Image Credit: American Federation for Children / YouTube
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
Governor Bill Lee is partnering with a fake conservative group in order to push his pet project: “universal” school vouchers.
In a new TV ad, Lee is seen promoting his proposal to expand school vouchers for all Tennesseans.
The ad, funded by the American Federation for Children (AFC), shows Lee stating that the Education Freedom Act will not only “empower parents” with universal school choice but also support teachers and invest in public education.
“Freedom is at the core of being a Tennessean,” says Lee in the beginning of the ad, “So when it comes to education, more freedom is what our children need.”
American Federation for Children’s PAC, AFC Victory Fund spent tens of thousands of dollars in Tennessee in 2024 on a combination of mailers and research for state candidates, doubling their yearly lobbying expenditures compared to past years.
When the PAC was launched in 2023, AFC promised to spend $10 million in races across the United States to defeat lawmakers opposed to school choice.
AFC founder, former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, is also one of the top donors to the related PAC, along with husband Dick DeVos, and billionaire Jeff Yass.
Lee has connections with the group such as Gillum Ferguson, political strategist for AFC. Ferguson served as press secretary to Lee during the pandemic.
It’s no secret that expanding the state’s school voucher program is at the top of Lee’s legislative list with the 114th Tennessee General Assembly soon to reconvene in Nashville at the beginning of the new year.
Even as voters around the country voted against ballot measures during the November 5th election to fund school choice, Tennessee Republican lawmakers filed a bill to tackle the issue again the very next day.
Lee strongly supported the state’s current Education Savings Account Program which is limited to Davidson, Hamilton, and Shelby counties. Passed in 2019, the program endured a series of legal challenges but now is open to families who meet income restrictions.
During the 113th legislative session earlier this year, a push to expand the program failed. Even so, $144 million in recurring funds for the expansion was secured in the state budget.
With The Education Freedom Act of 2025, Lee hopes to open the program up to 20,000 families in Tennessee. Half of these will qualify due to income restrictions, but for the other 10,000, income will not be a consideration.
Opponents of Lee’s plan have long argued that vouchers will take funds away from public schools in the state. This remains a concern, even among Republicans.
In Northeast Tennessee, News Channel 11 polled regional Republicans on the issue.
While three lawmakers in the area support Lee’s proposal, two are definitely opposed with two more leaning that way.
Former Bristol Senator Jon Lundberg, who was Lee’s Senate sponsor, lost the primary for the 4th District seat to Bobby Harshbarger, who has several concerns about the bill.
Although Lee’s House sponsor Representative William Lamberth (R-Portland-District 44) has said that education funding for LEAs will not decrease due to students disenrolling to take advantage of vouchers, it remains a concern for Harshbarger.
The new bill takes into account last year’s vehement opposition from homeschoolers and concerns from private school representatives.
Homeschoolers have been expressly left out of the new proposal, while the language surrounding testing of private school students has been amended.
In the new version of the legislation, private schools would not have to administer the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) unless they wanted to, but instead would be required to administer a “nationally standardized achievement test” aligned to the each school’s instructional plan. The Tennessee Board of Education will be tasked with creating rules that address this mandated testing and reporting.
The language in the bill is supportive of private schools retaining their autonomy, explicitly stating that private schools that accept students using vouchers will not have to alter their “creed, practices, admission policies, hiring policies, or curriculum in order to accept recipients.”
The bill reads, “Private schools that enroll recipients must have the maximum freedom to provide for the educational needs of recipients without government control.”
The Tennessee Conservative’s founder, Brandon Lewis, did a breakdown of the bill in a video posted on November 15th.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
6 Responses
We don’t need vouchers. What we need is to do get rid of public schools [Indoctrination centers] and the DOE. It’s a good thing Rino lee is term limited because he has done enough damage to Tennessee along with the other Rinos. Its harder to tell if we are a red or purple state anymore.
In God we trust not government or man.
Have a blessed day.
In the argument public schools will loose money with vouchers or children home schooling, etc. Isn’t that the point? Local schools have all but stopped teaching. ALL emphases is on sports. Millions to build a sports complex yet parents must send money for lab fees, work books, etc. Public schools need to loose money. Not teaching script writing!!! Grandson “graduated” 2023 can not write or READ script, no grammer, no punctuation. Yes public schools need to be closed.
Bill’s bill has multiple impossible and conflicting goals…..Tennesseans deserve better! I encourage you all to write your state senator and representative and ask them to answer these questions before they sell Tennessee taxpayers to these river boat gamblers. 1. Why is it called ‘universal’ when it will serve less than 5% of Tennessee students? 2. Why is Lamberth ‘promising’ that funding for Public Education will not change….Did you get that? They ‘say’ their purpose is to allow ‘underserved’ Tennessee students the opportunity of school choice, yet the effect will be that poorly performing schools will lose students, but keep the same funding (Tennessee taxpayer money that is!!) Really? How would YOU like less accountability but MORE money at your work place? Under Lee’s, Johnson’s and Lamberth’ plan, poorly performing districts will have LESS students and MORE funding for teacher pay and infrastructure…Can you say “bribery”! If you’ll support this bill, we’ll pay you MORE to teach FEWER kids and we’ll give you MORE for infrastructure for FEWER students! Finally, why does this bill turn over the ‘control’ of testing decisions to the BUREAUCRATS at the state department of education for private schools? Will the DoE now ‘require’ certain things of private schools? Homeschooling parents? The misleading language indicates private schools will retain ‘autonomy’, but the Dept. of Ed will ‘control’ the testing! Ultimately, private schools taking these taxpayer funds will be ‘accountable’ to the Dept. of Ed.! Does anyone but me, believe that the actually impact, will be to ‘CONTROL’ private school curriculum at the end of the day?
This bill is worse that SNAKE OIL from a CARPET BAGGER! Call and write your senator and representative today and ask them to answer these questions BEFORE they vote on it!
Unless parents and citizens continue to make their voices heard the globalists will get their voices heard.
Consider that Devos brother founded Blackrock, considered by some to be the company that (semi secretly) rules the world with funds from being the largest asset manager with US $11.5 TRILLION in assets. Can you say, ‘globalists.’ ?
You are absolutely 100% correct. Blackrock, Vanguard and State Street along with the WEF are part of the controlling globalists. As Klaus Schwab says “You will own nothing and like it.” Also according to him “you will be eating bugs and insects instead of meat.” It’s up to the sheeples to decide if they are going stand up or eat and do what they are told. Baaaa
In God we trust not government or man.
Have a blessed day.