frequently.
Good for Mr Murphy!
Public education is broken. People like Campbell are only one of the reasons why.