State Rep. Alexander, JC Schools officials slam voucher expansion

Johnson City Schools officials and state Rep. Rebecca Alexander, R-Jonesborough, expressed strong opposition to potential expansion of Tennessee's school voucher program during a Friday legislative meeting. The group raised concerns about the program's data transparency and questioned who has benefited from the controversial program that allows families to use public funds for private school enrollment. School board leaders said state officials still have not provided any new information or data about where voucher funds are going or whether recipients were already enrolled in private schools since the Education Freedom Act of 2025 expanded pilot voucher programs in Davidson, Shelby and Hamilton counties. Alexander, who voted against the bill, said she's concerned about state lawmakers potentially expanding the program in the upcoming General Assembly without at least making more data available. "I think that would be a crying shame until we know exactly who got those vouchers to begin with," Alexander said. "Because from my understanding, just from people I've talked with, the people that got them didn't need them." Board Member Jonathan Kinnick said the voucher program application didn't ask whether students were already in private schools when they accepted voucher funding. "We need some requirement from [the state] to get the data because apparently it wasn't on the form to ask if they were already in a private school when they accepted the voucher," Kinnick said. "They purposely, it appears, did not put the question on there so we don't have data to back that up." Alexander, a former public school educator, agreed, adding that other states have also been "bankrupt" from voucher programs. "I can't believe that they even have the gall to come back one year later and do an expansion," she said. Board Chair Rick Smith noted that private schools accepting voucher funding aren't required to take the same tests as public schools, making performance comparisons virtually impossible. "If they want to have an honest conversation, you've got to have equal data and not speculation," he said. Alexander assured district officials that she aims to work with other lawmakers to oppose voucher expansions, especially without more data. She told board members that state Rep. Gary Hicks, R-Rogersville, who chairs the state's finance committee and works in Hawkins County Public Schools, is "on our side." Alexander also warned about unintended consequences of expanding private school vouchers, adding that the program could incentivize schools of various ideologies to open. "I'm all about [supporting a] Christian school, but what's to keep a Muslim school from coming in? What's to keep a school that promotes Satanism or anything else like that from coming in?" Alexander said. Johnson City Schools leaders, however, did not comment on this aspect of the program. Alexander and district officials also discussed proposed legislation that would reduce teacher licensing requirements, potentially creating a two-year pathway instead of the traditional four-year program. Alexander and board leaders agreed on their opposition to the proposal, with Superintendent Erin Slater noting that accelerated pathways could lead to teachers who are "less mature and less experienced" in classroom methodology and management. "That's just very, very scary to me," Slater said. In other business, Alexander congratulated the district for its performance in recent years, as noted by the Tennessee Department of Education. According to a news release, 10 Johnson City Schools received an A in the department's third round of school-level letter grades announced this week. The schools that earned the A were Science Hill High School, Indian Trail Middle School, Liberty Bell Middle School, Fairmont Elementary, Lake Ridge Elementary, Mountain View Elementary, North Side Elementary, South Side Elementary, Towne Acres Elementary and Woodland Elementary. There were 355 schools that received an overall A letter grade across Tennessee, according to state data. "We're doing things right in public ed," Alexander said of the achievement.