NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Governor Bill Lee announced new legislation called Education Freedom Scholarships of 2025. It’s a $500-million plan that would allow public school students to attend a private school using taxpayer money.
Gov. Lee tried to pass similar legislation last year, but the House and Senate could not agree on certain items.
“It’s much improved over last year’s bill,” said JC Bowman with Professional Educators of Tennessee.
The new bill would give 20,000 students a $7,075 scholarship to attend a private school. Of those, 10,000 scholarships would go to students 300% below the federal poverty line.
Already Bowman fears the new plan would take money away from public schools.
“Ultimately it would hurt public schools long term,” Bowman said. “If you are a small rural school and you lose 300 students that could make a big impact.”
Currently, public school students are funded through the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement Formula (TISA). That money in the formula is designed to follow students. While Bowman said public schools could lose funding over time, Gov. Lee insists schools would not lose funding from one year to the next.
“This bill is designed so no public school system would lose any funding at any time as a result of disenrollment,” he said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Like last year, democrats call this legislation a scam.
“He’s pushing a special interest backed voucher scam,” said Representative John Ray Clemmons (D – Nashville). “That’s his priority.”
The new bill has testing requirements in place, a $2,000 teacher raise, and money to repair schools using sports betting funds, but Rep. Clemmons said that’s not promised.
“If you really read the language there are no accountability measures,” he said. “There are no protections for special needs children or anything like that in there. There are no protections for the funding that will exit the public schools and defund our public schools.”
Bowman said while the legislation could pass there are still items to work out. He said one is the exclusion of migrants and students with special needs.
“That may also be somewhat legally suspect, so I think that is a question people are going to have to have,” Bowman added.
WSMV4 asked Governor Lee if a special session is possible to pass voucher legislation. He said there is no plan, but they will move forward with what they need to do to get the job done.
