Majority of WillCo legislators support school vouchers despite WCS, FSSD resolutions

The Williamson County Schools board approved a resolution opposing the state-wide push for school vouchers, following suit with the Franklin Special School District’s own resolution in January, but those resolutions appear to have little impact on Williamson County's majority pro-voucher senators and representatives.

The WCS board approved the resolution in a 7-5 vote on March 18, with board members Angela Durham, Dan Cash, Josh Brown, Jay Galbreath and Donna Clements voting against the resolution. The board received more than 100 citizen comments urging the passage of the resolution.

FSSD unanimously approved their own resolution opposing vouchers on Jan. 8, meaning that both school districts have joined dozens of districts across the state in standing against state-wide voucher bills that are working their way through the state House and Senate after the state-wide initiative was introduced by Gov. Bill Lee in November 2023.

On Friday, the entire Williamson County delegation — Sen. Jack Johnson (R-Franklin), Rep. Sam Whitson (R-Franklin), Rep. Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood),  Rep. Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill), Rep. Jake McCalmon (R-Franklin) and Sen. Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald) — attended Williamson Inc.’s monthly Policy Talks event in Franklin, which included a discussion on vouchers.

Whitson and Warner are the only two members of the delegation who are against the voucher push.

“I just have some concerns about the long-term impact on the state,” Whitson told The News. 

“I don't call them vouchers, I don't call them scholarships, I call them public money, and that's the way we need to look at it,” Whitson continued. “If you take public money, there should be accountability involved. I worry about fraud; I worry about cost in the outer years.”

“If you go to a football game on a Friday night at Page High School, you see the importance of public schools to a community, and that's why I want to make sure that we don't get into our little individual cells and silos, especially in a community like Williamson County, if we don't do what's right, we could destroy what these schools bring to our communities.”

Warner has taken a more direct approach, calling the vouchers a “scam” and grilling Tennessee Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds on Capitol hill. 

Warner has now become the target of dark-money attack ads in the form of mailers, texts and billboards. He faced a question from a citizen on whether his stance makes him a “RINO (Republican In Name Only”) during the Policy Talks event.

“I am asking YOU to stand strong with me - when these attacks and lies come to your phones and your mailboxes, let your voice be heard,” Warner said in a March 13 social media post. “Tell them that the people of the 92nd District say HELL NO to vouchers and the weak excuse of leadership we have in Tennessee today!!!”

“There's a lot more rural Republicans who are going to vote against this thing than people think,” Warner Told The News. “I think when we get to the House floor it's going to be a little different. I think they've probably got the votes to pass it, but we're gonna make them fight.”

Following Friday's Policy Talks event, McCalmon told The News that while he supports the House voucher bill, if it passes, he intends to keep his children enrolled in Williamson County Schools where he said they are "thriving."

"I understand that's not the case for everybody, but anytime that we can give taxpayer dollars back to taxpayers, I'm all for it," McCalmon said.

Johnson, who is sponsoring one of the bills in the senate, told The News that despite the WCS and FSSD resolutions, his position on vouchers hasn't changed.

Johnson argued that the WCS resolution was not unanimous, but also said that even if it had been unanimous, he would still support a state-wide voucher program as championed by Lee.

“I certainly respect both of our local school boards; they do an amazing job. We have a difference of opinion,” Johnson said. “We’ll continue to have a conversation and a great working relationship with our school boards, even if we disagree on this issue.”

Johnson said that he has “always believed in school choice,” and “campaigned and ran on school choice,” adding that he believes that critics of the voucher bills are being influenced by “misinformation.”

“This legislation is going to have zero impact on Williamson County [Schools] or [the] Franklin Special [School District], I’m convinced of that," Johnson said. "It is going to help thousands of families in other parts of the state whose children are trapped in failing schools. We don’t have failing schools in Williamson County, so I’m going to continue to support the legislation.”

Critics of the voucher program in Williamson County argue that a state-wide program could negatively impact schools and students across Tennessee, including in Williamson County.

In 2019, Johnson told the WCS Board that while he supported a voucher program that, at the time, was “limited in scope and applies only to those failing schools [outside of Williamson County,]” he pledged to “fight tooth and nail” against “anything that would impact Williamson County Schools or Franklin Special School District.”

WCS Board Member Eric Welch is critical of the state-wide push. He attempted to testify on the bill during the March 6 meeting of the House Education Administration Committee. 

Welch, who was first elected to the board in 2010, was not allowed to testify. Instead the committee heard from, among others, right-wing activist, media personality, and short-lived political candidate Robby Starbuck.

Starbuck, a Williamson County resident who does not have his children enrolled in a public school, used his time to speak about what he called “sexualized curriculum” and “Satanist after-school programs,” references to both Pride flags in schools and a Memphis-based after-school club that drew widespread criticism.

Welch called Starbuck the “Cali carpetbagger,"  referencing Starbuck's move to the Volunteer State in 2019, while also not holding back on his thoughts on Johnson's evolving stance on vouchers.

“I think Jack Johnson prioritizes the people who donate PAC money to him and help his get-out-the-vote campaigns higher than he does the students of Williamson County Schools,” Welch told The News.

Johnson told The News on Friday that he votes based on what he thinks is best for Tennesseans and not on what will get him elected.

“If it's not something that they're [the Williamson County delegation] willing to take into account, I think it says more about them than it does us,” Welch said. “If it's dismissed and doesn't weigh into their consideration, then it sort of indicates their feelings on public education.”

Welch argues that the state-wide voucher push would create “two publicly-funded education systems that are separate but unequal,” something that he said would be “an entitlement program” that would result in schools taking public funds with no public input or oversight, specifically voicing concerns over a lack of discrimination protections for students.

WCS Superintendent Jason Golden voiced WCS staff support for the resolution during the March 18 WCS meeting and has since publicly addressed the issue during the Town of Nolensville annual address on March 21 as well as during Friday's Policy Talks where FSSD Director of Schools David Snowden also spoke on vouchers.

“I don't know that it’s going to have an immediate direct impact on us, but this whole thing tells me, and I mentioned this to the [school] board on Monday night, that the state has the capacity to do more than they're doing,” Golden said on March 21.

“That's that's really the key to me; they're talking about spending nine figures on a totally new funding program, when they're funding us a third of what was actually spent.”

Snowden told The News that it is “disappointing” that the resolutions appear to have no impact on the perspective or potential votes of the Williamson County delegates who remain in favor of vouchers.

“We believe it's important and our board believed it was important to take a stand and at least pass a resolution to at least let people know what they believe, and whether or not they take it and strongly consider it or consider it at all, we can't do anything about that, that’s up to the individual legislator,” Snowden said. “We respect that.We don't agree with it. We'd like for them to strongly consider it when you’ve got a board that represents a huge area, but it is what it is.”

In addition to the current elected officials who are speaking out against the push, all four Democratic WCS School Board candidates issued statements opposing vouchers, with District 1 candidate Elmer Mobley saying, “We are united in opposing vouchers because we’re listening to our neighbors, members of our communities, and parents of students in Williamson County who are overwhelmingly against using taxpayer dollars to fund private schools.”