House Committee Advances Education Freedom Scholarship Expansion

House hearing room (Photo by Sky Arnold)

The House Education Committee voted 11-9 to advance Governor Bill Lee’s proposal to double the size of the Tennessee Education Freedom Scholarship program on Tuesday.

Lawmakers passed the scholarship program last year to allow up to 20,000 students the ability to use taxpayer dollars for private school expenses. Governor Lee has lobbied for a $155 million expansion following two consecutive years of the state receiving more applications than scholarships available.

If passed by lawmakers, House Bill 2532 would increase the maximum number of scholarships to 40,000 in the 2026-2027 school year.

Education Committee Chair Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, made the case for expansion Tuesday by telling the story of a participating grandmother he talked to that moved her grandchildren out of a public school that wasn’t working for them and into a private school.

“She came to me and says, I don’t know what I would do if it wasn’t for this school,” said White. “No fault to the public school but she said my grandchildren were not functioning in that school. They cried, they didn’t want to get up in the morning and go. They weren’t happy and now this school is open, and they come over here, get up, and get ready in the morning and they’re happy.”

Democrats Make Case for Greater Accountability

Under the existing program, sometimes referred to as vouchers, participating students are required to either take the annual Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) or a nationally standardized test.

State Representative Gloria Johnson, R-Knoxville, proposed legislation that would have expanded the testing requirements for participating students and required particpating private schools to hire certified teachers. That bill failed in a House subcommittee, but Johnson continued to make the case for greater accountability during Tuesday’s meeting.   

“How can we say that you don’t have to hire certified teachers, you don’t have to teach our state curriculum and standards, you don’t have to evaluate your teachers the way we do…you don’t have to test your students with the same test that our public tax dollars go to?” asked Johnson. “How on Earth are you justifying hundreds of millions of dollars out of our budget with no accountability for how it’s being spent.”

Democrats have also argued the state should be collecting more data on the students participating in the Education Freedom Scholarship program to get a better idea of how many were already in private school. Supporters have argued that the program is needed to provide an option to families who can’t afford private school, but Representative Ronnie Glynn, D-Clarksville, told committee members it’s not succeeding.

“There is no way that this Education Freedom Scholarship is meeting the intent and the fact that we don’t want the data tells us that. Because if we really wanted to know where taxpayer dollars (were) going, we would have accountability,” said Glynn.

Bill sponsor Representative William Lamberth, R-Portland, responded to questions of accountability by pointing out the program itself has proved to be popular with parents in both surveys and in those who apply.

“The way we know it’s working is there were 20,000 available in year one. There were 56,000 families that said they want to be a part of this,” said Lamberth. “Our bosses are the people of Tennessee…I think those families should have some additional choice than they have now.”

Republican Support Outweighs Opposition

The final 11-9 vote included some division among Republican members on the committee.

All 11 supporters were Republicans but five rural Republicans, including Representatives Jody Barrett, R- Dickson; Kirk Haston, R-Lobelville; Chris Hurt, R- Halls; Renea Jones, R-Unicoi; and Kevin Raper, R- Cleveland, joined Democrats in voting no. 

Barrett was the only one to speak on Tuesday. He’s been a frequent opponent of the program and he said the data shows it’s mostly helping wealthy families.

“The top 12 counties take up 81 percent of these scholarships,” said Barrett. “The damming part of that statistical data is nine of the 10 wealthiest counties in this state are in that top 12. That means these scholarships are going to the wealthiest kids, in the wealthiest families, in the wealthiest counties.”

The legislation now moves to finance committees in the House and Senate.

Even if it fails the Education Freedom Scholarship could expand by 5,000 additional scholarships next school year, and potentially in future years, under the program’s existing parameters.