Image Credit: Gov. Bill Lee / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
An administrative error awarded 166 Tennessee families state-funded scholarships for private school and then rescinded them days later.
Affected parents across the state are expressing their frustration now that their hopes have been dashed following the news.
Governor Bill Lee’s Education Freedom Act which the Tennessee General Assembly passed earlier this year is limited to 20,000 scholarships for the upcoming school year. Lee’s office reported that 33,000 Tennessee families applied for the funds within hours of the program being launched.
One of the affected parents, Haley Bolin, reported that she received an email last Wednesday that confirmed that her child had been approved for a scholarship. But by Saturday, another email from the state rescinded the funds due to an administrative error. Bolin’s daughter is now on the waitlist for a scholarship with Bolin on the hook for her daughter’s tuition as she is already enrolled in a private school.
The Tennessee Department of Education responded to a request for information from News Channel 9 saying that the department sincerely regretted the mistake.
Over 200 private schools have signed on to be part of the scholarship program.
Lee, who is at the tail end of his time as governor, called a special session early into the regularly scheduled legislative session this year in hopes of getting the Education Freedom Act passed.
The legislation blew through four house committees in one day with very few Republicans in opposition.
Conservative Representative Jody Barrett (R-Dickson-District 69) who spoke out against Lee’s glorified entitlement program for private school parents was set to serve on the House Education Committee during the regular session but was removed from the committee by House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville-District 25) for the week of the Extraordinary session along with half of the committee’s regular members.
Even the Committee Chair, Representative Mark White (R-Memphis-District 83) was switched out for Representative Scott Cepicky (R-Culleoka-District 64) who led the charge last year in an effort to get Lee’s pet project passed.
The baseline dollar amount of each scholarship is $7,250. The average annual tuition for private school in Tennessee is over $11,000.
As lawmakers discussed the legislation that created the “opportunity” for 20,000 students for the 2025-2026 school year to receive a voucher, they were aware that the majority of recipients were projected to be students already attending private schools.
In a public Facebook group, this projection appears to have been accurate as some parents are still hopeful that they will be moved from the waitlist and receive the scholarship to help offset tuition costs for their children who are already enrolled in a private school.
According to some in the group, those parents who chose to wait and see if they were approved for the state money before enrolling their child in a school are finding that schools are full and are having to decline the scholarship. This means parents whose children were already enrolled are being moved off the waitlist and will be receiving the funds.
At least one Tennessee parent said that their private school asked all families already enrolled to apply for the voucher money.
10,000 scholarships were made available to families whose income does not exceed 300 percent of the amount to qualify for free and reduced lunch – a family of four with a household income of less than $173,000 for example. The remaining 10,000 applications were not income dependent.
Next year the number of spots could increase but lawmakers would have to look at new legislation that would expand the program. The amount of each scholarship would also go up to $8,750.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
3 Responses
Shocking, I tell you…♂️ And the gullible continue to get played… Yet another entitlement that gets yanked… Oh that’s right, it was never intended for the unwashed! Yet another money laundering scheme is off to the races and we the taxpayers get hosed, yet again… Politics and the gubment are not your friend!!!!!!
If only they were actually “universal” as advertised by “leadership” instead of only being available to 1% of the K-12 population.
I have no issue with private school students getting these scholarships. Those households pay taxes like everyone else. If you want to argue they are wealthy…well then they pay more taxes than everyone else. They have been saving their neighbors over $12000 per year by paying their taxes and not using the public schools. However the public school is still getting the funding for students that are no longer there. Taxing us for services that will never be provided (even at their nominal 40% proficiency rates). That is theft. The public school money should follow the student, not be new taxation. The other glaring issue is the protectionist racket that prohibits the scholarships from going to any school not previously in existence for 3 years. The rural reps continue to justify their vote on lack of competition in their districts, and not on principle. They continue to demand legal property owners fund illegals at $12,000/yr in the public schools (it costs more than that because of additional ESL burdens), but seem fine with denying money to natives because they are “wealthy” and don’t want 40% academic proficiency.
Knew from git-go that VERY few who NEEDED help would be helped.