Aaron Gulbransen, executive director of the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition, said the Tennessee House of Representatives should have introduced a “clean” universal school choice bill instead of attaching additional incentives not particularly related to school choice to the bill.
While the governor’s school choice bill in the House includes additional incentives, the Senate’s version solely focuses on the governor’s proposal.
Gulbransen said the difference in the bills stem from each chamber’s majority makeup, as the Senate’s Republican supermajority is stronger than the House’s.
“I think what you’ve seen throughout this entire process – and this happens on a variety of different topics – but specifically in the school choice process, you would see the difference between the House bill and the Senate bill being a function of having 33 members versus 99 members,” Gulbransen explained on Thursday’s episode of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“I would have recommended, and have recommended, that you come up with a clean school choice bill, and if you want to do other things around it or so called add-ons, then those would be separate legislation. That is if Aaron had the magic wand,” Gulbransen added.
Gulbransen went on to note how some Republican members are against school choice, despite the issue being called the “civil rights issue of our time” by former President Donald Trump.
“I will tell you very bluntly – certain members have been poisoned by a, frankly, let’s just be called what it is – I use the word neopopulist, sometimes that goes over people’s heads – a RINO, Republican in name only, view that school choice is somehow not a Republican ideal when it’s in there black and white and part of this party platform,” Gulbransen said.
“Donald Trump says it is the civil rights issue of our time. He’s mentioned it in every State of the Union and is a big part of his campaign. It is one of those wonderful issues that is both good policy and good politics,” Gulbransen added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
