Seven weeks after the Tennessee General Assembly gaveled in for the 2024 legislative session, we’re finally seeing proposed language related to Gov. Bill Lee’s statewide voucher plan. (That is, if you don’t count legislation that was filed and quickly withdrawn in late January.) While vouchers are already being used by students in Davidson, Shelby and Hamilton counties via the state’s Education Savings Account Program, Lee’s new Education Freedom Scholarship Act would expand voucher eligibility across the state. Competing amendments recently filed this session by Republicans represent different strategies for how to usher the controversial legislation forward.
Gov. Lee’s version, filed via an amendment by Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin), is similar to what Lee proposed in November when announcing the Education Freedom Scholarship Act. Starting in the 2024-25 school year, the state would provide 20,000 students with public money to put toward private education before expanding the program in subsequent years. While these vouchers would be available to all students, those who are eligible for the state’s Education Savings Account Program, those with disabilities and those whose family household income does not exceed a certain threshold would be prioritized. The money can fund expenses related to attending private school, such as tuition, technology, textbooks, tutoring, transportation and uniforms.Â
Additional language filed by Sen. Jon Lundberg (R-Bristol), chair of the Senate Education Committee, is 10 pages longer than Lee’s filed language and includes a suite of extra requirements. Major additions include standardized testing requirements for students who use vouchers and the ability for students to use vouchers to attend out-of-district public schools. It also lays out a more thorough process for tracking funds and requires applicants to indicate whether students have valid Social Security numbers. While those without SSNs can still enroll in the program, the amendment notes this information could be reported to the Internal Revenue Service or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
On Monday, the House released a whopping 39-page amendment that addresses much more than vouchers — including public school standardized testing requirements and evaluations and health insurance for teachers. As filed, the amendment would also dissolve the state-run Achievement School District, among other measures. As far as vouchers are concerned, the proposed amendment would limit availability to students who are U.S. citizens and whose parents are U.S. citizens. Students would be prioritized in tiers, with those whose families make 500 percent of the federal poverty level the last tier before all other families are granted access. The legislation would allow the number of vouchers to expand by 20 percent each year if the previous year had a 90 percent or higher utilization rate. Additional provisions include an annual report on the program, and it would prevent lawmakers or those working in the governor’s Cabinet from utilizing the universal voucher system.Â
Lee chooses corporations and private schools in this year’s pared-down budget book
Voucher critics often point out that Lee hasn’t included accountability models in his framework despite the fact that public schools are beholden to rigid accountability standards. (The Tennessean reported in November that the state’s ESA Program shows high parental satisfaction but lower standardized test scores from participating students compared to their public-school peers.) Gini Pupo-Walker, a former Metro school board member and current executive director of the Education Trust in Tennessee, says Lee’s plan reflects the national universal voucher movement, which “is really not interested in accountability or testing or public reporting — for good reason — because the research shows it doesn’t work.”
Pupo-Walker, who notes that the Education Trust’s opinion is that “public dollars should stay in public schools,” also points to states like Arizona and Ohio, which have seen costs exceed expectations after implementing a universal voucher program. Gov. Lee recommended a recurring $144.2 million in his 2024-25 fiscal budget, but according to a memorandum from the Fiscal Review Committee, those costs could exceed $346 million by 2026-27. Both the House amendment and Lundberg’s amendment tie the voucher amount to the base number allocated to students through the state’s education funding formula.Â
“The amendment the House filed today is 39 pages long for a reason,” Pupo-Walker tells the Scene. “They needed many additional items in order to garner votes for passage. … Unfortunately, the debate will be muddied due to a wide range of other important education policy considerations that are now folded into this bill, making it harder for Tennesseans to truly understand the impact of the voucher bill on their schools and communities.”
