Education Trust leader warns about effects of expanding Tennessee school voucher program
The top agenda item for Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee in the 2024 legislative session is to expand the Education Savings Account program -- also known as school vouchers -- from three of 95 counties to the entire state.
The proposal has numerous proponents in the GOP-dominated Tennessee General Assembly, including top leaders, but it remains controversial among teachers, advocates and school superintendents who fear it will be at the expense of public schools.
On Episode 388 of the Tennessee Voices video podcast, Gini Pupo-Walker, executive director of The Education Trust -- Tennessee, spoke about this and other important education issues.
Pupo-Walker has worked for public schools, served in a nonprofit leadership role and was elected to a term on the Nashville School Board prior to taking on her current position.
The topics we discussed, in addition to school vouchers, were what it means to "fully fund" public schools, the school-to-workforce pipeline, and the threats of censorship, book banning, and eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs in K-12 and/or higher education.
Readers can follow education issues at the Education Issue Tracker of the Tennessee Alliance for Equity in Education.
Two episodes ago, I interviewed Shaka Mitchell of the American Federation for Children who has a different view on vouchers so that viewers can assess the different aspects of this topic.
The Tennessee Voices video podcast launched in March 2020 to engage thinkers, leaders and doers across the state of Volunteers State in conversation about the issues of the day. The discussions promote, encourage and model civil discourse in alignment with The Tennessean's Civility Tennessee initiative.
David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee. He is an editorial board member of The Tennessean. He hosts the Tennessee Voices videocast and curates the Tennessee Voices and Latino Tennessee Voices newsletters.. Call him at (615) 259-8063, email him at dplazas@tennessean.com or tweet to him at @davidplazas.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee school vouchers expansion proposal leaves questions pending
