Tennessee Gov. Invoice Lee and fellow college voucher proponents have lastly claimed their final prize: a state legislation that can in the end enable for households everywhere in the state, wealthy and poor, to make use of taxpayer funds to ship their kids to personal faculties.
The Schooling Freedom Scholarship Act, accredited by the legislature in a particular session of the legislature Thursday, will launch this fall with as much as 20,000 college students statewide, and proceed to develop every year, with revenue limits disappearing after the primary yr.
Within the particular session, the invoice sailed by means of committees stacked with voucher supporters, and cleared the Home and Senate with snug margins. Lawmakers batted away amendments searching for to strengthen the invoice’s accountability provisions and protections for disabled folks.
However Tennessee’s embrace of faculty vouchers for all was by no means a foregone conclusion. Slimmed-down variations of the concept died many instances within the legislature earlier than one lastly squeaked by means of on a controversial vote in 2019. A bunch of oldsters and native governments sued to dam it, and the courts initially declared the plan unconstitutional.
The detractors and skeptics continued to push again on the plan when Lee proposed the expansive program in 2024, with greater than 50 college boards on report opposing it. That invoice stalled final yr within the Senate finance committee.
Additionally, the analysis hasn’t supported the case for vouchers as a manner to enhance educational outcomes. Current research discover little proof that vouchers enhance check scores. The truth is, they’ve generally led to declines. Polls present that public assist for vouchers in Tennessee is mostly break up.
Even now, after its passage, huge questions loom about the price of the statewide program, and whether or not it meaningfully advances the reason for college alternative. The Schooling Freedom Scholarship Act is projected to value taxpayers greater than $1 billion over the following 5 years. And due to the excessive revenue thresholds, 65% of the vouchers will find yourself going to college students who already attend personal faculties, the state initiatives.
In the meantime, college students of shade, youngsters from low-income households, and people with disabilities are sometimes neglected of faculty alternative packages because of the places and provide of personal faculties, transportation challenges, and the excessive value of tuition, nationwide knowledge exhibits.
So how did vouchers tackle an air of inevitability in Tennessee, just some years after they had been staring down defeat?
It was a mix of political swings, judicial shakeups that led to a string of courtroom victories, and a pandemic that ignited tradition wars and shook religion in public faculties. Additionally, credit score behind-the-scenes lobbying and political maneuvers and heavy affect from out-of-state teams with deep pockets.
In 2019, for instance, a questionable parliamentary transfer led to the passage of the restricted program, prompting a number of requires a federal investigation. Two years later, the dying of a Tennessee Supreme Courtroom justice, simply months after listening to arguments within the case, tipped the excessive courtroom’s steadiness of energy, probably contributing to the ruling that upheld the legislation.
On the middle of the trouble was Lee himself, who was decided to get common vouchers throughout the end line earlier than the top of his second time period in 2027. The governor used hardball techniques and welcomed spending from deep-pocketed out-of-state teams searching for to affect the end result. He additionally loaded the invoice with extra spending to mollify public college advocates, and bundled funding for his plan with cash for catastrophe reduction and immigration within the wake of Hurricane Helene and President Donald Trump’s election.
Beneath is a more in-depth have a look at the place the march to common vouchers started, and the way it arrived at its vacation spot in Tennessee:
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.
Thomas Wilburn is the senior knowledge editor for Chalkbeat. Contact him at twilburn@chalkbeat.org.
Undertaking credit:
- Images and illustrations: Elaine Cromie
- Enhancing: Krishnan M. Anantharaman, Tonyaa Weathersbee
Editor’s notice: This undertaking has been up to date with developments from the 2025 legislative session.