Tennessee Governor To Increase Private School Vouchers Based On Revenue

Image Credit: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout

*Note from The Tennessee Conservative: This article posted for informational purposes only.

By Sam Stockard [Tennessee Lookout -CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] –

Tennessee’s budget outlook will determine the number of new private school vouchers the state funds in 2026, according to Gov. Bill Lee.

The Department of Education declined to make estimates during budget hearings on the amount of money it plans to spend on K-12 education for fiscal 2026-27 or the number of vouchers it expects to give out for private school enrollment. 

Lee told reporters Monday he believes K-12 education will see a funding increase but that the state has several months left to make revenue projections for large budget items, including “education freedom scholarship” spending, which provides recipients $7,300 each to enroll at private schools. Both items are funded separately. 

The state spent $144 million this year on 20,000 vouchers, as well as money for one-time teacher bonuses and funds to offset losses for public school districts whose students transferred to private schools.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton, who voted against the governor’s first voucher program for low-income students six years ago, is supporting a move to double the number of vouchers after the state received 42,000 applications for them this year. 

The law allows 5,000 vouchers to be added if the number of applications reaches at least 75% of the scholarships available the past year. But even that depends on whether lawmakers fund the increase.

Lee has made no secret of backing expansion, calling it a “priority,” but he hasn’t put a number with the plan.

“We had a huge demand. Tennesseans want it,” Lee said. “It’s something that we’ve understood there’s an over-subscription for, and we should do everything we can to give it to them.”

Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds didn’t propose a cost for the state’s K-12 education funding, which is roughly $6.9 billion this year, or the private-school voucher program during last week’s budget hearing. She declined to speak to reporters afterward. Department of Education spokesperson Ricki Collins said later the figures weren’t provided because they depend on this year’s enrollment. Even though students are three months into the school year, she said it is too early to make an estimate.

Likewise, no estimate could be made on voucher spending until a plan for funding K-12 education is made, she said.

The state is depending more than ever on sales tax revenue to fund the budget after lawmakers reduced business taxes two straight years and gave companies a tax rebate.

Sales tax collections for the first three months of this fiscal year, which started in July, exceeded projections by $49 million, nearly 2%, while corporate tax collections came in $28.6 million below estimates, 3.8% off the mark.