Good evening,
I respectfully invite you to reconsider your position on school choice, particularly regarding Gov. Lee’s Education Freedom proposal. While I understand that you have previously supported school choice, I ask you to hear me out as a fellow conservative Tennessean. This bill is simply false advertising.
Let’s start with our common ground. The public school system is failing our children. Recent proficiency scores I heard were abysmal from standardized testing. Children need a different option.
Now, on a superficial level, attaching money to where a student goes and giving parents “freedom” to choose a private school or homeschooling option appears to be a great idea. However, accountability is the buzzword coming from both Democrats and Republicans. This means that parents and private schools will be held accountable to state standards.
Wait, these same state standards are failing our children already. How does moving money from one bucket to another and requiring the second bucket to follow the first bucket’s rules make any long term difference? Accountability will require “teaching to the standardized test”. Private schools will have to submit to the same failed system and eventually produce the same failing results.
The school choice movement will pull all children into the same broken system rather than set children free. The money behind this movement can be traced back to the DeVos’s and other big money groups, much of that through American Federation for Children. This is not grassroots. This is not the solution we need. BUT… the plan by Gov. Lee is false advertising.
I would love the opportunity to dialogue and introduce you to a good friend who knows far more than I do about this crucial issue.
Blessings, Dr. Eric Potter
Below, you can share your concerns with the Beacon Center.
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