Tennessee Gov. Invoice Lee and fellow college voucher proponents have lastly claimed their final prize: a state regulation that can in the end enable for households all around the state, wealthy and poor, to make use of taxpayer funds to ship their youngsters to non-public colleges.
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 earnings limits disappearing after the primary 12 months.
Within the particular session, the invoice sailed by means of committees stacked with voucher supporters, and cleared the Home and Senate with comfy margins. Lawmakers batted away amendments looking for to strengthen the invoice’s accountability provisions and protections for disabled folks.
However Tennessee’s embrace of college vouchers for all was by no means a foregone conclusion. Slimmed-down variations of the concept died many occasions within the legislature earlier than one lastly squeaked by means of on a controversial vote in 2019. A bunch of fogeys 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 12 months within the Senate finance committee.
Additionally, the analysis hasn’t supported the case for vouchers as a means to enhance tutorial outcomes. Latest research discover little proof that vouchers enhance take a look at scores. In reality, they’ve typically led to declines. Polls present that public assist for vouchers in Tennessee is usually break up.
Even now, after its passage, large questions loom about the price of the statewide program, and whether or not it meaningfully advances the reason for college selection. The Schooling Freedom Scholarship Act is projected to value taxpayers greater than $1 billion over the subsequent 5 years. And due to the excessive earnings thresholds, 65% of the vouchers will find yourself going to college students who already attend non-public colleges, the state tasks.
In the meantime, college students of colour, children from low-income households, and people with disabilities are sometimes omitted of college selection applications as a result of places and provide of personal colleges, transportation challenges, and the excessive value of tuition, nationwide information exhibits.
So how did vouchers tackle an air of inevitability in Tennessee, only a few years after they have been staring down defeat?
It was a mixture 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 colleges. 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 stability of energy, doubtless contributing to the ruling that upheld the regulation.
On the heart 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 ways and welcomed spending from deep-pocketed out-of-state teams looking for to affect the result. He additionally loaded the invoice with extra spending to mollify public college advocates, and bundled funding for his plan with cash for catastrophe aid and immigration within the wake of Hurricane Helene and President Donald Trump’s election.
Under is a better take 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 [email protected].
Thomas Wilburn is the senior information editor for Chalkbeat. Contact him at [email protected].
Mission credit:
- Pictures and illustrations: Elaine Cromie
- Modifying: Krishnan M. Anantharaman, Tonyaa Weathersbee
Editor’s word: This mission has been up to date with developments from the 2025 legislative session.
