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Tennessee lawmakers on Thursday approved Gov. Bill Lee’s universal private school voucher bill, creating a new funding track for educating K-12 students statewide.
The 54-44 vote in the House, where Democrats and some rural Republicans joined to oppose the program, came after four hours of debate, including dozens of failed attempts to add amendments aimed at strengthening accountability and protections for students with disabilities, among other things.
The Senate later voted 20-13 to pass Lee’s Education Freedom Act.
The Republican governor called the bill’s passage “a milestone in advancing education in Tennessee.” He is expected to quickly sign his signature education plan into law.
“I’ve long believed we can have the best public schools and give parents a choice in their child’s education, regardless of income or ZIP code,” Lee said in a statement.
The bill’s passage culminates a drive from voucher advocates who for decades watched their policy dreams come up short in the battleground state of Tennessee.
Under Lee’s administration, they’ve racked up a string of remarkable victories. But the policy’s detractors blame intimidation tactics, political maneuvering, and heavy influence from out-of-state pro-voucher groups with deep pockets.
“It’s the best scam that money can buy,” said House Minority Leader John Ray Clemmons, a Nashville Democrat, after the historic votes.
Tennessee now joins a dozen states that have adopted similar programs allowing families, regardless of their income, to use public tax dollars to pay for alternatives to public education for their children.
President Donald Trump this week signed an executive order that frees up federal funding and prioritizes spending on school choice programs.
Lee said he hasn’t analyzed the executive order to see how it might affect Tennessee’s new program, financially or otherwise.
“But I think there’s opportunity there,” Lee told reporters during a news conference after the bill’s passage.
“The president wants to support states like ours who are advocating for school choice,” he said.
The new voucher program is scheduled to launch in the upcoming school year with 20,000 “scholarships” of $7,075 each to aid families toward the cost of a private education. Half of them will be for students whose family income is below a certain threshold — $173,000 for a family of four. Those income restrictions will be removed during the program’s second year.
About 65% of the vouchers are expected to be awarded to students who already attend private schools, with 35% going to students switching out of public schools, according to the legislature’s analysis of the proposal.
Democrats slammed the plan as “government welfare for the wealthy,” especially since private schools ultimately decide who they enroll.
“The students and the parents don’t have choice; it’s the school’s choice,” said Rep. Sam McKenzie, of Knoxville.
Already, students of color, kids from low-income families, and those with disabilities are often left out of school choice programs due to the locations and supply of private schools, transportation challenges, confusing admission policies, and the high cost of tuition, national data shows.
The votes came on the final day of a four-day special legislative session called by the governor to take up school vouchers, disaster relief, and immigration.
GOP leaders, who are firmly in control of the General Assembly, fast-tracked all three legislative packages.
The packages will cost almost $1 billion this year in a state that has seen its revenues drop because of tax breaks for corporations and businesses enacted in 2024 under another initiative from the governor.
The Education Freedom Act itself will cost taxpayers at least $1.1 billion during its first five years, state analysts say. One provision allows the program to grow by 5,000 students annually.
In addition to providing some families with vouchers, the legislation will give one-time bonuses of $2,000 each to the state’s public school teachers; establish a public school infrastructure fund using tax revenues from the sports betting industry that currently contribute to college scholarships; and reimburse public school systems for any state funding lost if a student dis-enrolls to accept the new voucher.
But Sen. Jeff Yarbro, a Nashville Democrat, said initiative can’t be sustained without public education taking a hit. The legislature’s latest fiscal analysis projects a $45 million decrease next year.
“They said that they can run this brand new program without any school system in the state losing any of its funding. We need to hold them to that promise,” Yarbro said. “But right now, there’s not enough money in the budget to do that.”
Results released this week of a major national test show that Tennessee students held their ground in math and reading, in a year when average student test scores declined nationwide.
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.
