Parents have a choice in education

               Gazing backwards upon history reveals many critical choices which left ongoing determining influences upon public life.  In the legislative sphere, the passage of many laws marked significant trajectory changes in the nature of society.  Civil rights legislation, the passage of Medicare, or social security in past decades all marked moments when public life changed from one way of life to another.  This year, parents in Tennessee stand at such a fork in the road in regard to the education of children in our state as our Governor proposes something he calls Education Freedom. A choice must be made by our state in regard to whether or not we want to pay the necessary price for this so-called freedom.  As parents whose children’s lives will be greatly influenced by this legislative decision, we should think carefully about this decision and speak up with a clear, unified voice in influencing the future trajectory of our children’s education.  If we do not stand up for our children, legislators and lobbyists will be left in charge of shaping our children’s future.

               No one can honestly argue that Tennessee excels in educating its next generation.  Too many statistics reveal dismal numbers on various statistics.  Recent reports indicate for the entire state the percent of students achieving a grade appropriate score on standardized testing is less than half the students. (for other evaluations of Tennessee schools look at self reported “report cards”). Other random news reports document the outcomes of bullying in our schools which result in anything from increased diagnoses of mental illness to suicides. If that were not enough, nighttime news reports offer the peppering of school employees having illicit relationships and “contact” with students.  Meanwhile parents have to fight the constant attempt to force Critical Race Theory and failed Common Core methods upon vulnerable children. Our public education system in Tennessee clearly has a rottenness that is afflicting our next generation.

               Parents and the public express dismay about these statistics and reports, but none of us can address this issue alone.  The current options besides their local public school for parents have for their own children are to either homeschool, pay for private school, or move to a different school district.  While many can argue that these are not all viable options for all parents, they are still options that most parents can choose even if it means some sacrifice for the sake of their children.  These options are available thanks to legal freedoms that the current government recognizes and our society supports in general.  When addressing the wider picture of educating Tennessee’s children as a whole, parents must speak together so that these options are not taken away in the process.  Tennessee must keep these present options while effectively addressing the dismal status of our current system for all involved. 

               This brings us to the choice before parents today, a choice which our Governor Lee has proposed though not written out for the public to evaluate (as of January 18th, the bill’s proposed wording is still not available to the public).  Currently, the policy form of school choice, in which the state supplies a set amount of monetary funding for a child to attend a private school rather than their designated public school, is now active in 3 Tennessee counties.  The Governor proposes that this smaller pilot program for 3 counties should be expanded to the entire state for at least 20,000 students but eventually for as many as want it.  Superficially, it would seem cruel and uncompassionate to argue against such an appealing and seemingly noble proposal that all children should be able to attend the best schools their parents can choose for them. 

               When such a momentous opportunity is presented for anyone to shape the course of the future for so many children and thus our future society, such a superficial and reflexively quick acceptance of such a presently vague proposal is however unwise.  Anyone paying attention to the past few years should know that the good intentions of government do not always produce what they promise or what we want.  Anyone who has watched the course of any public policy implementation knows that there are secondary consequences for any major policy decision.  Anyone who has progressed beyond elementary common core math knows that such government programs cost money, lots of it, and practically always more than what was initially stated.  With all of this and our children’s education in mind, Tennessee parents must pause and be sure we are choosing the right fork in the policy road before we are stuck going downhill without any brakes.

               Participating wisely in this decision-making process for our children’s future requires an open-eyed evaluation of our current limited school choice program in the 3 counties where it operates as well as considering the unofficial proposals we have heard from our Governor and other lawmakers.  We cannot yet evaluate the actual bill since it exists only in the clutches of our leaders hidden in the dark backrooms of the capitol where no parent can presently read it for its actual details.  For the currently operating program we can consider what outcomes it has produced in the years since passage in 2019, the statistics publicly available for its participants, the money trail that flows through it, and the rules that govern it.  For the future proposal still waiting to be formally released, we can consider the proposed numbers for the program, the possible strings that may be attached to the program recipients, the money trail proposed for this larger program, and the perspectives or hints from various lawmakers who have spoken to the media on this choice. 

Return Monday for part 2 addressing the status of the current Tennessee School Choice program.

Bibliography:

                Anytime that anyone spends any money, we want to assure that we are getting what we paid for.  If we are considering whether or not to buy the next book in the school choice series, we should consider if the last book gave us the results we had hoped for.  With school choice, a primary foundation for implementation is to improve the education of the children receiving the scholarship or voucher.  The initial report on North Carolina State recipients was initially mildly encouraging. In a comparison of 245 students receiving voucher funding for private school enrollment, language scores improved but not math scores.  When further analyzing the data, these improvements were primarily in voucher studens from Catholic schools who were already administering the test being used to compare.  This suggested a potential bias in that the Catholic schools were teaching to the standardized test used for comparison giving them an advantage.  Given the difficulty of such a comparison even with standardized testing, further comparison was made and another study conducted.  This time the results by Duke University were less encouraging as described in the Helms article.               

“The Duke study, published in 2020, reports that initial requirements to provide some measure of academic outcomes have been weakened or ignored, and that ‘“’the data do not exist due to the lack of comparable testing between public and private school students.’”’”

This would seem poorly supportive of implementing school choice   Both logic and general consensus in education agree that using a curriculum which prepares students for a particular standardized test usually results in better test scores on that particular test, but not always for a different standardized test.  The study acknowledged multiple formidable challenges in creating an apples to apples comparison to determine true outcomes for school choice programs.  With taking all into consideration, especially the potential confounding factors of curriculum choices influencing test scores, the assurance of school choice supporters that we are getting our money’s worth is a little thin.   As I described in a prior article, this lack of impressive return on investment is common across other state programs which have attempted similar assessments.

                While the largest number of students still attend public or private schools, a sizable number of parents are choosing to homeschool their children for a variety of reasons.  Although, a program to fund private schools would not seem to automatically impact these homeschoolers, as is often the case with government, reality is not so simple.  At this point in North Carolina, I cannot find anyone who has clearly reported on positive or negative impacts on homeschoolers who elect to receive school choice funding or those who don’t.  As noted earlier, the statewide homeschooling association advises against participation in the current program for a number of reasons.  No one has reported on how many homeschoolers have or plan to participate and receive a school voucher.  No one has reported on any outcomes in these cases.  North Carolina homeschoolers already have to administer a state standardized test yearly, so school choice does not add any burden in this regard.

                As with any legislation, the first round which passes can seem innocuous, not adding strings or limitations to homeschooling freedoms.  The future alterations can be a greater source of danger. The next legislative session can amend the innocuous prior bill and add restrictive strings without having to fight the entire original battle for passing.  This can happen without anyone noticing until it is too late.  In North Carolina, a survey by the NCHEA would seem encouraging in how many current legislators reported being homeschoolers or having a positive attitude towards them, but some quoted responses were clearly a little off (Candidate Survey Results).  Given some of the proposed bills in recent sessions (NCHE Legislative Update), North Carolina homeschooling parents should not relax and trust their children’s educational freedoms to these supportive opinions.  Even if the legislators don’t make changes, there is a risk that the educational bureaucracy will “interpret” passed legislation differently than lawmakers intended.  We saw this recently in Tennessee regarding when legislation to remove the immunization reporting requirement for homeschoolers was reinterpreted as not removing the requirement by the state’s education department.  Lawmakers had to make a formal statement of their intent before the educational bureaucrats relented.  Similar reinterpretations occurred in Indiana.

                Looking at this School Choice book in the series, we in Tennessee should consider if we want to purchase a Tennessee edition or not.  We can see similar patterns developing already beginning with the small size start up in a few Tennessee counties now being pushed to expand across the state.  We see similar outside funding sources pushing this agenda as I describe in another article (LINK) with American Federation for Children along with 50CAN pouring money into Tennessee organizations just like North Carolina.  We already see several instances of charter schools which already receive current school choice money being caught up in fraud and wasted taxpayer money. (Tennessee Public Education Coalition 2022).  The funding for Tennessee is projected in the hundreds of millions like North Carolina, but so far politicians have been promising that public education will not lose funding.  That means the money has to come from somewhere since our government can’t grow it on trees (just printing presses).  A clear answer to that “where” has not been forthcoming so far.  The accountability debate is already in full swing in Tennessee as liberals and public-school advocates as well as conservatives demand to know how government money is being spent.  While many claim that no strings will be attached, no one should believe for a minute that regulations will not follow the money which is following the child to a private school or to a homeschool.

                Tennessee citizens, whether being parents or not, should also ask whether we will get any better results from all this money than North Carolina is receiving.  While parent satisfaction scores from other states do increase (Rhinesmith 2017) can we consider these debatable score improvements worth the effort and cost?  Is the greater determinant from which curriculum is chosen and thus the score depends more on preparation by a school for a particular test than the actual quality of instruction at a private school instead of a public school. 

                For homeschooling families in Tennessee who currently possess a little more freedom to do so than North Carolina families, what can we expect Tennessee’s version of school choice to bring.  For those who take the voucher money, they should expect at least a few accountability strings.  For those who don’t accept such government funding, will we be sucked into the regulations since many of us homeschool under umbrella programs.  While umbrella school involvement in homeschooling is not an option in North Carolina, Tennessee umbrella schools which accept voucher students could be forced to comply with more regulations. These regulations would eventually filter down to all homeschoolers in their umbrella schools even if they don’t accept voucher money themselves.  This is an unanswered question at present.  While I would not trust North Carolina legislators’ good wishes for homeschooling which they claim, I definitely would not trust our Tennessee legislators given past bill proposals like HB1214 in 2023.  Without significant pushback from homeschoolers, homeschooling freedoms would have been harmed.   During interactions with legislators regarding that bill, one lawmaker expressed concern for parents who claimed to be homeschooling, but who instead used that as excuse to take their children out of school.  This lawmaker wanted more regulations over all homeschoolers for the potential tiny numbers of parents who might do this.  Clearly, the lawmakers don’t trust the majority of parents to educate their own children. 

                In conclusion, school choice, whether called a voucher or a scholarship, is not automatically a win for either the students who participate or for those who don’t.  Tennessee, like North Carolina, is being intentionally influenced by forces outside the state.  There will be a similar high dollar cost without a clear reward.  The proposed program may have negative effects on homeschool legal code.  Homeschoolers must stay vigilant and not trust our legislators who generally believe that government and their elite bureaucratic advisors know what is best for our children.  In both Tennessee and North Carolina, we therefore have the same school choice book publishers pushing the same agenda trying to promote another tearjerker solution for our failing public education system promising a better ending while spending lots of money on an unproven storyline of school choice.  I say, “Let’s put the book back on the shelf and try a different book.”

Bibliography for Parts 1 and 2:

Associated Press. (2023, April 20). N.C. Lawsuit Over Private School Scholarship Program dismissed. NC lawsuit over private school scholarship program dismissed. https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/news/2023/04/20/n-c–lawsuit-over-private-school-scholarship-program-dismissed

Candidate survey results. North Carolinians for Home Education. (n.d.). https://www.nche.com/candidate-survey-results/

Egalite, A. J., Stallings, D. T., & Porter, S. R. (2020). An Analysis of the Effects of North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarship Program on Student Achievement. AERA Open, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858420912347

Helms, A. D. (2023, June 30). How do North Carolina’s School Vouchers Work? as expansion looms, here are answers. WFAE 90.7 – Charlotte’s NPR News Source. https://www.wfae.org/education/2023-06-30/how-do-north-carolinas-school-vouchers-work-as-expansion-looms-here-are-answers

Kotch, A. (2014, August 29). The Big Money For and against school vouchers in North Carolina. Facing South. https://www.facingsouth.org/2014/08/the-big-money-for-and-against-school-vouchers-in-n.html

Mason, S. (2021, March 17). The ever-present opposition to Home Education. North Carolinians for Home Education. https://www.nche.com/opposition-to-home-education/

McClellan, H. (2023, April 26). Bill expanding N.C. Private School vouchers to all students moves forward in Senate. EducationNC. https://www.ednc.org/04-26-2023-bill-expanding-n-c-private-school-vouchers-to-all-students-moves-forward-in-senate/

Nordstrom, K. (2023, June 16). New analysis shows many private schools in N.C. have more vouchers than students. North Carolina Justice Center. https://www.ncjustice.org/analysis-nc-private-school-voucher-program/

North Carolina Legal Code 115C-562. Chapter 115C – Article 39. (n.d.). https://www.ncleg.net/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/byarticle/chapter_115c/article_39.html

Rhinesmith, Evan (2017) A review of the research on parent satisfaction in private school choice programs, Journal of School Choice, 11:4, 585-603, DOI: 10.1080/15582159.2017.1395639

State Policy Network. North Carolina Passes School Choice. (2023, September 25). https://spn.org/articles/north-carolina-passes-school-choice/

Tennessee Public Education Coalition. (2022, March 10). How charter schools and vouchers harm Tennessee students: Opinion. The Tennessean. https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2022/03/10/tennessee-educaiton-charter-schools-tennessee-public-education-coalition/9422346002/#:~:text=Knowledge%20Academies%20in%20Nashville%20lost,annual%20revenue%20of%20%247.1%20million%3B

                The first book you read from a series often determines whether or not you end up buying a sequel.  You can make a relatively reliable prediction about another book in the series by looking at a prior book.  Likewise, we can make some predictions about school choice efforts in Tennessee by looking at other Southern states whose book we can review first.  North Carolina offers a reasonable example for this school choice book review for several reasons.  As a southern state with a mix of rural and urban counties, it has about a 10-year history with school choice.  Like others including the current path in Tennessee, it started with a smaller program advancing until the decision to go universal and bigger is now underway.  It had its court battles to shape its final product as others challenged different aspects of its design.  Like Tennessee, their design includes a voucher or scholarship form in which the state writes a check to the chosen private school on behalf of the student. All together, this resembles Tennessee’s current and future proposed approach sufficiently for a comparative review to determine if we want to shelve current Tennessee universal school choice proposals.

                Tennessee does not have to be an exact replica of North Carolina to use the latter for comparison as patterns will arise with similar setting and program design.  With some awareness of what Tennessee could get itself into, we can try to avoid similar problems or choose to forgo school choice all together.  At the very least, we can make some informed decisions rather than just on altruistic propaganda and idealism.  We cannot just trust the false advertising that the Tennessee book in the school choice series will be amazingly better than the North Carolina book or any other state we could look at.

                While just reading a book does not require any organization other than reading from end to end, making a comparison of North Carolina’s school choice story requires a little more planning.  First, we should consider if North Carolina in general resembles Tennessee.  Second, we should consider the problems we see in North Carolina surrounding school choice. These include who is driving or funding the movement, instances of fraud, the actual cost of the program, regulations imposed on private schools, and the actual outcomes of the program.  Third, for those of us who homeschool in Tennessee, we should consider direct or indirect effects on homeschool freedoms already enjoyed and potential changes given the opinions and patterns of legislators.  With that in mind, we can better determine if we want this change to come to Tennessee as our Governor proposes.

                Beginning with the general characteristics of North Carolina and its school choice program, we can see many similarities.  As previously noted, both Tennessee and North Carolina are Southern states with a mix of urban and rural counties, each of which experience school choice effects differently.  Beyond that their legislature is strongly Republican controlled such that they can shape the school choice policies to their liking and the Democrats are not to blame for school choice in general.  Having started small in 2013 (State Policy Network 2022) North Carolina’s program initially only included low-income families, but as of September of 2023, became a universal school choice state.  Based on the website for North Carolina Home Educators Association, homeschoolers there are advised to not accept state funding through this program due to potential for increased governmental control of homeschooling.  Homeschoolers already have to administer yearly tests and comply with other rules (we don’t have these requirements yet in Tennessee).  Homeschoolers in that state do not want more strings than they already have. At least in Tennessee, this is an important difference which homeschoolers should seek to maintain.

                As a Southern state seeking to keep the influence of outside forces from excessively impacting legislation and policies for Tennessee citizens, we must look at the funding behind these school choice efforts in both North Carolina and Tennessee.  There are similarities.  In North Carolina, someone analyzed organizations on both sides of the school choice debate and identified significant non-North Carolina sources of money.  We know that money influences politics through lobbying and public relations campaigns on the surface as well as formal and “informal” donations behind the scenes.   Alex Kotch wrote a revealing article in 2014 describing the influence of national organizations like the American Federations for Children promoting school choice while the National Education Association (representing teachers) spent money against school choice.  Mr. Kotch’s article provides further details on organizations within North Carolina who received money from these national organizations and how their money was spent to influence North Carolina elections and legislation.  (more about funding in another WPWL blog).  The State Policy Network website also mentions other organizations they credit with getting the recent 2023 universal expansion passed: “John Locke Foundation, 50CAN, EdChoice, ExcelinEd, and” (again) “the American Federation for Children.”  While Alex Kotch’s article includes the local groups lobbying for school choice, we can see that money outside the state likely played a major role in passing both rounds of North Carolina’s school choice legislation.  We will compare this to Tennessee in a bit.

                Anytime that big money like that associated with school choice programs begins to flow outward from any source including government, the potential for fraud grows.  The sinful nature of mankind will draw those who are seeking to gather some of this money without actually providing the service required for the money.  A report by the North Carolina Justice Center in June of 2023 reported that they found several instances of schools reporting having enrolled more school choice voucher students than they had reported as even enrolled in the whole school (Nordstrom 2023).  There was at least one instance of a school having to return such money confirming an error without addressing intentionality of the error (Nordstrom 2023).  The other concern expressed by school choice opponents has been the potential for fake schools to receive such government money.  If one follows the state reports on which schools are filed as private schools and how many voucher students they receive, you will see that many small schools come and go.  It is not clear if these are truly small schools that simply failed like any other business, or were never real in the first place.  Besides the outright financial fraud that occurs, many have questioned the quality of these schools in flux which is a reasonable question given the varying results reported further below. 

                Another comparison to consider is the cost of any government program, especially one with the sizable price tag attached to school choice.  The initial cost for North Carolina’s initial program for lower income families amounted to around 44 million for the 2017-2018 school year (McClellan 2023).  Now that their program has gone nuclear, I mean universal, the projections for year 2031 are around 500 million dollars (McClellan 2023).  Echoing the prior point about fraud, this amount of money will attract a lot of flies trying to fly away with some government money.  Even for the legitimate parents and private schools, such an influx of available money will greatly influence the economy of private schooling and public education in the state.  Since the idea’s inception, opponents of school choice have argued that removing those dollars from local schools will be devastating.  While no supporter of public education myself, I know that such a gap will be filled somehow from other government money and ultimately taxpayers.  I would like to see the public education system replaced completely, but given that the majority of conservatives and liberals both profess support for educating our future generations, neither side will let the public system ultimately fail or be replaced by something better.  Someone from some governmental office somewhere will be shifting other taxpayer funds to cover the gap.  I await to see what happens in North Carolina with the new Universal program. 

                With government money we always get accountability strings.  This seems intuitively reasonable as the citizen’s tax money deserves such accountability to be sure it is not wasted on fraud or poor outcomes.  Again, echoing the reality of fraud in any money giveaway by the government, we the taxpayers deserve to know that government is spending our money on what they say they are spending it on.  In general, conservatives and liberals can agree on this in principle even not perfectly in application.  For school choice funds, this means that private schools and parents of the children must comply with certain regulations or risk either losing the money or other legal repercussions.  One big debate in North Carolina (Associated Press 2023) centered around whether religious schools could receive government funding without violating separation of church and state.  For now, it was ruled constitutional, and no school is restricted based on teaching religious beliefs in their classrooms.  Time will tell if this freedom continues.  Another debate that is still underway addresses whether participating schools can refuse entry to students who disagree with their worldview regarding issues like gender, marriage, and other cultural dividing points.  This will be influenced by whether or not federal money is used as that money clearly contains thick strings regarding discrimination legalities.  Besides such issues of worldview, the North Carolina legislation does include a few strings explicitly.  All students in North Carolina are already required to take standardized tests so that has not changed with school choice initiation.  The legal code also includes the requirement for a certified public accountant to review the use of voucher money if it exceeds a specified amount.  The school is further prohibited from adding additional charges to voucher students based solely on being a voucher student which means that any increase in administrative costs will be spread over the entire student body, potentially increasing everyone’s costs of enrollment.  Schools with 25 or more students receiving North Carolina school vouchers must report an aggregate score for those students.  With this information, the school can be assessed on its success rate.  (North Carolina 115C-562).

Return in a few days for part 2

Bibliography of Parts 1 and 2:

Associated Press. (2023, April 20). N.C. Lawsuit Over Private School Scholarship Program dismissed. NC lawsuit over private school scholarship program dismissed. https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/news/2023/04/20/n-c–lawsuit-over-private-school-scholarship-program-dismissed

Candidate survey results. North Carolinians for Home Education. (n.d.). https://www.nche.com/candidate-survey-results/

Egalite, A. J., Stallings, D. T., & Porter, S. R. (2020). An Analysis of the Effects of North Carolina’s Opportunity Scholarship Program on Student Achievement. AERA Open, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858420912347

Helms, A. D. (2023, June 30). How do North Carolina’s School Vouchers Work? as expansion looms, here are answers. WFAE 90.7 – Charlotte’s NPR News Source. https://www.wfae.org/education/2023-06-30/how-do-north-carolinas-school-vouchers-work-as-expansion-looms-here-are-answers

Kotch, A. (2014, August 29). The Big Money For and against school vouchers in North Carolina. Facing South. https://www.facingsouth.org/2014/08/the-big-money-for-and-against-school-vouchers-in-n.html

Mason, S. (2021, March 17). The ever-present opposition to Home Education. North Carolinians for Home Education. https://www.nche.com/opposition-to-home-education/

McClellan, H. (2023, April 26). Bill expanding N.C. Private School vouchers to all students moves forward in Senate. EducationNC. https://www.ednc.org/04-26-2023-bill-expanding-n-c-private-school-vouchers-to-all-students-moves-forward-in-senate/

Nordstrom, K. (2023, June 16). New analysis shows many private schools in N.C. have more vouchers than students. North Carolina Justice Center. https://www.ncjustice.org/analysis-nc-private-school-voucher-program/

North Carolina Legal Code 115C-562. Chapter 115C – Article 39. (n.d.). https://www.ncleg.net/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/byarticle/chapter_115c/article_39.html

Rhinesmith, Evan (2017) A review of the research on parent satisfaction in private school choice programs, Journal of School Choice, 11:4, 585-603, DOI: 10.1080/15582159.2017.1395639

State Policy Network. North Carolina Passes School Choice. (2023, September 25). https://spn.org/articles/north-carolina-passes-school-choice/

Tennessee Public Education Coalition. (2022, March 10). How charter schools and vouchers harm Tennessee students: Opinion. The Tennessean. https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2022/03/10/tennessee-educaiton-charter-schools-tennessee-public-education-coalition/9422346002/#:~:text=Knowledge%20Academies%20in%20Nashville%20lost,annual%20revenue%20of%20%247.1%20million%3B

(Interspersing a series on School choice in the midst of my series on Mental Health Crisis solutions.)

“We should experiment in the states with a number of governance arrangements, leverage these laboratories of democracy, and see what works,” asserted Marc Magee, sociologist and founder of the 50Can advocacy organization, discussing the viability of the standard school district structures for promoting excellence in education.” (Smarick 2023).

While he spoke thus over a decade ago, he is using the same kind of language today regarding the education of your children- experiment, reimagine, innovate and words such as these can be found throughout 50CAN’s website and blogs.  In a recent 2023 example, you can read about Mr. Magee’s desire to experiment with AI in the education of your children.  He wants to see educational efforts put forth in “continuing to experiment with AI, which has evolved so much since we first looked at ChatGPT seven months ago” (Magee 2023).  As a self-proclaimed admirer of public education in its first 100 years (until the 1970’s), Mr. Magee has styled himself and his organization as leaders in advocacy for public education innovation (experimentation) at the state level repeatedly expressing a desire to harness “new” and here-to-for private methods of education like micro-schools and homeschools by using public money-which of course means public accountability (TNCAN 2023, Smarick 2023).  Even today in Tennessee, 50CAN, known as TennesseeCAN in our state, is moving forward, working with our elected representatives promoting continual educational innovation- or shall we say educational experimentation.

According to 50CAN, educational experimentation plans move forward in large part through political advocacy, and therefore, they have established an advocacy model and developed training programs over the last decade.  Mr. Magee and others have released a short booklet with a long title called A Little Opposition is a Good Thing and Other Lessons from the Science of Advocacy (Magee 2019).  It highlights themes from academic research covering revolutionary movements and political change movements across the span of modernity.  In this 66-page booklet, recommended choices for advocates working in the various states are laid out.  In our case, here in Tennessee, it appears that some of those tactics are already being used in growing a public campaign for universal school vouchers and attempting to gain support for their yet to be revealed legislation. 

In this booklet, the first lesson reads, “A little opposition is a good thing.”  In this section, the writers assert that the literature shows that indifference to a change issue more accurately predicts political failure than opposition to that change.   Therefore, they recommend that “…. advocates should embrace it [opposition] and use the energy of their opponents to gain attention for their side” (p.11). This may be the tactic we see at play right now given the fanfare accompanying the November announcement of the plan for “Education Freedom” legislation in the upcoming legislative session.  In addition, there have been reports of at least one meeting where a TN CAN advocate was present to discuss this legislation with the public.  Are they stirring up the energy of the opposition? Pushing the issue to forefront of the upcoming political season and positioning “their” legislators to take a stand on this legislative issue?  This booklet would make you think this a distinct possibility.

Another tactic in their advocacy playbook tells “…advocates [to] move quickly to catch the status quo off guard when new innovations emerge, and then pay attention to how their opponents respond to their actions.” Here, indeed they may to be trying to catch us off guard, moving on the universal voucher (school choice) issue before the current charter school experiments in places like Memphis and Nashville have had time to mature thereby disrupting plans.  In addition, the universal aspect of this proposal has direct implications for homeschoolers in Tennessee who have enjoyed a good measure of stability and freedom over the last few decades.  Further, this sudden disruption of the status quo gives advocacy groups insight into the opposition coming from various sides of the political aisle.  They can watch this gauging their next political move while they themselves have not provided any concrete plans in the form of an actual bill.  Instead, the parents and citizens of Tennessee have been left with more questions than answers when it comes to this sweeping but rather general proposal.  Perhaps the instability of the proposal itself seen in such early promises of “no strings” morphing somehow into an assurance for “accountability” or “strings” with the use of public money is a part of the political drama enacted upon us for their informational benefit.  Is the chaos of this proposal intentional?  Again, their small booklet with a long name makes one wonder.

In yet another advocacy tip, the booklet proposes that befriending legislators and being a reliable informational resource tend to produce desired political change for an issue.  Apparently, the advocates in Tennessee have been working on these relationships for several years (see their yearly TN Policy Report Cards going back to 2015).  According to their literature, the advocates or lobbyists best serve their cause by “…working as an extension of the staff of aligned elected officials. Researchers see this kind of lobbying as a form of government subsidy, where outsiders pay to help elected officials carry out the elected officials’ own plans.”  Evidently considering themselves as staff members of our elected officials (yet without direct accountability to the people), they claim to be writing the legislation behind closed doors (information received from people attending their meeting).  Who did we elect to make the laws?  Advocacy groups like 50CAN, funded by billionaires? OR state senators and representatives accountable to the citizens of Tennessee?   (LINK TO PRIOR WPWL ARTICLE)

The observations above along with information found in 50CAN’s own website and literature may give us insight into what we see being enacted in Tennessee as the legislative session nears, and now the parents of Tennessee find themselves in the following situation.  We have a major media announcement by our Governor of plans for sweeping changes to education funding in our state. Funding using public money to pay for private services.   However, the bill itself does not yet exist and is reportedly being crafted by an unelected advocacy agency (or perhaps agencies) behind closed doors.  Many of our elected officials, including the sponsor himself, express ignorance of the bill’s contents to date and have only made some general comments about what it might say.  Many legislators refuse to take a stand one way or another on the issue since no bill has been proposed or work out thus far. Additionally, we are likely being played by well-funded agencies like 50CAN who are using their advocacy playbook moves to try to gain the upper hand so that they can add our children to their grand sociological experiment funded by billionaires and elitists.  

Indeed, as parents in Tennessee, we must be the opposition they are looking for.  We must strongly oppose any form of public money funding any form of private education in our state, particularly in the form of universal vouchers “given” by the very government that broke the system in the first place.  We must say “NO” to experimentation with our children, and think Biblically on this issue.  The family is accountable to God and His truth in providing for their children’s worldview and education- public money makes us legally accountable to the state and its worldview.  These public monies proposals do not move us forward but backward in family and parental freedom to choose.

While groups like 50Can (TNCAN) may run their advocacy plays upon the legislators and the citizenry, Tennessee parents must be clear.  We will not allow sociologists and elitists to experiment with our children or take away our private choice.  Be the wise and prepared opposition. Protect your children and protect your family’s educational choices otherwise the proposed universal School Choice experiment could end up becoming a loss of all choice leaving everyone with only State Choice.  

Citations:

Magee, M. P. (2019, October). A Little Opposition is a Good Thing and Other Lessons from the Science of Advocacy. 50CAN.org. https://50can.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/14/2019/09/Science-of-Advocacy-2019.pdf

Magee   , M. P. (2023, November 19). The New Reality Roundup – Round 190. 50CAN National. https://50can.org/blog/the-new-reality-roundup-week-190

Research reports. TennesseeCAN. (2023, December 15). https://tn-can.org/research-and-resources/research/

Smarick, A. (n.d.). By the company it keeps: Marc Porter Magee. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute. https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/company-it-keeps-marc-porter-magee

Tennessee CAN. (2022). 2022 TENNESSEE POLICY REPORT CARD. https://tn-can.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/FINAL_TNCAN-2023-PolicyReportCard-web-compressed.pdf

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.

https://www.beacontn.org/tell-your-story