Each time Governor Bill Lee has previously tried to push school vouchers onto Tennessee, Republicans and Democrats, urban and rural legislators have rejected the proposals. They all know, as we know, that the real impact of vouchers is to:

1. Drain resources from our public schools.

2. Transfer tax dollars to private schools that do not have to meet state academic standards nor serve all students.

3. Benefit only affluent families that use them to offset tuition they are already paying or that can afford the difference between the $7,075 voucher and the much greater actual costs of private school.

What is despicable this time around is the way the governor is trying to disguise and misrepresent the proposal, and, lately, attaching it to desperately needed disaster assistance. The array of gimmicks, deceptions, and enticements represents the worst of dishonest, corrupt government.

They are calling it the “Education Freedom Act,” but the only freedom here is private schools:

• Free to accept only those students they want.

• Free from Tennessee State assessments.

• Free from federal protections for students with disabilities.

The proposal gives the false impression that half of vouchers (10,000 of 20,000) are reserved for students with disabilities and students from low-income families. However, low-income gets defined as a family of four with income up to $173,160; $203,019 for a family of five. Shame on them!

Vouchers will only go to the most affluent families in the state; very low-income families will never come up with the remaining funding necessary for their children to attend, and families of students with a disability are not likely to let go of the federal protections of IEPs and Section 504 plans that are not required of private schools.

The plan entices teacher support with a one-time $2,000 bonus. What a joke. Tennessee teachers are among the lowest paid in the country with average salaries around $55K. The bonus would bump their salaries up for one year only. Salaries would have to be raised permanently to $63K just to get Tennessee to the middle of the pack.

The plan promises to offset state funding a district could lose if enrollment drops – but only in the first year. Again, what a joke! In the following year, the district will lose $11K for each student who departs with a private school voucher. And, given average teacher/student ratios of 1:16, every time 16 vouchers are awarded, a school district somewhere in the state will likely lose a teacher.

Tennessee is already near the bottom for public school spending per student. The national average is more than $17K per student.

This should not be a partisan issue. Vouchers would be paid for from state sales tax dollars (Tennessee’s rate of nearly 10% is the highest in the nation) that most heavily burden low-income residents. Vouchers would transfer hundreds of millions of those tax dollars to the highest-income families in the state. It would be a reverse Robin Hood: taking from the poor to enhance the wealthy. This is wrong!

And now, the governor wishes to push this through a special session of the legislature by linking it with the approval of disaster relief following Hurricane Helene, which ravaged East Tennessee.

Tennessee public schools have been underfunded and under-resourced for decades. Only about 30% of our 4th and 8th graders test proficient for reading on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP).

What we need is to decisively declare that we will not have low-income Tennesseans subsidize the private school education of the most affluent. Rather, we need to:

• Increase our teacher salaries so we attract the best into our state.

• Fully fund the instructional needs of Tennessee students so all of them may have lifetime opportunities that only come to those who are well educated.

It’s time to tell our representatives, senators, and governor to invest in bringing our public-school systems up to the highest standard for all Tennessee students and not to drain more money from them to send to the private schools of the elite.

Bill Kosanovich

Oak Ridge, Roane County