NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — For weeks, reporters and stakeholders on Tennessee's Capitol Hill have been asking lawmakers when they'll unveil their proposal for the statewide school voucher expansion.
It turns out — it wasn't just one proposal.
Republican leaders are putting forward three different plans.
What is Gov. Lee's proposal?
Gov. Bill Lee's proposed amendment is pretty consistent with what he's been touting since 2023 about school choice.
Of that, 20,000 school vouchers will be opened up statewide. At least 10,000 of the scholarship recipients have to be 300% below the federal poverty line. Under the second year of the plan, the economic constraints go away. State leaders will have to allocate money in the budget to determine the number of scholarships awarded.
Notably, under Lee's plan, selected students won't have to take standardized tests to gauge their progress like their public school counterparts.
While Lee's plan doesn't directly spell out how much money each student will receive, the governor has previously said that number will be $7,000 per academic year and can be used on everything from tuition and textbooks to transportation costs to the private school. Current Education Savings Account students in Davidson, Shelby and Hamilton Counties cannot participate in this program.
Carrie Sharp did a three-part series on vouchers, talking to public, private and other states on how a program like this would work. Watch a piece of it below.
Lee's plan would be funded from the general fund, separate from current public school funds.
"That’ll kind of be the starting point, if you will, as proposed by the Governor," said Sen. Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, who plans to carry the governor's amendment for him in the Senate.
Is there a different proposal in the Senate? A spin through Sen. Jon Lundberg's ideas
Sen. Jon Lundberg, a R-Bristol, submitted his own proposal for voucher expansion. It mirrors most of the governor's ideas, except his plan would require scholarship recipients to take a "normed referenced test approved by the state board of education," according to the amendment obtained by NewsChannel 5.
Third graders would still have to take the TCAP test and perform well on the English-Language Arts portion to be consistent with the controversial Third Grade Retention Law. Eighth graders would also have to take the Math portion of the TCAP test to show adequate growth in that subject.
His proposal would also create "open enrollment" that would allow any public school student to pick which public school they'd like to attend, even if that's school not in their home county.
"If you want to go to a different public school, maybe within your [local education agency], go to that school. If you want to go to a public school in your adjacent county or city, go to that school," Sen. Lundberg said.
A county could only deny a student coming from another county if there was a lack of available space or teaching staff within a particular program; the student doesn't meet certain qualifications or a desegregation plan is in effect for the school district; and the denial is necessary for compliance with the desegregation plan.
Lundberg's plan would be funded out of current TISA funds, which is the formula that provides funding for Tennessee public schools. That means a child's $7,000 would follow them to whatever school they enrolled in.
If the school was outside of their home county, the state would have to pay for the difference in local funding between the two counties.
Has the House proposed anything different? Yes.
The Tennessee House proposal hasn't been finalized just yet, but based off what House leaders told reporters, their plan would include most of the Governor's ideas but it would also include sweeping changes for public schools.
"It truly is an omnibus education bill," said Rep. William Lamberth, a Republican from Portland who serves as House Majority Leader. "A significant increase in teacher’s salary and compensation."
"We’re going to increase instruction time in the classroom significantly," added Speaker Cameron Sexton. "You’re going to see a reduction in state-mandated tests to an acceptable level."
Sexton says the state also wants to contribute more to teacher's insurance policies to alleviate some of the contributions required for local counties.
Democrats react on vouchers
As for Tennessee House and Senate Democrats, they made it clear that they're interested in none of the ideas listed above.
"Not one member of the 24 of us will vote for a voucher bill — end of story," said Rep. John Ray Clemmons, a Nashville Democrat who serves as House Democratic Caucus Chair. "It’s just simply a bad idea and does nothing to improve educational outcomes."
When asked about the incentives included in the proposed House voucher plan, Clemmons said Republicans should make those stand-alone bills. "
They’re just throwing in everything they can to try to get enough votes to pass the voucher scam," he said.
How does this all get decided?
With so many competing plans, and more amendments likely, Rep. Lamberth warned that the final version of the voucher plan likely wouldn't make the House floor until April.
The Senate didn't have any estimate for how long it would take.
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.
Carrie recommends:
Growing your family, no matter the journey to get there, is an emotional one. My heart aches for these families who trusted a Nashville fertility clinic with their dreams and finances. Hannah McDonald's relentlessness to find answers is journalism at its best and hopefully a new avenue of hope for the patients caught up in this mess.
-Carrie Sharp
