School voucher 'choices' won't help most students
Lawmakers pushing school vouchers again argue they would provide more choices for low-income students in Tennessee’s four biggest counties.
That’s a bunch of hooey. The choice would be up to private school administrators, not the student or parents. The truth is the $5,400 per child in taxpayer money that would be allocated won’t touch tuition at most private schools in Nashville.
And that means it would be up to the private school to decide which students they would admit with financial aid. Who would they pick? Only the best, brightest and strongest athletes. And that’s no choice at all for most public school students.
“The choice is up to the admissions office of the private schools,” said Mark North, a Metro School Board member.
Here are a few examples of tuition for which $5,400 in vouchers would not come close to paying, all taken directly from the schools’ websites: Tuition at Overbrook School is $11,200 for kindergarten through eighth grade. Vouchers are supported by Tennessee’s Catholic dioceses, which said the average tuition in kindergarten through eighth grade is $5,000. It’s $10,000 for Catholic families of