Sumner's Haile Votes for Destructive Voucher Scheme

Despite a resolution from the Sumner County School Board unanimously opposing Gov. Bill Lee's school voucher scheme, Senator Ferrell Haile voted for the plan in the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday.

Haile supported an expanded version of the plan, one with a projected cost at full implementation of $219 million a year.

That's money that won't be available for the state to distribute to local school districts like Sumner County Schools.

In fact, this year alone, the state's funding formula loses around $25 million in funds that would typically go to salary increases for teachers.

Haile has consistently supported voucher plans and has received more than $20,000 in funding from pro-voucher groups from outside Tennessee.

For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews

Sumner's Haile, Lamberth Among Key Voucher Backers

The 2019 edition of the Tennessee General Assembly will feature leadership focused on using public money to support private schools. Among those selected to lead this assault on our public schools are Sumner County's Senator Ferrell Haile and 44th District State Rep. William Lamberth.

More from Tennessee Education Report:

Likewise, newly-elected House Republican (and Majority) Leader William Lamberth has consistently received backing from pro-voucher groups.
Over in the Senate, the Lt. Governor’s spot continues to be held by Randy McNally, a long-time supporter of voucher schemes.
The number two job in the Senate again falls to Ferrell Haile of Sumner County, who between 2012 and 2016 was among the largest recipients (more than $20,000) of campaign backing from pro-voucher groups. Haile has also co-sponsored voucher legislation in spite of his local School Board opposing the measure.

For more on news impacting Hendersonville and Sumner County, follow @HvilleNews

Haile Takes on Teacher Pay, Calls for Education Experiments

In a recent, wide-ranging interview on Portland's WQKR radio, state Senator Ferrell Haile endorsed a new state pay scale for teachers that lowers the current range and replaces it with a new range, with a top mandated salary of $41,000 a year for a teacher with 11 or more years of experience and an advanced degree. 

Haile said the newly adopted state pay scale would be good for teachers because the good ones will end up making more money.

Local School Boards are free to adopt their own scale, but must include some form of salary differentiation among teachers and are encouraged to adopt a form of merit pay -- in spite of a number of studies showing performance pay for teachers doesn't work.

In the interview, Haile also noted that Tennessee needed to try more experiments with education because "what we're doing is not working."  What Haile failed to mention is that Tennessee has one of the lowest investments in public schools in the country -- and a correspondingly low set of results on national indicators of student achievement. 

Haile failed to commit to supporting new investments in schools and teachers.  However, in the 2013 legislative session, he was supportive of legislation that would create vouchers for certain students -- likely taking tax dollars from Sumner County and diverting them to other districts.  Alternatively, if a statewide voucher plan is passed (Haile does not oppose this), Sumner County Schools could see a loss of revenue of $2 million or more each year with no corresponding drop in expenses. 

Haile, elected in 2012, next faces voters in 2016.