Tennessee school voucher vote too close to call

The Tennessee House vote on a school voucher plan Monday is expected to be extremely close.

So close that embattled Rep. Jeremy Durham, R-Franklin, could come out of his two-week hiatus early to vote on the matter.

Legislative sources confirmed pro-voucher organizations have approached Durham about attending Monday night's vote. Durham and his assistant didn't respond to a request for comment Friday.

House Republican Caucus Chairman Glen Casada, R-Franklin, said as of Friday the vote count was fluid, but there were likely 40 or some members both for and against the provision.

He agreed that the pro-voucher contingent would need every vote it could get, but was unsure whether Durham would attend the 5 p.m. floor session.

"He has not contacted me, but he probably wouldn’t, because he's no longer in the caucus. So I don’t know what he's going to do Monday," Casada said.

School vouchers have unintended consequences

If Durham does come, Casada said then that's a sign he was able to "break away from his treatment and his help that he’s seeking."

"If he's outpatient-based, he’s got flexibility to come and go, especially in the evening," Casada said, noting he was speculating on the nature of Durham's treatment.

In late January, Durham resigned from the House Republican Caucus and was granted two weeks away from legislative work. If he returns Monday, he'd be coming back several days earlier than two weeks from the day he stepped away from the caucus.

Tennessee voucher bill passes House finance committee

The fight is expected to be a drawn out battle. Anti-voucher lawmakers will try to get an amendment on the bill in case it doesn't die in the House.

Bill sponsor Rep. Bill Dunn, R-Knoxville, said he believes he has a little over 50 votes in favor of the bill.

"I think the votes are there, we just need to make sure everyone shows up," he said. "If the undecided break our way, I think we will be fine."

Anti-voucher Republican Rep. David Alexander, from Winchester, however, was confident there were enough votes to kill the bill.

"We have a very close vote, and I believe we have the votes to stop it," he said. "It is right on the line."

Groups for and against vouchers have been meeting with legislators all last week, and two pro-voucher groups have spent big in advance of Monday’s vote.

Gov. Bill Haslam talks education and vouchers

The most recently filed campaign donation filings reveal that two political action committees — Tennessee Federation for Children and Tennessee Parents/Teachers Putting Students First —  have dropped more than $131,000 to 66 members of the General Assembly in the last seven months.

Between July 17 and Jan. 7, the two PACs made 95 donations to various lawmakers, including Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, House Speaker Beth Harwell, Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, and Dunn.

More than $87,000 was given to 52 members of the House, while 14 state senators received $44,100, with donations ranging from $500 to $14,000. Dunn and Gardenhire received donations of $1,000 and $8,100, respectively.

The vast majority of the donations went to Republicans, with only three Democrats — Reps. Raumesh Akbari, Harold Love Jr. and John DeBerry Jr. — taking donations from the two PACs.

Tennessee Federation for Children is an arm of the American Federation for Children, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that advocates education reforms involving “school choice” for parents.

The committee reported receiving $90,000 in contributions between mid-July and the end of the year. The money came from a variety of donors, including a $25,000 donation from American Federation for Children; Lee Barfield, an attorney at Bass Berry Simms who gave the PAC $25,000, and Lee Beaman, owner of Beaman Automotive, who wrote the group a $20,000 check.

Tennessee Parents/Teachers Putting Students First is an offshoot of California-based StudentsFirst, which was founded by Michelle Rhee, a former District of Columbia school superintendent. Reporting $56,200 in contributions between July and October, the national organization was the sole donor to the Tennessee PAC.

House Bill 1049 provides a limited program offering government-funded scholarships that can be used for private school tuition.

To be eligible for the program, students would have to qualify for free or reduced lunches and be zoned for or attend a school that is in the bottom 5 percent of all schools in the state. The bill caps the number of students who can apply, with an eventual expansion to 20,000 vouchers.

If there are unused vouchers, the remainder may be awarded to students who reside in a district that contains at least one school in the bottom 5 percent of schools. Those students must be at-risk, Dunn said.

The bill is unlikely to be used by private schools with a higher cost of tuition, but schools could use donations or scholarships to make up the difference. If the school accepts the voucher, the cost is considered payment in full for the family.

Schools with higher tuition such as the University School of Nashville, which has a tuition upwards of $19,000 for its high school, likely won't accept vouchers — although some haven't completely ruled out the idea.

But there are many with lower tuition, mostly religious schools, that have said they will take part in the program

Reach Jason Gonzales at 615-259-8047 and on Twitter @ByJasonGonzales.