Don’t say one word to me!!!  Don’t write one word to me!!!  I don’t need to hear or to read your personal reasoning.  I, like you, are entitled to my own opinion.

The Tennessee Senate and House of Representatives just recently passed Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s statewide expansion of school vouchers, otherwise known as the “Tennessee Education Freedom Act of 2025.”

For almost 70 years, I am, and always have been, a strong Democrat – it is and was a long-time family heritage.  Among the same lineage, my oldest son, Jim, also was a Democrat until he changed political parties recently.  He was quoted as saying that he “saw the light.”  But I digress.  Dad always told me that you can’t help what your children do.


Secondly and interestingly, I am in favor of a few logistics found in the Republican Governor’s school voucher bill, as named above.  It’s not a case of party loyalty or discrimination; its totality involves saving personal funds as a single parent in an ever-increasing and lateral economy.  The brief explanation is that I was taxed twice for a yearly educational experience in Tennessee – one for private school tuition and one for taxes in DeKalb County’s schools, which Mac did not attend at that time.   This was not instantaneous but occurred for several years.

Following hours of debate on Thursday, January 30, 2025 from both governmental and political sides, the bill is slated to provide about $7,000 in “scholarships” in public taxpayer money for parents in Tennessee to use at private schools if they choose.

The bill also includes a one-time $2,000 bonus for all teachers employed in K-12 schools in Tennessee.  Critics of the bill pointed-out that the bonus would only be given to teachers if their local school district adopted a resolution stating it would like to participate in that provision of the law by June 1; otherwise, they would not receive it.  With varying word descriptions (adjectives), the entire bundle “seems like a jumbled circumference of mass confusion!”  I’ve recently learned that if you are for the bill, I hear your side; if you are against the bill, I hear your side. (It’s the perils of being a newspaper writer/reporter.)   Therefore, a straight answer and explanation is very hard to obtain, although you are bombarded with varying answers and statistics.  In addition, the context of the recently-passed Tennessee Education Freedom Act has its own individual interpretation dependent upon the education and the location and the current job description.

The Tennessee House voted to provide school vouchers to families in all 95 counties in the state.  The vote was 54-44 with some Republicans breaking from the supermajority on this issue.  State senators approved the measure several hours later.  It passed in the Senate by a vote of 20-13 with some Republicans voting against it like their colleagues in the House.  Accordingly, it was not a straight party-line vote, as some members from each political party voted differently – a few Democrats voted for the bill, while some Republicans voted against it.  Remember:  It was a Republican-sponsored bill.

Locally and statewide, its interpretation has become a total disaster and misconception with Democrats fighting Republicans and teacher’s fighting anyone that will read or listen or vice versa through every available niche in the hills and valleys of Tennessee.  One of the most popular written sounding boards is the Facebook social media page.  The overall problems seem to stem from almost no one knowing the true meaning or the ramifications associated with the bills’ interpretation and passage.  It’s a new and sudden bill never before passed in Tennessee.  Therefore, there are no parallels yet established for a positive or a negative comparison.  There are, however, many individual interpretations of the bill’s legal jargon.  Most comments seem to be hopes and wishes and rights and wrongs.

During one particular time in my life around 2001, I was paying for my youngest son, Mac, to be enrolled in a private secondary school.  In fact, there are many notable persons who graduated from public schools in DeKalb County.  Today, the only local private school is DeKalb Christian Academy.  For many years, there were no private schools in the rural township.  During the earlier years, several local persons attended the now-defunct Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon, Tennessee.  Two attendees were Walter B. Burton and Alan H. Webb, among others.  In addition, our local school system has produced a conclave of very prestigious and successful persons throughout time.

The following comparisons were taken from the Associated Press:

THE PROS:
• Competition:  Vouchers can encourage public schools to improve by competing with private schools for students.
• Access:  Vouchers can give students in failing schools access to better education.
• Segregation:  Vouchers can help overcome racial and other forms of segregation.

THE CONS:
• Funding:  Vouchers can take money away from public schools and reduce the services available to public school students.
• Inequality:  Vouchers can disproportionately benefit wealthier and more advantaged students.
• Academic performance:  Vouchers may not improve a student's academic performance.
• Special Needs:  Vouchers may not support disabled or special needs students.
• Free Market:  Vouchers treat learning like a commodity, and a free market doesn’t always work in the best interest of the consumers.

In a Friday interview with DeKalb County Trustee Sean Driver, he mathematically submitted the following numbers regarding the local taxes on a “made up” $1,000 property.  Inclusively, the local County Commissioner’s sets the yearly tax rate, which for this fiscal year is subdivided as follows.  The following pricing numbers are based on a random numerical number of $1,000.  (Driver also said that he would kill me if any of the above mathematical figures were wrong!)

• County General Fund:         $501.32
• General Purpose – Schools: $211.08
• Highway Department: $ 12.99
• Debt Service (Buildings): $245.42
• General Capital Projects: $ 29.20
• GRAND TOTAL:                       $1,000.00


Basically, in DeKalb County, Tennessee, there is $211.08 out of an estimated and randomly selected $1,000 spent on schools this calendar
year of 2025.  On a personal note, I believe this low-total is what angers many local educational members.  Remember:  This total is set yearly by the DeKalb County, Tennessee County Commissioners.  The $1,000 number is only a hypothetical amount used for an easy calculation.


I do support House bill #1004 or the Education Freedom Act, (Voucher Act) because of the money I could have saved by instantaneously and suddenly becoming a single mother of two young sons.  With most of the technical wording, I find it somewhat difficult to understand the physics, documentations and evaluations.  Each interested person seems to have a different input- a different story if you will (check Facebook).  Some comments are borderline angry while some are mathematically intricate.  There are, however, many sections that encompass the document’s purpose.  

On another similar note, when my dad was a member of Tennessee’s House of Representative from the 40th district many years ago, he introduced and supported and was the leader in the fight for a pay raise for Tennessee’s teachers.  It guaranteed most state teachers a pay increase for that particular physical year.  Dad was proud of his accomplishments, especially when many teachers in Tennessee sent thank-you letters to him.  Today, I don’t know what he would do in this current voucher situation.  I know that he would support “whatever was right” for all concerned. Because it is a first-time law, the mitigating and lasting effects relative to its passage have yet to be determined, assessed and critiqued.

Continuing today, the yearly tuition at Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Georgia, which is a private military school, is $55,443 for boarding cadets.  The tuition for one year of day school at Donelson Christian Academy in Donelson, Tennessee is $20,900.  It is a non-boarding private school.   On another note, the yearly tuition for the Webb School in Bell Buckle, Tennessee for boarding students is $80,835 and for day students, the figure is $57,490.

House bill #6004 provides the framework for how public tax dollars would fund tuition expenses for students who want to attend private school. House Majority Leader William Lamberth and Sen. Jack Johnson are the bill's primary sponsors for the Education Freedom Act of 2025. The bill included the layout for the vouchers, a one-time bonus for public school teachers and maintenance money for public school buildings across the state.  The bill sailed through four committees in seven hours this week. On Thursday, lawmakers spent hours debating the bill before the vote in both chambers.


My personal grievance with this particular House bill is the inclusion of the sentence how “maintenance money for public school buildings” has anything to do with a student’s performance educationally?  I guess a leaky faucet is the equivalent to a geography book.  The sentence is printed, yet it is not explained.  Therefore, it is open for discussion and interpretation.

Also, I “homeschooled” Mac many years ago.  From personal experience, it was a total joke.  I didn’t need to get paid.  I never did anything.  Nor did my son.

Whatever is written about this new bill floating throughout Tennessee will, in all probability, be dissected to the last letter by both political parties.  The historians and political scientists’ decisive views will determine the passing or the failing grade.  It won’t be from Democrats or Republicans.  It will be from non-biased and fair American citizens.

Be nice!

Upcoming:  How will the new voucher bill affect DeKalb County schools and teachers?