Lawmakers approve controversial school vouchers bill, sending it to Gov. Bill Lee

• The vouchers will only apply to students in two counties.
• This version includes grant money for rural school districts.
• The vouchers would not apply to home-school students.
• This version mandates income-verification requirements.

After months of deliberations and near-constant changes, Tennessee's school voucher legislation is now headed to the desk of Gov. Bill Lee, giving the first-term executive a major, albeit narrow, win three months after taking office. 

Despite looming questions about the bill's constitutionality and financial implications for taxpayers, a final version of the bill passed Wednesday after approval in both chambers of the General Assembly.

The education savings accounts will provide public money for parents who unenroll a student from their school district and allow them to use the funds on private school or other education-related expenses.

The program will apply to Davidson and Shelby counties and use existing education money to fund the program. For the first three years, the state would provide grants to the counties to offset the money leaving the districts with those students. 

By 2024, more than $330 million could go toward the program when the existing education funding and as much as $165 million for the new grants are taken into account. 

Landmark legislation approved

The landmark legislation was given final approval hours after a 10-member committee settled differences between the House and Senate versions of the measure. with less than 30 minutes of discussions.

The Senate approved the final version of the bill with a 19-14 vote, after losing one member who previously supported it. The House approved the bill with an initial 51-46 vote. 

The Senate and House require 17 and 50 votes, respectively, to pass legislation.   

The latest version of the bill limits the education savings account program to Shelby and Davidson counties, as well as the state-run Achievement School District, provides funding to rural schools and mandates income verification requirements.

The amendment also would not allow home-schooled students to participate in the education savings account program.

The program would remain capped at 15,000 students.  

Democrats decry lack of involvement in conference committee

The day began with an 8 a.m. conference committee meeting in which Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, presented an amended version of the bill he said no one else saw prior to the meeting. 

After offering a broad overview of the 24-page amendment, the five senators on the committee voted to approve the changes, despite Sen. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, asking for more time to read the document. 

Akbari was the lone senator to vote against Kelsey's changes. 

Later, as the bill came up for discussion on the House floor, House Minority Leader Karen Camper, D-Memphis, decried Republicans' decision to leave the two Democratic committee members in the dark before the new version of the bill was presented Wednesday morning.

"It was drafted, probably circulated among the other members on the other side, and the minority voice was not heard, yet again," Camper said from the floor, describing a lack of transparency with Democrats on "one of the most important bills this year."

The House members of the conference committee asked a few questions about the changes before unanimously voting on them. 

Unlike Akbari, Rep. Rick Staples, D-Knoxville, the lone House Democrat, voted in favor of the amendment. Afterward, Staples declined to say why he supported an initiative he wouldn't want implemented in his own county.

"Obviously, I'm glad to see that Knox County is not in it," Staples said. "That’s just being open and honest and concerned for the county I'm from."

While Staples initially declined to tell reporters how he would vote on the floor, after the House floor session began, Staples said he would be voting against the bill. "I was always going to vote no." 

However, he said he wanted to allow the updated bill to get to the floor.

Copies of the amendment were not immediately available from House and committee staffers. When asked for a copy of his amendment, Kelsey said, "I'm working."

Changes in conference committee net supporters

The latest changes to the bill helped one House member jump on board. 

Last week, the Senate approved the measure with a 20-13 vote, while the House passed its version of the bill with a 50-48 vote. 

But when the House reconsidered the measure Wednesday, Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, R-Signal Mountain, who previously voted against it, gave her approval.

Hazlewood said while she was more comfortable with the legislation, she still had concerns.

She said her concerns were alleviated after Hamilton County was removed from the bill. Her vote was "about keeping commitments" to protect her district from the program, she said. 

"However, I want to challenge us as a legislative body, both today and in the 112th legislature, to take a hard, long, objective look at this program in the next three years," Hazlewood said.

Specifically, she called on the state to immediately begin examining which students are actually enrolling in the program and whether it's the low-income students the legislation's supporters said they want to help.

Rep. Jason Zachary, R-Knoxville, who cast the tie-breaking vote in the House last week, also voted for the changes, given the elimination of Knox County from the program.

Rep. Dave Wright, R-Knoxville, who was previously recorded as a no vote on the bill, also supported its passage on Wednesday. 

Two Republican members, Reps. Martin Daniel of Knoxville and Brandon Ogles of Franklin, did not initially record votes in time, but changed their votes to yes after the fact. However, the state's official website said only 51 yes votes were on the conference committee report. 

During the Senate's deliberations, three Republicans defiantly opposed the legislation, including Sen. Steve Dickerson, R-Nashville, who said the questions over the financial aspects of the bill "is how majorities become minorities."

Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, blasted the legislation because of a provision that would prohibit families with undocumented students from receiving money. Gardenhire previously voted for the bill but switched to a no on Wednesday. 

Sen. Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains, equated the ESA program to an entitlement fund, like TennCare, the state's Medicaid program. 

"Once you start an entitlement, you can't stop it," he said. 

Additional changes to bill

Among the main additions to the bill is a section that seeks to provide assurances to lawmakers representing rural areas. That component initially helped the measure's prospects in the House.

The compromise legislation seeks to create a fund that would disburse money to any local school district that has priority schools. 

Rep. Matthew Hill, R-Jonesborough, touted that aspect as a benefit to the state's 93 counties that aren't participating in the ESA program. 

"That money ... goes to where? The other 93 counties and those places that have priority schools," Hill said on the floor. 

But according to the state's latest data, just five counties outside of Shelby and Davidson counties have priority schools. 

When later pressed on the fact that just five counties outside Shelby and Davidson counties would receive the money aimed for rural areas, Hill told the USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee, "There's going to be a new (priority schools) list produced."

He did not clarify how many more counties could be added on the forthcoming list. 

The updated bill removds the House's mandate that students in the program take the TNReady social studies and science tests, instead only requiring that they take the standardized math and English exams.

Democrats, Republicans argue over whether voucher bill will expand

Another change is the addition of a severability clause. The clause would mean if a judge were to determine the program's limitation to Shelby and Davidson counties was unconstitutional, the program would end, according to a staff member in House Speaker Glen Casada's office. 

During the House floor session, House Minority caucus chairman Mike Stewart, D-Nashville, said the severability clause would not do what supporters say.

"This doesn't do anything," Stewart said. "This will have absolute statewide application, if the judge, as we suspect, rules that Davidson and Shelby limitation doesn't work."

Overall, Stewart said the effort to "jam" the legislation through on Wednesday was being in done "in hope that people will not actually read the conference report."

Speaking to members from the floor during debate, Stewart warned them that he believed vouchers would make their way to their districts, too.

"If you're for vouchers all across the state, in every county across the state, then this bill is obviously for you," Stewart said. "Don't delude yourself into thinking this is only going to have limited application, because it's obviously not."

Rep. Mike Carter, R-Ooltewah, disputed Stewart's claim. 

"To say the bill is going to extend to your counties is merely, in my humble opinion, fear-mongering," Carter said.

He asserted that the language of the bill was solid in protecting Tennessee from a court ruling that would require the bill to expand statewide.

"It is our intention that if the bill is found unconstitutional, it (will) not be construed in any way to expand to any other counties," Carter said. "These pants are not only held up by a belt, but they're held up by suspenders, as well."

Rep. G.A. Hardaway, D-Memphis, raised a concern similar to Stewart, pointing out that the bill did not include a sunset date for the program.

"You will have vouchers that will come to your tiny districts and eat up your little dollars that you need in order for your LEAs to survive," Hardaway said.

He also suggested that the state would "see worse segregation in the coming years than you have seen in your lifetime," as a result of students leaving for private schools.

The bill also contains a provision that prohibits local education boards from filing a lawsuit over the program. That prohibition, however, does not extend to other interested parties. 

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Reach Joel Ebert at jebert@tennessean.com or 615-772-1681 and on Twitter @joelebert29. Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.