NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The Tennessee House and the Tennessee Senate are literally footsteps away from each other. But on the topic of school voucher expansion, they might as well be worlds apart.
Late last week, NewsChannel 5 obtained copies of Gov. Bill Lee's proposal for "Education Freedom Scholarships" and Sen. Jon Lundberg's proposal for school choice plus open enrollment for public school students. On Monday, we finally got a copy of the House's sweeping omnibus billon school choice and public school reforms.
To be clear, all versions feature providing roughly 20,000 scholarships to let public school students transfer to private schools. But that's where the similarities end.
The Senate version includes some accountability measures, requiring students who accept the scholarships to take standardized testing to track their progress. It would also allow public school students to enroll in any public school, even if it wasn't in their home county.
"My focus and I hope the education committee’s focus has been on our bill and our legislation," said Sen. Lundberg, a Republican from Bristol, during a Thursday news conference.
The House version has a laundry list of add-ons, including reducing standardized testing for public school students and increasing state contributions to teacher insurance policies that can save the counties some money.
"There’s a lot in here that I hope our Senate colleagues will support," said Rep. William Lamberth, the House Majority Leader from Portland.
"Hopefully they’ll agree with the House version and want to pass that," said Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican from Crossville.
If you couldn't already tell, both chambers think they have the better bill, but only one version can pass both chambers and head to Gov. Lee's desk. So what happens if they can't agree?
The bill would go to what's called a Conference Committee, where representatives from both chambers meet and hash out what both sides can agree to.
"Most of the time the conference committee can work things out," said Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, a Republican from Oak Ridge.
But Speaker Sexton pointed out that it's also possible that the idea can die all together if the parties can't reach a resolution.
"So that is a possibility because you don’t know know what happens in conference," said Sexton.
That would be just fine, if you ask House and Senate Democrats. "It’s a bad idea, top to bottom," said Rep. John Ray Clemmons, the House Democratic Caucus Chair from Nashville.
"Vouchers benefit no one — no student, no community, no county, no LEA."
Clemmons added that if the two chambers are this apart on what they want to do, maybe it's a sign vouchers shouldn't be expanded at all.
"Lord knows what the governor is doing in all this. He’s getting yanked around by the tail like he usually does by the legislature," said Clemmons.
So that means, over the next few weeks, we'll find out just how far apart the chambers really are. "I definitely support accountability through testing," said McNally.
"That’s our direction that we want to go," said Sexton.
Because of the differences, debate on school vouchers will likely last until the very end of this year's session.
NewsChannel 5 remains committed to following every twist and turn, so you can keep track of it all.
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
