Senator Todd Gardenhire
State Senator Todd Gardenhire told members of the Civitan Club on Friday that he expects compromises will be made in the controversial school voucher bill "that will make most of the people involved happy."
He said the bill would only apply to Hamilton County and four other counties with high-priority schools.
Senator Gardenhire said the measure would provide $7,500 vouchers to those under a certain income level "for use at the school of their choice - public or private." He said one use of the $7,500 could be for transportation to the chosen school.
The speaker said it would allow a low-income student to be able to leave a failing school and make a new start elsewhere.
Senator Gardenhire said the Hamilton County Schools have continually failed at bringing up the low-performing schools. He said the Legislature earlier sent $11.5 million to the county schools for use in helping the low-performing schools. He said, "They just spent $1.5 million of it. They didn't use it for new teachers, nothing."
He said in Hamilton County a student from a low-performing school with a voucher would have a choice of up to 15 types of schools, including private and charter.
The Republican senator said under another bill a student in a low-performing school could take a voucher and move to any other public school. "They would be first in line at that school," he said.
He stated, "You start that and the schools will start to fix some of the low-performing schools."
Senator Gardenhire said the situation with the low-performing schools became so bad that the state had to step in and set up a special school board for several of the most-in-need schools. He said some "top-notch people" were named to that board. He said, "They are better than the regular School Board."
He said groups like the Tennessee Education Association fight all such bills. He said, "We used to talk about the military industrial complex. Now we have the education industrial complex."
Senator Gardenhire praised new Governor Bill Lee for his passion, business acumen and for his flexibility. He said former Governor Bill Haslam "took a position and stuck with it. Governor Lee will sit down at the table and talk with you."
On another topic, Senator Gardenhire said the prior bill on brownfields was suppose to be geared to large counties like Hamilton, but was unworkable. He said the bill this year was opened up to rural counties. He said it still applies to Opportunity Zones (blighted sections) in the larger counties. He said the old Maytag plant in Cleveland is a qualified brownfield area under the changed law.
Concerning the flap in Hamilton County over sewage treatment, he said state legislators are mainly staying out of the squabble. But he said at one meeting, Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke spoke up and said the Moccasin Bend plant had plenty of capacity.
He said that prompted Rep. Mike Carter to go to County Mayor Jim Coppinger with the news. He said the county mayor was surprised, but now talks between the city and county are underway.
Senator Gardenhire said the issue keeps coming back up concerning Georgia claiming its northern line should have been drawn where it would include a section of the Tennessee River.
He told the group he has come to an agreement to allow Georgia "to have all the water they want." He said, "They can pull the water through Lookout Valley, down to Trenton, across the mountain, then down through Summerville.
"This is just as long as they have their intake pipes across from where I live right below the Moccasin Bend Sewage Treatment Plant."