House Finance Subcommittee Chairman Mike Harrison said he’s not sure the long-debated school voucher bill will
get out of his committee today.
The Rogersville Republican said he plans to amend the legislation, a move watering it down by allowing students at a wider swath of low-performing schools to become eligible for vouchers without opening up the program in any areas countywide.
“Unless that amendment goes on, I can’t vote for it,” Harrison told reporters Monday.
Currently, HB1049 allows students at the state’s lowest performing 5 percent of schools to use state-funded scholarships to attend private and parochial schools. Low-income students in counties with the low-performing schools could take up any unused vouchers.
With a cap of 5,000 scholarships the first year and up to 20,000 scholarships by year-four, lawmakers expect more than enough vouchers to supply to students both in and outside the low-performing schools. Currently, five counties would become home to vouchers, including Davidson, Hamilton, Knox, Jackson and Shelby Counties.
Under Harrison’s amendment, only students attending schools that fall in the bottom 10 percent statewide would be eligible for the vouchers, opening the legislation to a wider number of districts, including more rural schools, but stopping the program from spreading county-wide in any area.
“If we’re going to give (vouchers to) kids that are in schools that are failing, let’s keep it within that school zone, not open it up for the whole county,” Harrison said.
The legislation has stalled in the legislature for years, regularly passing in the Senate but faltering in the lower chamber’s committees. The future of the bill now rests with the House Finance Subcommittee, which is scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon.
Here’s a breakdown of what members of the subcommittee had to say about vouchers, the possible amendment and the upcoming vote: (continue reading)