Image Credit: TN General Assembly
***Note from The Tennessee Conservative – this article posted here for informational purposes only.
The Center Square [By Kim Jarrett] –
A bill that would double Tennessee’s Education Freedom Scholarships was moved to the Senate floor calendar on Tuesday.
Senate Bill 2247 creates an additional 15,000 scholarships. The law passed by the General Assembly in a 2025 special session, creating the initial 20,000 scholarships, automatically allowing an additional 5,000.
If the bill passes, the number of $7,530 scholarships available to 40,000 students for the 2026-27 school year. Second-term Republican Gov. Bill Lee proposed more than $300 million for the scholarships in his fiscal year 2027 budget proposal.
Passage was 6-4 by the panel, with Republicans Joey Hensley of Hohenwald and Page Walley of Savannah joining Democrats Lamar London of Memphis and Jeff Yarbro of Nashville in voting no.
Hensley asked why the money allotted to each student under the state’s school funding formula, known as the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement or TISA, is not used.
“If they’re receiving education scholarships, why do we have to designate extra money in the budget to pay for those?” Hensley asked. “That’s over $300 million going forward, that’s outside the TISA formula.”
Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson of Franklin said the money is not directly tied to a student.
“If students leave a public education setting and go to a private school, then we will not be appropriating that money, so it will come back effectively to the state,” Johnson said.
“It just seems like we’re paying for some of these children twice,” Hensley said.
Lee and supporters of the expansion cited the program’s popularity as a reason to increase the scholarships.
More than 56,000 students applied for the 2026-27 school year, while more than 38,000 applied for the 2025-26 school year, according to the Tennessee Department of Education.
“It’s unsurprising that people are accepting this scholarship because we’re subsidizing existing behavior,” Yarbro said. “More than 90% of the students were already attending private schools in the first place.”
A House amendment would reduce the expansion by 5,000 to 35,000. The details are still being worked out, a speaker for House Republicans told The Center Square. The House version of the bill will be considered by a subcommittee of the House Finance, Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.
The Tennessee Lookout reports:
Under an amendment sponsored by House Speaker Cameron Sexton, districts would have to show that a student who left for a private school initially produced documents proving citizenship, valid legal immigration status or was going through immigration proceedings in which a final order of removal had not been issued.
House Bill 2532 now has eight proposed amendments, one of which would reduce the total number of voucher slots to 35,000, some 5,000 less than Gov. Bill Lee is requesting.
The amendment forcing districts to show proof of legal documentation for students could run afoul of federal law that requires students to be enrolled regardless of immigration status.
It is unclear whether the Senate version, which would allow districts to charge tuition to undocumented students, will be amended to match the House bill.
2 Responses
This expansion bill to further ‘entrench’ Bill’s pet project, is the DEFINITION of cronyism and ANYONE who supports it is NOT conservative, but a circus style, carpet bagger and promoter of BIG GOVERNMENT policy, regulation and taxes. YES – parents make better decisions on their kids education and should control the money, but take notice private schools – when you take this money from tax payers, the Dept. of Ed DOES NOT consider it taxpayer money, nor do the RINO supporters of this expansion bill. When private schools expand educational footprint, they SHOULD NOT be surprised when future legislatures decide that they need to be regulated more to ‘deserve’ this money, and viola – you’re STUCK! Government regulations ALWAYS follow money….it is the carrot that leads the horse drawn cart and the RINO’s may not know it but they are very naive. This bill was bad from the beginning, it was CLEARLY for the private school donors of the ELITE RULING CLASS! It was NEVER for the ‘kids’, as it was deceitful in its ‘promises’ to students of poorly performing schools! That was just a red herring! All it provided was a way for private school students to use their tax payer money to pay for schools they were ALREADY attending! Yes, I’m sure there were exceptions but because these RINOs were VERY embarrassed they EXCLUDED all ACCOUNTABILITY from the Dept. of Ed! What a sham! But, even worse, the governor and legislators had to BRIBE the teacher’s union with MORE pay for LESS work and for poor performance – that is IF you buy their initial LIE, that this was ‘for the students of poorly performing schools’! Again, what a joke! Finally, if anyone cares, this latest attempt to SAVE FACE for the governor and his RINO crony leaders of the legislature, they’ve DOUBLED DOWN throwing a half BILLION tax payer dollars to try and correct this problem, but it’ll all get worse before it gets better. That’s when REAL conservatives will propose REAL conservative legislation that wont’ cost a penny…..ANY AND ALL students in state identified ‘poorly performing’ public schools HAVE a total exemption from county school zoning regulations and can enroll and attend ANY other county school. That would be free program that would punish poorly performing schools, encouraging them to get better or lose state funds. And, it would not cause an already BLOATED Ed Dept. to get more heavy handed and inept, than they already are, yet Simple, Cheap and EFFECTIVE! But use caution…and just remember ANY LEGISLATOR who bravely opposes these RINOS WILL get the Janice Bowling/Jody Barrett treatment from these same vindictive RINOS – don’t expect fairness for your legislative idea! Bill’s generationally expensive BIG GOVERNMENT pet program will be the LEGACY of the governor and his water boys in the legisature!
“My” “Senator” is John Stevens, toting RINO Lee’s water, zero use in contacting his RINO butt.