Education Freedom Scholarship Expansion Passes First Test

Stock image of a teacher in a classroom (Photo by the Tennessee Department of Education)

Governor Bill Lee’s proposed expansion to the Education Freedom Scholarship program advanced from its first committee on a 5-3 vote on Tuesday morning.

The legislation would double the number of families who receive public dollars for private school expenses to 40,000. The governor made the case for expansion at his State of the State address in February, citing that applications exceeded the scholarship limits for two straight years.

House Bill 2532 would create that expansion at an additional cost of $155 million.  Bill sponsor Representative William Lamberth, R-Portland, told members of the House K-12 Subcommittee that expansion is needed because of demand. 

“I don’t know if you’ve received the emails, but I certainly have from sheriff’s deputies, from public school teachers,” said Lamberth. “From individuals that, yes, many times, were able to pay the tuition, but also were going into debt, that had medical debt, or other types of debt that they weren’t able to pay, because they’re just trying to work a second or even a third job to be able to put their kid in a position. These are their tax dollars that are going back to them for their child’s education.”

Democrats Continue to Oppose Program. 

The General Assembly passed the program, sometimes referred to as vouchers, last year, despite opposition from every Democrat. Both Democrats on the K-12 Subcommittee voted against expansion on Tuesday, along with Representative Kirk Haston, R-Lobelville, who supported the Education Freedom Scholarship Act last year.

Representative Sam McKenzie, D-Knoxville, questioned why the state would provide more money to help parents who can afford to send their children to private school.

“Those parents have had the financial acumen to pay for the full tuition,” said McKenzie. “In those situations, in my humble opinion, are dollars that could be better spent as we’re still woefully, we’ve given them a lot of money, but we’re still underfunding our public schools.”

The program sets aside priority for families who meet certain income requirements, with the highest income priority for families who meet 100 percent of the free and reduced lunch eligibility, currently below $58,000 for a family of four.

Lamberth pushed back on McKenzie’s criticism that the program largely subsidizes wealthier families by pointing out that most scholarship applications came from families earning $30 to $40,000 annually.

“These are not just wealthy people, these are folks that are middle-income folks to lower-income folks, that are struggling to get by,” said Lamberth. “Now I can not tell you that none of these scholarships went to someone above that income level, no, I can not. But I know that the vast majority of these went to hardworking Tennesseans that are struggling to just pay their bills.”

The Senate’s version of the bill faces a vote in the Senate Education Committee tomorrow.