Lawmakers Consider Late Change to Expand Education Savings Account Program

Stock photo of a mother and child (Photo by the Tennessee Department of Education)

Members of the Tennessee General Assembly apparently aren’t finished debating whether to provide even more parents with tax dollars to send their children to private school.

Lawmakers extended that option for parents of 15,000 children last week by voting to expand the Education Freedom Scholarship program, sometimes referred to as school vouchers. On Monday, Representive Tim Hicks, R-Gray, amended House Bill 1881 to expand the program that preceded the Education Freedom Scholarships.

This amended legislation is expected to see votes on both chambers’ floors this week.

What is the ESA Program

The Education Savings Account (ESA) program began during the 2022-23 school year, providing parents in Davidson and Shelby Counties, and later Hamilton County, the ability to use tax dollars for private school expenses. The ESA program has stricter income limitations, as participants must have an annual household income that does not exceed twice the federal income eligibility guidelines for free lunch. For a family of four, that’s $81,120.

The amended legislation would extend the program to families with an annual income of 400 percent of the eligibility for free lunch, or more than $160,000 for a family of four.  It would also allow families in Knox County to utilize the program.

“This amendment simply adds additional school eligibility for the ESAs,“ said Hicks during discussion in the House, Ways, and Means Subcommittee on Monday. “This amendment protects our schools communities and our family dollars across Tennessee.“

Opposition from Democrats

Democrats have opposed both programs in the Tennessee General Assembly, and on Tuesday, members of the Tennessee House Democratic Caucus took to social media to blast this latest attempt to expand the ESA.

“Same ole dirty, dishonest tricks from the Republican Party. Make no mistake- this will bankrupt the state of Tennessee and it will be felt from the school halls to the state roads,” wrote the caucus on Facebook.

Currently, just over 4,800 students are utilizing the ESA program in Tennessee.

The amended bill would also revise the annual testing requirements for participating ESA students in grades three through eleven by authorizing participating private schools to administer either a nationally standardized achievement test aligned to the school’s instructional plan or the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) tests in Mathematics and English Language Arts.