(This is the first column from State Rep. Bruce Griffey, Republican of Paris, who represents the 75th District. State Rep. Bruce Griffey will periodically be providing columns which highlight activities from the Capitol in Nashville).
By State Rep. Bruce Griffey
Governor Bill Lee has proposed House Bill 939 (the “ESA” bill), which is being sponsored by House Majority Leader William Lamberth, a Republican representative from Sumner County, and Republican Representative Bill Dunn from Knoxville. The bill is designed to create new, alternative educational options for children living below the poverty level in inner city, failing school districts through Educational Savings Accounts.
In essence, poor kids in Memphis, Jackson, Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga failing schools, which are defined as schools performing academically in the bottom 10% of the state, can apply to obtain an Educational Savings Account up to $7,300 to use to attend a different school that better meets their educational needs. Of the applicants, 5,000 will be selected, which amounts to less than half a percent of the over 995,000 students enrolled in K-12 public schools across the state.
The Governor’s Administration is funding education in Tennessee in the approximate amount of $11.3 Billion for the 2019-2020 fiscal year, a portion of which will be giving raises to school teachers across the state, and is seeking to allocate $25 Million towards the proposed Educational Savings Account program. Under the proposal, if a child leaves a failing school, the failing school will not lose money. The child will receive up to $7,300 and the failing school will receive $7,300. In other words, the money will not follow the child to the detriment of the school.
I have heard two primary concerns expressed about the bill. The first concern related to the ability of undocumented children (i.e. children illegally present in the U.S.) to take advantage of the ESA program at the expense of taxpaying Tennessee citizens. The Governor has listened to this concern and addressed it by amending the bill to specifically exclude undocumented students from participating.
The second concern relates to future expansion of the bill to apply to rural school districts. Based on the specific language of the bill, it does not apply to District 75 – Benton, Henry and Stewart Counties. It only applies to Memphis, Jackson, Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga. On March 26, Governor Bill Lee held an early morning meeting with all freshmen representatives, including myself, to discuss the ESA bill. During this meeting, the Governor assured all representatives from rural districts, including myself, that the ESA bill does not apply to rural districts and will not be expanded in the future to apply to rural districts.
On March 27, the ESA bill was heard by the House Education Committee, which passed it on a 14-9 vote. The Speaker of the House Glen Casada showed up at the committee hearing to support the bill and casted one of the 14 votes in favor of it – a right the speaker enjoys in every committee, but infrequently uses. The ESA bill was put to a vote yesterday (April 1) before the 15 member House Government Operations Committee and passed on a voice vote. The bill has now been referred to the Finance, Ways and Means Committee.
While I do not sit on either the Education or the Government Operations Committees, I am seeking input from constituents – Benton, Henry and Stewart Countians – as to whether they support or oppose the bill in anticipation of it eventually coming to the House floor for a vote this session. I have always felt and will continue to feel that it is incumbent upon me to vote in accordance with the majority opinion of my constituents, irrespective of my personal opinion about bills. I have been conducting polls on Facebook to seek feedback from constituents; however, due to the important nature of this piece of legislation for which I have heard very impassioned, but varying opinions on both sides of the issue – both positive and negative – I have decided to expand my polling. While Facebook is the fastest and least expensive means of polling constituents, I recognize that not all constituents are on Facebook, and also that I have non-constituents who live outside District 75 who participate in my Facebook polls. For these reasons, I am expending financial resources to have a telephone poll conducted of constituents in an effort to obtain more accurate information as to whether the majority of citizens in District 75 support or oppose this legislation. If you receive a phone call, I ask that you please participate so that I can receive the most accurate poll data. Additionally, if you are not on Facebook, but would like to participate in an online poll, you can use this link to provide your opinion: www.surveymonkey.com/r/TNPNGQR<http://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TNPNGQR>
Governor Lee, who ran on an education agenda, has requested support from Republican legislators, including specifically myself, to allow him the opportunity to implement the educational agenda on which he campaigned so students in underperforming schools can have new opportunities for academic success and children living in poverty might have an opportunity to get out of it through a good education. In turn, I have been seeking support from the Governor and his Administration with respect to, among other things, economic development in our district, highway projects in our district, expansion of vocational education opportunities in our district and assistance with revenue shortfalls in our district created by the demolition of Paris Landing Inn (which I fundamentally opposed). While the ESA bill does not effect schools in District 75, I fear that failure to support the ESA bill could have a negative impact on District 75 in other ways, and I ask constituents to keep this mind in formulating their opinion on how I should vote on this bill. Constituents can also email me with their opinion/feedback at rep.bruce.griffey@capitol.tn.gov<mailto:rep.bruce.griffey@capitol.tn.gov>
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