If Gov. Bill Lee’s school choice proposal came up for a vote right now, it wouldn’t have support from state Rep. Bryan Richey, R-Maryville, who serves on the House K-12 Subcommittee.
Richey shared his concerns about the proposal — noting he still doesn’t have all the details — during a listening session he hosted Friday, Feb. 9, at the Blount County Public Library. Over about two hours, more than two dozen people spoke against allowing public money to fund students’ private school or homeschool learning. One spoke in favor.
“There’s a lot of concerns in there that I have right now, to where if the vote was up today, I would be a ‘No,’” the Republic representative for House District 20 said, adding, “but we haven’t seen it yet, so we’ll see what happens.”
People crowded into the the library meeting room for Richey’s first public session in Blount County on the proposal, and he has others scheduled through the region, including one Saturday, Feb. 17, back at the library. He’s also collecting written comments to share with his fellow committee members.