Fri. Nov 8th, 2024

The new vouchers, same as the old vouchers. Gov. Bill Lee revealing the first version of his private school voucher plan on Nov. 28, 2023. (Photo: John Partipilo)

The new vouchers, same as the old vouchers. Gov. Bill Lee revealing the first version of his private school voucher plan on Nov. 28, 2023. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Henceforth, Gov. Bill Lee’s “education scholarship” plan shall be referred to as the “New Testament voucher bill,” not just because of its resurrection, but because the state will be sending millions of dollars annually to religious schools to make sure children learn that Jesus rose from the grave on the third day. Oh, and he loves you, too.

Sorry for the semi-sacrilege, but we’re blurring the lines more and more between government and religion, and that’s perfectly fine with a lot of lawmakers. The fact that Tennessee is on the verge of increasing subsidies to private, church-related schools is rarely discussed, but if lawmakers pass the governor’s newest version of private-school vouchers, mom-and-pop Bible schools will be all the rage.

Lee couldn’t pass his voucher bill last spring even though the House version contained lots of shiny ornaments such as insurance premium money for teachers and school maintenance funds. 

The governor reacted by raising the ante and endorsing pro-voucher candidates in the fall Republican primary, though he didn’t quite get the results he wanted, even with millions in dark money dominating campaigns. More than likely, the excessive spending scared the crap out of people in advance of the 2026 election. 

Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson of Franklin is sponsoring Gov. Bill Lee's new school voucher bill. (Photo: John Partipilo)
Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson of Franklin is sponsoring Gov. Bill Lee’s new school voucher bill. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Thus, Lee and key lawmakers are willing to pour a bigger boatload of money than ever into vouchers, the holy grail of education. Not only do they want to buy a bit of love from teachers with a $2,000 bonus, which should equate to about $1,400 once taxes and insurance come out, they’re ready to pay double for students who abandon public schools — well, for one year anyway. That ought to shut up the people complaining about public schools losing funds to private education. Or will it?

The bill sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson and House Majority Leader William Lamberth requires the state to provide funds to school districts that lose students in the “education scholarship” program. They can’t lose money from year to the next because of “disenrollment.”

After one year, that student is gone, and so is the money. 

The question is whether this is sustainable when it targets 20,000 students with $7,000 vouchers the first year and then goes universal.

In a state known for frugality, why are political leaders so enthusiastic about paying twice as much to ship one child to a private school? 

Montgomery Bell Academy and Brentwood Academy don’t need your blood money. But someone somewhere will be glad to take it and pour it into buying Bibles to teach children critical skills such as incest, murder, theft (sorry, that’s so Old Testament) and, of course, crucifixion and resurrection. Oops, I almost forgot, new history and geography will focus on an Earth that’s 6,000 years old. Forget you ever saw the Grand Canyon.

Ho hum House

Sphincters tightened Tuesday night as vote totals started coming in for Tennessee House races, three of which were targeted by a national Democratic group.

But after all the shouting, no blood was shed. The margin remains 75-24 in favor of Republicans.

Republican Rep. Jeff Burkhart beat Democratic challenger Allie Phillips in District 75 (Clarksville) by about 10 percentage points; Democratic Rep. Ronnie Glynn held off Jamie Dean Peltz by the narrowest of margins; and Republican Rep. John Gillespie defeated Democratic challenger Jesse Huseth by about 5 points in Memphis. 

Veteran Democratic Rep. Bo Mitchell also held on to his seat in a tough race against Jennifer Frensley Webb; Democrat Shaundelle Brooks handled Republican Chad Bobo, a former staffer for House Speaker Cameron Sexton, with relative ease; Republican Rep. Elaine Davis beat Bryan Goldberg in a Knoxville race and the indomitable Rep. Mike Sparks of Smyrna trumped Democrat Luis Mata in an area that’s growing more purple all the time. About the only time Sparks loses is when he’s trying to pass bills his GOP buddies don’t like.

Calling in the cavalry: Rep. John Gillespie, right, a Memphis Republican, pulled in Election Day support from U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty. (Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht)
Calling in the cavalry: Rep. John Gillespie, right, a Memphis Republican, pulled in Election Day support from U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty. (Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht)

Republicans likely rode President-elect Donald Trump’s coattails in down-ballot voting, leading some to wonder what might have been in a non-presidential election year. Then again, the gubernatorial election will be held in two years when a Republican candidate will draw voters to the polls.

It’s always gonna be something.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Ray Clemmons of Nashville reacted by saying in spite of “unprecedented political headwinds at the top of the ticket,” his party maintained seats in targeted districts, outperforming “all raw partisanship scores.”

“Notably, they did so in extremely gerrymandered districts that were drawn to better protect Republican incumbents just three years ago,” Clemmons said.

A group called Our Tennessee Future PAC brought in $245,000 from the House Democratic Caucus and used it to hammer two Republicans at the last minute. One mailer attacked Republican Rep. Gino Bulso for his opposition to a bill prohibiting first-cousin marriage, the Tennessee Journal first reported. It depicted him wearing a bathrobe, saying he “wants to get freaky.” 

Thin-skinned folks might never be the same after seeing it.

The PAC also went after Republican Rep. Johnny Garrett with two mailers, one of them accusing him of being “silent” on an alleged association with a child sex offender. It’s pretty rough, but it didn’t affect the outcome as Garrett beat Alison Beale 2-to-1.

Silver linings? Despite House Democrats losing every race they targeted to flip, House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons touted that the superminority party didn’t lose seats, saying incumbents kept their seats in spite of “unprecedented political headwinds at the top of the ticket.”

Clemmons told the Tennessee Journal that House Democrats, who raised $1 million this year, have no formal affiliation with the PAC, even though it gave $245,000, and said the group made independent expenditures.

Still, the strategy is shaky. Wasting money to embarrass Republicans who have no chance of losing in red counties such as Sumner and Williamson counties makes no sense when closer races are just down the road.

While Clemmons found a little silver lining, House Republican Caucus Chairman Jeremy Faison fairly basked in the glow of the status quo outcome.

“Liberal Democrats, news media and leftist activists from all over America turned their eyes on Tennessee. They sent money, door knockers and resources” to the Tennessee Democratic Party and House Democrats, he said.

Yet the results “proved to every one of them that the policies we have embraced on behalf of our constituents are correct, and TN asked us to keep up the good work,” Faison said via text.

One wonders whether refusing to approve universal private-school vouchers counts among those wise policy decisions.

Where do we go from here?

Economic forecasters gave the State Funding Board a humdrum outlook for fiscal 2025-26, one in which growth could be anywhere from negative to a high of 3.5%.

For policy wonks, the board will set an official growth rate in late November that budget people will use to put together a revenue and spending plan for the governor to manipulate and lawmakers to consider. The board, which is made up of the state’s constitutional officers and finance commissioner, tends to err on the side of caution, so look for its growth projection to be around 1.5%.

Economists said the state’s economy is strong as unemployment remains low and inflation stabilizes, even as they lamented the loss of revenue through elimination of the property value factor on Tennessee’s franchise and excise taxes. That’s expected to cost the state up to $1.9 billion over the next few years, including three years of rebates. A 17% decline in franchise and excise taxes is projected for this year.

Gone is the double-digit revenue growth of 2021-23 when the state was swimming in money. Much of that came in because of — you guessed it — inflation. When prices go up, so do sales taxes collections, and that money goes to the state and local government coffers. 

But it’ll take a couple of years for the budget to suck up two years of business tax cuts. 

Economists made two other notable points: Tennessee has about tens of thousands of job openings it can’t fill. And that $3 box of Frosted Flakes won’t drop back to $2. There’s no such thing as price “deflation,” once the market finds out what people are willing to absorb, the experts said.

For what it’s worth, I’m not willing to absorb an $8 draught beer. Give me happy hour or give me death.

President Trump and I … have a long history of working together over the four years that he was the president, and as I said, I’ve already reached out to him and plan to continue that working relationship and I suspect it will be, I know it will be good for Tennessee.

– Gov. Bill Lee

“Let’s stay together”

Gov. Lee reminds us that President-elect Trump campaigned on the idea of school choice, therefore, he has a mandate.

It took a stumping reporter to remind the governor that Trump called him a RINO (Republican in name only) just two months ago in a disagreement over the Bobby Harshbarger-Jon Lundberg Senate race. Trump endorsed Harshbarger, while Lee backed Lundberg as part of his plan to pass vouchers.

Despite the spat, Lee campaigned for Trump this week and continues to celebrate his election. He said he called Trump and JD Vance after they won but couldn’t talk to Trump  immediately. 

Asked if they made up, Lee said Wednesday, “President Trump and I … have a long history of working together over the four years that he was the president, and as I said, I’ve already reached out to him and plan to continue that working relationship and I suspect it will be, I know it will be good for Tennessee. I suspect it’ll be robust.”

FYI: Trump was president for only two years during Lee’s first term. But nobody sweats the details in a lovers’ quarrel.

“Baby come back / You can blame it all on me.” *

*”Baby Come Back,” Player

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