Nashville, Tenn.–State Representative Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) has signed on to co-sponsor with Democrat State Representative Bo Mitchell (D-Nashville) House Bill 1550, which seeks to repeal the Educational Savings Account (also commonly referred to as the “School Voucher”) legislation that narrowly passed the Tennessee General Assembly this past legislative session.
The ESA/School Voucher legislation barely passed out of the House with a 50-48 vote. Griffey said, “As some may remember, on the initial vote, the House was split with a vote tally of 49-49 at which point legislators were locked in the House Chamber unable to leave until the tie was broken and Republicans, who voted against the legislation, were individually approached and taken to the House Chamber balcony to privately discuss changing their vote. Ultimately, the tie was broken when Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) flipped his vote from no to yes upon agreement that his district seat of Knox County would be exempted from the voucher legislation. It has been reported that, starting back in May, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began interviewing lawmakers about whether improper incentives were offered to pass the legislation in the state House.”
Griffey signing on to co-sponsor this bill officially makes it a bipartisan piece of legislation jointly supported by both a Republican and a Democrat. “The ESA/School Voucher legislation has been controversial since the moment it was first rolled out last legislative session and has continued to be controversial ever since as new issues continue to surface regarding problems with it,” Griffey said. “It is not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue, but rather an issue that impacts all Tennesseans irrespective of political party affiliation, and I’m happy to foster as much bi-partisanship as possible so hopefully we can address some problems for the betterment of Tennessee and Tennesseans.”
Before he voted on the legislation, Griffey said, “I polled my constituents to see how they wanted me to vote inasmuch as I represent their voice and opinion in Nashville, and the overwhelming majority of my constituents were opposed to the ESA/School Voucher bill and wanted me to vote against it, which is exactly what I did. Before signing on to co-sponsor a repeal bill, I polled my constituents to get their opinion and, again, the majority wanted me to seek repeal, which is what I am doing.”
“The problems that exist with the ESA/School Voucher bill are, in my opinion, numerous,” he said. “For those who are not familiar with the details of the ESA/School Voucher legislation, essentially it will take at least $75 million (some have projected $335 million over 5 years) of our taxpayer dollars and redistribute it in the amount of $7,300 per child to select parents in 3 school districts located in Shelby County and Davidson County. The money can be used to pay for private school tuition or for other educational expenses, such as a computer or other tech devices.
Griffey listed “just a few of the problems”:
“1. If taxpayers think we already have an issue with fraud and misuse of taxpayer funded EBT cards (i.e. food stamps), I anticipate similar types of fraud and abuse will be rampant with the ESA funding. For example, a parent purchases a $1,300 laptop and turns around and sells it for 50 cents on the dollar and pockets $650 cash that could then be spent on drugs or alcohol. By the way, I proposed a drug testing requirement of the parents who receive the ESA money and it was rejected. Question: If a child is being raised by drug addicted parents with substance abuse problems, is giving the parent $7,300 per child really going to improve the child’s education?
2. The ESA funding – the $7,300 per child funded by taxpayers to the tune of at least $75 million up to $335 million – is accessible by illegal aliens.
3. With a cost of up to $335 million over 5 years, it is not fiscally conservative and takes money away from our public education system. This runs contrary to our mandate in our State Constitution.
4. The ESA/School Voucher funding would cover tuition at Islamic and other religious schools. This is essentially designating taxpayer dollars to be spent on religious schooling, including Islamic, that may not emphasize fidelity to our U.S. Constitution as the Supreme law of the Law.
5. A recent report released by the Stanford Graduate School of Education indicates that there is no evidence that school voucher programs improve student achievement. For example, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the nation’s second largest school voucher program has been operating for nearly 20 years, test score data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reflected that among African-American 8th graders in 13 urban school districts, Milwaukee ranked last in reading and second-to-last in math.
6. The ESA/School Voucher legislation is not constitutionally sound and is unlikely to survive any judicial scrutiny inasmuch as its application is limited to Shelby County and Davidson County as opposed to statewide application.
7. The ESA/School Voucher program is costing TN taxpayers over $1 million a year just to manage program payments. Indeed, the TN Department of Education just inked a 2 year contract to pay Class Wallet $2.53 million over 2 years to oversee online payment and application systems for the ESA/voucher program. This is grotesque when public school teachers are having to reach into their own personal pockets to pay for classroom supplies.”
Griffey concluded, “These are just some of the many, many flaws with the ESA/school voucher legislation, which I feel was and is driven and fueled by corporate profiteering at the expense of Tennessee taxpayers, children, teachers and our public education system. These are just some of the reasons that I was happy to co-sponsor House Bill 1550 to repeal the ESA/school voucher legislation, which I question the prospects of passing but for events that led up to the tie-breaking vote cast by Representative Zachary.”
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