NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A new amendment floating around the legislature now provides details to Gov. Bill Lee's school voucher program, which creates a scholarship that will have an income cap during the first two years but also provide that money to any student in Tennessee.
The program would take public tax dollars and allow students to use them for private school tuition.
Right now, this bill was originally put into a caption form, meaning it was just the skeletal version of what the bill's language would eventually be.
There are different versions of this amendment of the the House and Senate. Both chambers are expected to make changes from this baseline.
Is this program available for my child?
The amendment says the department is awarding 20,000 scholarships in this order:
1) 10,000 scholarships for students who are:
- in a household whose income doesn't go over 300% of the federal poverty level
- eligible according to § 49-6-2602 or § 49-10-1402
2) 10,000 other scholarships available for students whether or not they meet the above criteria.
What if I don't get a scholarship for next school year?
In the 2025-26 school year, if funding set out for the scholarships is not sufficient, the amendment lays out an order for who will first receive the money, and so on:
- Student who got the scholarship in the previous year
- If student's household income doesn't go over 200% of the federal poverty line
- If student's household income doesn't go over 300% of the federal poverty line
- Student who is enrolled in a public school at the time of the application or eligible for kindergarten enrollment in a public school in the upcoming school year
- An eligible student in the order of applications received by the department
How can I use the voucher?
- Tuition, fees and uniforms
- Textbooks, curricula, and instructional materials
- Tutoring
- Fees for transportation to and form school
- Required technology
- Summer curricula tuition, fees and materials
- Warly postsecondary opportunity courses or examinations, entrance examinations required for postsecondary admission
- Educational therapy services
What are rules of taking voucher?
If already participating in the Tennessee education savings account pilot program, or the individualized education account program, students cannot receive the scholarship.
What is the governor wanting?
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced in 2023 his desire to expand vouchers to all 95 counties across the state.
Lee's plan — which he is calling "Freedom Educational Scholarships" — will provide thousands of dollars for students to attend private schools.
Lee's new proposal for an Education Freedom Scholarship Act would provide an estimated $7,000 per student beginning in the 2024-25 school year, according to the one-pager obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
According to the summary, in the first year, only students who are at or below 300% of the federal poverty level, have a disability or are eligible for the existing ESA pilot program could take part in the program.
Beginning in 2025-26, the plan calls for "universal eligibility for all students entitled to attend a public school."
What is Tennessee's current voucher program?
Tennessee's current education savings account is only for three parts of the state: Davidson, Hamilton and Shelby Counties.
Enacted in 2019 by the legislature, it established a program for students to receive money directly for their education rather than a public school system to pay for private education. The vote was contentious with then-Speaker Glen Casada, passing only by one vote with the board held for more than 40 minutes. Now-House Speaker Cameron Sexton didn't vote for the program.
However, the program didn't start until 2022 because of a lawsuit in the chancery court, where those who didn't want the program deemed it unconstitutional. An order was placed in 2020 that the program couldn't begin. Two years later, a three-judge panel lifted an injunction two weeks before the 2022 school year to allow the program to move forward.
The Tennessee Department of Education officials said in summer 2022 they were "excited to restart work" for families and students. During the injunction, the department couldn't work on preparation plans for the ESAs.
Students now have $9,000 to use toward a school, where they could also apply for financial aid to supplement the rest of the cost.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
