Tennessee State Senator Mark Pody (R-Lebanon) addressed two concerns he has heard from families that choose to homeschool their children regarding Governor Bill Lee’s universal school choice program, which would give $7,000 education savings account scholarships to 20,000 qualifying students in the first year of its inception.
“[Homeschoolers] have real concerns and they’re genuine,” Pody said on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show. “These objections are real because there’s something that is an underlying statement: If government funds it, government runs it. So if you take government money, no matter where you are or what you are, if you don’t think there’s a string attached somewhere, you’re not looking close enough.”
Pody said one issue among homeschool families surrounds the requirement that students who receive the vouchers must take a standardized test and the homeschool group must administer the test.
I’m going to give an example of where we are right now. You have a child and I have a child and they’re both going to a homeschool co-op and I decide that I’m going to take the money, you decide you’re not,” Pody explained. “So what happens if I take the money? My child will have to take testing and this testing is not a question. They have to take this test. So like the third-grade retention test and so forth, they would have to take these tests. Now your child is in the same class, same room as my child, and because you did not take the money, you do not have to have your child take the test. There are no strings to yours, only to mine because my child took the money.”
“Now, whoever, whether it be a private school, homeschool group, whatever, they have to make a determination whether they want my child to go in there because they would have to administer this test, and they can say they don’t want my child, ‘We don’t want any money coming into our school, we’re not going to take anybody that’s accepting these vouchers.’ They can do that, or they can say, ‘Yes, we’ll take that money coming in, and we will administer that test,’” Pody added.
Another issue homeschool families are raising the alarm about regarding the voucher program is the additional strings the program may bring with it in the years ahead.
“There’s one caveat that’s not been addressed, and they’re saying this is the camel’s nose under the tent,” Pody explained. “If you make us just do this year, what could you make us do next year?”
“That is so true. I have a concern about that, but I can’t control the next General Assembly. I can only control what’s here, right now, and is this a good decision for us today because they can always do something next year,” Pody added.
Pody pointed out that this specific concern is a reason why voters need to support and vote for the candidates they “believe in,” so the General Assembly is made up of “good, solid representatives” that will “stand and hold the line.”
“My grandkids were homeschooled. I had a lot of them that were homeschooled, some in public schools, some in private, some homeschooled. I understand this concern and that’s why we want to have good, solid representatives that we elect, that we get active and support the candidates that you believe in. That’s your candidate. Don’t just go by ‘Oh, they got a good name.’ I.D. them, vet them, make sure they’re going to stand up, not just in front of a friendly fire with friendly people, but when the fire is there when there’s real consequences. Are they going to stand and hold the line? Are they going to cave? And if we can continue to have good legislators that we elect, they’ll help hold that line,” Pody said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
