Byrd removed from subcommittee chairmanship following anti-voucher vote
Embattled Rep. David Byrd (R-Waynesboro) attends a House Education Committee meeting in Nashville on March 28, 2019. (Erik Schelzig, Tennessee Journal)
Embattled state Rep. David Byrd (R-Waynesboro) has been removed as chairman of House education subcommittee a day after voting against Gov. Bill Lee’s school voucher proposal.
House Speaker Glen Casada (R-Franklin) announced the move Thursday, The Tennessean reports.
“Following discussions with members of the House and after careful consideration, I have formally asked Representative Byrd to step down from his position as chairman of the House Education Administration Subcommittee,” Casada said a statement.
Byrd’s chairmanship has been the subject of regular protests at the legislative office complex over allegations of sexual misconduct with teenage basketball players when he was their high school coach in the 1980s. Byrd was overwhelmingly re-elected in November despite revelations that he apologized to one of the women in a recorded phone call.
“Representative Byrd agrees that this is the best path forward in ensuring the House of Representatives can focus on the issues that truly matter to all Tennesseans. This decision is based on input from members and to continue the orderly operations of the House,” Casada said in the statement.
Byrd has long been a target of school choice proponents for his steadfast opposition to voucher legislation. This year’s voucher bill cleared the House Education Committee on Wednesday on a 14-9 vote. Byrd was among four Republicans who voted against the measure.
Casada supported Byrd during his re-election campaign, and had defended appointing him to his subcommittee chairmanship until Thursday.
UPDATE: Casada’s chief of staff, Cade Cothren, told reporters it would be an “absolute lie” to suggest Byrd’s removal as chairman was linked to his voucher vote.
Lee’s voucher bill: How they voted
Back by popular demand, the TNJ presents the news in collage form. Here’s how the House Education Committee voted on Gov. Bill Lee’s school voucher proposal:
Representatives voting aye were: Baum, Cepicky, DeBerry, Dunn, Hurt, Leatherwood, Moody, Ragan, Rudder, Sexton J, Weaver, White, Williams, Mr. Speaker Casada. — 14
Representatives voting no were: Byrd, Cochran, Coley, Dixie, Hodges, Love, Parkinson, Vaughan, Windle — 9.
Representatives present and not voting were: Haston — 1.
Voucher bill clears House Education Committee on 14-9 vote
House Speaker Glen Casada (R-Franklin) attends a House Education Committee meeting in Nashville on March 27, 2019. (Erik Schelzig, Tennessee Journal)
Gov. Bill Lee’s proposal to create a school voucher program in Tennessee has cleared the House Education Committee on a 14-9 vote.
The vote came after lawmakers added language aimed at excluding non-citizens from being eligible for the education savings accounts, a move that would likely draw a court challenge given a U.S. Supreme Court ruling requiring all children be eligible for K-12 education regardless of their immigration status.
Another major change was to largely remove homeschooling from the program.
The bill now moves on the Government Operations Committee and would also have to clear the Finance Committee before reaching the House floor.
Lee meets with freshman Republicans to make case for vouchers
Gov. Bill Lee delivers his first State of the State address in Nashville on March 4, 2019. (Erik Schelzig, Tennessee Journal)
Republican Gov. Bill Lee met with freshman Republicans in the House on Tuesday morning to make the case for his proposal to create a voucher-like education savings account program in Tennessee. Word is he got a positive response from the group.
The meeting comes as the Lee administration looks to dial back the ESA legislation by removing homeschooling from the measure. The bill is scheduled for a key House Education Committee vote on Wednesday.
Under the proposal, parents would be given $7,300 debit cards to spend on education-related expenses. That’s raised concerns about accountability, especially given the example of Arizona, where where an audit last year found parents had spent ESA money on non-authorized purchases ranging from movies to beauty supplies.
Anti-immigration group attacks Lee’s voucher proposal
Gov. Bill Lee speaks at an economic development announcement in Nashville on March 20, 2019. (Erik Schelzig, Tennessee Journal)
An anti-immigration group says Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s proposed voucher program would be available to students who aren’t authorized to be in the country.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for curbing both legal and illegal immigration into the United States, cites the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Plyler v. Doe of 1982, which established that states must offer public education to all children, regardless of their immigration status.
According to the group:
Despite his promise to dry up incentives attracting illegal aliens to the United States, Governor Lee’s Education Savings Plan will inevitably provide school vouchers for illegal aliens. Vouchers use taxpayer funds and the Plyler holding prohibits school systems from determining which students are illegally in the U.S. Therefore, taxpayer monies can and will be provided for vouchers for illegal aliens.
GOP colleagues split over Byrd chairmanship
A Tennessean survey of House Republicans has found the caucus is split over whether Rep. David Byrd (R-Waynesboro) should remain chairman of an education subcommittee given allegations of sexual misconduct with teenage basketball players when he was their high school coach in the 1980s.
House GOP split on whether Rep. David Byrd should serve as subcommittee chairman; some call for inquiry https://t.co/TNmdob8kJ4 via @Tennessean
— Joel Ebert (@joelebert29) March 25, 2019
Byrd has not specifically denied the allegations made by a woman who recorded a phone call with the lawmaker in which he apologized for unspecified past transgressions.
House Republican leadership tried to keep members from answering questions from the newspaper’s reporters, urging them to direct questions to caucus spokespeople. Eleven members declined to answer questions, while others spoke on condition of anonymity.
Lee laments ‘a lot of misunderstanding’ about voucher proposal
Gov. Bill Lee is concerned that there’s “a lot of misunderstanding” about his proposal to create voucher-like education savings accounts in Tennessee. The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports the Republican govenror said a more comprehensive look at the proposal is warranted.
“I encourage you to look deeper,” Lee said.
But a lot of the confusion about the proposal comes from members of Lee’s own party. For example, freshman Rep. Robin Smith (R-Hixson) took to twitter to declare a news account a “pure lie” for stating the education savings account, or ESA, program would also apply to students who don’t currently attend failing schools. It would.
A pure lie. @GovBillLee plan is NOT voucher prog. It is not directed to remove funds frm public schools which actually receive funding X 3 yrs for students who have left THE FAILING SCHOOL.
Defending failure & trapping children is indefensible. #Kids1sthttps://t.co/X8wCQIvp7O— RobinTSmith (@robints) March 15, 2019
As proposed, the ESA program would apply to school districts with at least three schools in the bottom 10%, though there’d be no requirement to actually attend a failing school to qualify.
Fellow freshman Rep. Scott Cepicky (R-Columbia), a member of the House Education Committee scheduled to vote on the bill this week, said in a Facebook post that “because of the risk of fraud, as seen in other states with Educational Savings Accounts, homeschooling is not allowed in this bill.”
That’s in contrast to what Lee said last week when reporters asked him whether home-schooling would qualify for the ESAs.
“If a family is in the district that qualifies, and they are currently in a public school, then they would qualify for an ESA,” Lee said.
Cepicky said in his Facebook post that lawmakers are trying to “tighten and limit this bill as much as possible,” so perhaps there’s potential changes on the horizon.
After thoughts of pumping brakes, full steam a head on voucher bill
Newly-elected House Speaker Glen Casada gestures toward his predecessor, Beth Harwell, in the House chamber on Jan. 8, 2019. (Erik Schelzig, Tennessee Journal)
After Gov. Bill Lee’s proposal to create a statewide charter authorizer nearly bogged down in the House Education Committee last week, there was talk that the next big piece of legislation aimed at creating voucher-like education savings accounts might need another week to ripen before heading through the same panel.
Looks like that delay is now off the table.
The Lee administration is pressing to present the bill to the House Education Committee on Wednesday.
The charter authorizer bill advanced out of that committee on a 13-9 vote, but only after House Speaker Glen Casada (R-Franklin) came to the panel to personally intervene. Casada was able to get several freshman Republican who voiced concerns about the measure to get on board.
The bill also got the support of embattled Rep. David Byrd (R-Waynesboro), whom school choice advocates have tried for years to to defeat because of his support for traditional public schools.
Maybe Casada will be at the meeting from the start on Wednesday?
House panel kills resolution calling for end to birthright citizenship
A resolution to comment President Donald Trump’s call to end birthright citizenship has died in the House Constitutional Protections & Sentencing Subcommittee.
The panel voted 4-3 on Wednesday to reject the measure sponsored by freshman Rep. Bruce Griffey (R-Paris), the AP reports. Three Republicans and one Democrat voted against the resolution.
Griffey’s resolution calls for ending what it calls “the illegitimate, unauthorized, and illegal practice of bestowing citizenship to those born within the boundaries of our great country whose presence constitutes a violation of United States law and breach of the sovereignty of this Nation.”
Rep. Bo Mitchell (D-Nashville) said “God help us” if lawmakers advanced a the resolution telling people born in the U.S. that they aren’t citizens.
SmileDirectClub announces 2,000 jobs in Nashville
Gov. Bill Lee announces a 2,000-job expansion by clear teeth aligner SmileDirectClub in Nashville on March 20, 2019. (Erik Schelzig, Tennessee Journal)
Gov. Bill Lee has announced clear teeth aligner SmileDirectClub will add more than 2,000 jobs in Nashville over the next five years. The new positions will be spread between the company’s downtown headquarters and other facilities in the Antioch community in southeast Davidson County.
There was no immediate word on the level of incentives offered to the company, which is spending $217 million on the expansion.
Here’s the full release from the Lee administration:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe and SmileDirectClub officials announced today the company will invest $217 million to expand its headquarters and facilities in Middle Tennessee.
SmileDirectClub, the market leader and pioneer of doctor-directed, remote invisible aligner therapy, will create 2,010 new jobs in Nashville and Antioch over the next five years.
This is SmileDirectClub’s second expansion in Middle Tennessee in two years. In February 2017, the company announced a $4.5 million expansion across two Davidson County locations, which supported the creation of nearly 450 new jobs. Currently, SmileDirectClub employs more than 1,600 people in the Nashville area.
