Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) unveiled a new proposal Tuesday that would make the Volunteer State the latest to adopt universal school choice.
The governor outlined his Education Freedom Scholarship Act of 2024, which would gradually introduce universal school choice to Tennessee over the next two years through taxpayer-funded scholarships that families can use to send students to private schools.
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"Tennessee’s Education Freedom Scholarships will empower parents with the freedom to choose the right education for their child, while also giving them a say in how their taxpayer dollars are invested," Lee said. "In the coming months, I look forward to working with Tennessee families and members of the General Assembly to accomplish this historic legislative initiative and establish Tennessee as a leader in providing choice for families while also striving toward the best public school system in the country.”
Under the bill's provisions, 20,000 scholarships would be awarded to students on a first-come, first-serve basis. For the 2024-2025 school year, 10,000 of these scholarships would be reserved for students who are from lower-income families. In 2025-2026, the program would become fully universal, but students from lower-income backgrounds would receive priority.
The Tennessee General Assembly will consider the bill during its upcoming legislative session, which is set to begin in January. With support from Republican leaders in the state House and Senate, the bill has a strong chance of becoming law.
"Tennessee is serious about student achievement,” Republican House Majority Leader William Lamberth said in a statement. “This is a bold idea that will empower families and change lives. This initiative, combined with our historic investments in public education, will launch a new era of student success in Tennessee.”
Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at the pro-school choice group the American Federation for Children, told the Washington Examiner in a statement that Lee's proposal was a sign that Republican-controlled states are "engaging in friendly competition" to enact school choice.
"It's great to see real Republicans in state legislatures locking arms to empower all families with education freedom," he said. "School choice is on the Republican Party platform, and conservative voters have made education freedom a priority."
However, the proposal did not receive support everywhere. Tanya Coats, the president of the Tennessee Education Association, the state's teachers union, said that the school choice measure would "jeopardize" the state's public schools by diverting funding from them.
"What we do know from other states is that vouchers do not improve student outcomes and often segregate communities," Coats said. "The proposal allows for unaccredited, unproven and unaccountable private schools to siphon public funding away from the local school district and leave Tennessee children without the high-quality education they would have received in their neighborhood public school."
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If Tennessee successfully establishes universal school choice, it will be the latest Republican-controlled state to adopt such a program in the past two years. States adopting universal school choice include Florida, Arizona, Iowa, Utah, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Ohio.
But not all efforts have been successful. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has faced stiff opposition from some Republicans from rural areas as he has sought to bring universal school choice to the Lone Star State. As a result, Abbott has taken the extraordinary step of endorsing primary opponents for legislators from his own party that voted against his school choice bill.