Bill Lee's EFS Voucher Plan Continues to Lack Transparency and Evade Answers
By Steve Gill
More than a month into the start of school, and with over $146 million in taxpayer money funding the Governor’s voucher plan, there are many unanswered questions about Tennessee's universal school voucher program, which the state calls the Education Freedom Scholarship (EFS).
Now one major media outlet in Tennessee is persistently seeking details, but to no avail. Knoxville TV station WBIR has sent at least 6 requests to the Tennessee Department of Education asking for interviews with a department spokesperson regarding various topics related to the EFS program. Those requests were in February, March, June, July, August and September. WBIR has also placed standing requests for an interview with Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds. No one from the department has been made available. Sadly, the refusal to respond to request is nothing new from Tennessee’s Department of Education.
In more recent months, WBIR has requested information about demographics like zip code, county of residence, income, for who applied for the EFS and who was accepted. A TDOE spokesperson has shared there have been 42,000 applicants, half applying for the income-based scholarship, and half applying for the universal. However, there are also unanswered questions about those figures as a glitch in the system reportedly required those applying to submit repeat applications. Therefore, the total number of applications may be dramatically overstated. Nevertheless, the department of education has refused to clarify the exact number of valid applications for the program.
Speaker of the House Rep. Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) said he knew some preliminary information. He acknowledged the state is not tracking previous enrollment of students who get the scholarship this year.
"You're gonna have to get that information, it's gonna take time," Sexton said. "I know a lot of people won't know if they were already in public school or if they were in private school. That data will come here, I think next year, is what I've been told by the Department of Education."
Sexton also said applicants came from 70 different counties. He also said half of the applicants applied for the income-based voucher, and the other half applied for the universal voucher.
Representative Sam McKenzie (D-Knoxville) said he is looking for more answers about data, which he feels should be available.
"We received absolutely no information on 'what areas the vouchers are going to? Is it evenly spread throughout the state?" McKenzie said. "Of the folks who have the vouchers who are the first time applicants? There's just been a black hole and we've made several requests.”
In contrast to the secrecy surrounding the EFS program, other states with voucher programs, such as Alabama and Florida, collect and routinely release the kind of data that Tennessee is hiding. For example, Alabama's data showed that two-thirds of its applicants were already attending private schools or were homeschooled since their program began.
The EFS secrecy stands in stark contrast to Tennessee's previous, smaller Education Savings Accounts program, which did require parents to report their child's prior school enrollment. Lawmakers actually built this secrecy into the legislation that they passed.
In addition to concerns over the information being withheld from the public, there is an underlying fear that the cost estimates provided by the Governor when passing his voucher plan were vastly understated.
For example, Arizona's school voucher costs have dramatically "exploded," now costing the state nearly $1 billion just a few years since it’s inception, far exceeding initial projections of $65-$125 million. This massive increase contributes significantly to the Arizona’s budget deficit, reportedly costing the state $332 million more than estimated in one fiscal year and leading to budget shortfalls that harm public school funding.
The program's soaring costs are attributed to its universal nature, which allows more students, including those from affluent families to access vouchers, and some misuse of funds for non-educational expenses. It appears EFS has the same built-in financial “time bomb” that will threaten Tennessee‘s budget in the coming years.
##
Steve Gill is editor and publisher of TriStar Daily