Gov. Bill Lee’s school voucher expansion gets lost in translation in rural Tennessee

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee addressed the Rotary Club of Nashville midday on July 8 and tackled some significant issues, including his desire to expand school vouchers statewide and the need for more civility in politics.

The GOP dominated Tennessee General Assembly failed in the 2024 legislative session to pass fellow Republican Lee’s signature Education Freedom Scholarship Act, which would have expanded the Education Savings Account program from three counties (Davidson, Shelby and Hamilton) to all 95.

Disagreement between the versions favored by the governor, Senate and the House tanked the proposal for the year. Lee intends to bring it back in 2025 and is actively campaigning for lawmakers who supported his push.

Several hours after Lee’s Rotary speech, I got a glimpse into what one rural and very red Tennessee community thinks about his school vouchers expansion.

I was invited to moderate a political forum for county, legislative and congressional candidates organized by The Southern Standard newspaper and WCPI 91.3FM at the Warren County Administrative Center in McMinnville, about 80 miles east of Nashville.

I wanted to understand where the candidates, including incumbent District 43 state Rep. Paul Sherrell, R-Sparta, stood on this issue. In short, they don’t want it.

Fairness, support for public schools are key to GOP vouchers opposition

This was my sixth trip in six years to McMinnville as part of The Tennessean’s Civility Tennessee initiative. I documented my relationship with civic leaders in the city in an essay for the 2023 book “Reinventing Journalism to Strengthen Democracy” published by the Dayton, Ohio-based Kettering Foundation.

While nearly two-thirds of Nashville-Davidson County voters picked  Joe Biden for president in 2020, in Warren County, 74% of voters cast ballots for former President Donald Trump.

Some of the candidates at the July 8 forum introduced themselves as Christian, conservative, and Republican.

The reason the candidates – from school board to legislative – opposed the voucher expansion – which Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders described as a “conservative education revolution” when she joined Lee for his legislative kickoff last fall – came down to their support for their public schools and concerns over fairness.

At the Rotary Club meeting, Lee said the state could both bolster public schools and expand the voucher program.

“Why don't we do all of those things that are important for our public school system and why don't we allow the citizens who do pay taxes to use their tax money for the educational system that they choose for their child,” Lee said.

However, the Warren County forum candidates also said they were upset about the lingering negative academic achievement impact on students because of COVID era school shutdowns, which they partially blamed on Lee.

Among other issues they identified:

• Would the county be on the hook if the voucher program siphoned money away from the public schools? They pointed to the recent decline in state revenues and Lee's proposal would eventually be open to any Tennessee student regardless of income.

• While they expressed support for homeschooling and parents choosing private schools for their children, they did not think it should be using public funds.

• A bone of contention during this year‘s legislative session was whether to require that children going to private schools on a $7,000 voucher take state mandated tests administered to public school students. Lee’s proposal would not have made that a requirement.

Sherrell expressed an additional concern that the money might go to Christian schools but also to “LGBTQ or Muslim schools” – something he said he opposed. I am unfamiliar with what an LGBTQ school is, but America’s freedom of religion would dictate that schools of all faiths should be able to compete equally for these funds.

Civility requires an active back-and-forth between adversaries

Despite Governor Lee‘s best efforts, there is a communication disconnect between him and some members of his own party, who support him on many other issues.

This goes to the heart of civility, which Lee has embraced.

In May, at a National Governors’ Association conference in Nashville, Lee sat with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, R-Utah, who spearheaded the Disagree Better Initiative to encourage more productive conversations to address political differences.

Tennessee’s Bill Lee and Kentucky’s Andy Beshear are rivals. They should work together.

“We do live in a politically toxic world,” Lee said at the July 8 Rotary Club. “I do believe, by the way, that as our National Governors’ Association initiative says, we should learn how to disagree better.”

“We should learn to remember the dignity of every single human being – that the person on the other side of the argument has just as much dignity as a human as you do,” he added. “Their opinions and their thoughts are just as valid to be heard as yours are. And if we can agree to disagree in a more civil way, our society would be so much better.”

But it’s not just Democrats or teachers unions who oppose his legislation. It’s also Republican school resource officers, county commissioners and blue collar workers in places like Warren County.

If Lee wants a shot at passing his Education Freedom Scholarship Act next year, he must seek common ground and make a more convincing case that rural Tennessee schools won’t be worse off.

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 find him on X at @davidplazas.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Here’s why TN Republicans opposed Gov. Lee’s school voucher expansion