By the time readers have this issue in their hands, the special session to address Gov. Bill Lee’s Education Freedom Act — along with disaster relief and immigration — will already be underway. But as the Scene went to press on Monday, the first day of the special session, there were still a lot of unknowns about the future of the bill, which has seen fervent opposition.
Last year’s unsuccessful attempt at passing the Education Freedom Scholarship Act — often referred to as the universal voucher program — failed in part because of disputes among Republican lawmakers on the expansion of the Education Savings Account program (ESA). At the start of this year’s session, those same lawmakers appear to be on the same page and preparing to pass the newly written voucher legislation.
Lee’s pitch created a divide among Republican legislators and faced widespread criticism from school leaders
In its first year, the act would award 20,000 scholarships to families across Tennessee, half of which will go to any student without restrictions on household income or other criteria. The other half of the scholarships would prioritize students with disabilities, those zoned for achievement school districts and those with an annual household income that does not exceed 300 percent of the amount required for the student to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Each following year, 5,000 additional scholarships could be added if at least 75 percent of the previous year’s scholarships were utilized. The scholarship amount allotted per student aligns with the state’s public school funding formula base amount and would be paid directly to the schools. The bill would also require scholarship applications to be denied if a student cannot establish a lawful presence in the U.S.
The legislation also includes a one-time $2,000 bonus for Tennessee public school teachers and allocates 80 percent of the tax collected from sports betting toward improvements to K-12 public school facilities and infrastructure. The total cost of the proposed legislation would be approximately $424.2 million, which includes $148.6 million for the scholarships, $198.4 million for teacher bonuses and $77 million for school facility maintenance.
Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin), who is carrying the Senate version of the bill, tells the Scene ahead of the special session that he feels confident they have the votes to pass it.
“I think there’s strong support to empower parents to make better educational decisions for their kids,” Johnson says. “I think there’s a lot of fear-mongering that this is somehow going to be detrimental to our local public schools, and it will not. We even have a funding floor built into the legislation that’s going to protect them.”
But many opponents nevertheless have concerns about funding for public schools, which receive money from the state based on the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement formula. The TISA formula weighs allocations to schools depending on several factors, including the number of students in a local education agency (LEA).
The new education legislation is expected to add $3.3 million to the TISA fund in its first year — however, there is an estimated net decrease in TISA funding each following year of at least $44.9 million, according to the fiscal note provided for the voucher bill by the state’s Fiscal Review Committee.
As for the regular legislative session, one bill has been filed that would allow LEAs to provide real-time enrollment data so that TISA funding allocations are adjusted throughout the year — and so that state funding for students attending charter schools in an LEA is provided before the agency has to pay the school for its students. Another bill creates a 3 percent weighted allocation for students who live in districts that have between 1,001 and 1,250 members. There could be further legislation changing the funding formula as well. Johnson says he considers the voucher bill and making changes to the TISA formula two separate issues.
“I think school choice and empowering parents is a stand-alone issue,” Johnson says. “It’s a separate but very important conversation about how we’re funding public schools. And I’ve long said that Williamson County gets an unfair hand in terms of the funding formula, and so I’m hopeful we can take steps to rectify that this year.”
Funding for K-12 education isn’t the only concern the legislature has this year, as it continues to watch the state’s only historically Black public university go through a tumultuous transition.
Move comes as comptroller's office issues audit reports including findings from 2019
After the resignation of Tennessee State University President Glenda Glover, the state legislature also vacated the university’s board of trustees, allowing the governor to name his own replacements. The new board selected an interim president, who has also since resigned. One of the board members, Dwayne Tucker, is now serving as interim president.
Gov. Lee received a letter from the U.S. Department of Education at the beginning of the year urging him to create a joint legislative committee to gather data and conduct a historical budget analysis for how the state has funded its land-grant institutions — TSU and the University of Tennessee. The letter references a 2021 report on the state’s underfunding of TSU and is frequently cited by the university’s supporters as just one example of how the university is continuously disadvantaged due to the state’s actions.
So far, no legislative committee has been created related to TSU’s issues, and there is no legislation addressing the university’s funding filed as of the Scene’s press deadline. However, Rep. Harold Love (D-Nashville) tells the Scene he is planning to file legislation about TSU this year. The university is expected to give an update on its budget to the State Building Commission on Feb. 13.
The 114th Tennessee General Assembly will consider education, immigration, guns and health care
