Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a law Wednesday letting parents in his state spend more than $7,000 of taxpayer funds on private K-12 tuition, transportation, tutoring and other educational expenses.
The legislation builds on universal school voucher laws in 12 other states. It also comes as Republican lawmakers expect President Trump to abolish or gut the Education Department, giving them more control of the federal tax dollars needed to reimburse such programs.
Effective July 1, Tennessee’s $447 million program will make 20,000 scholarships available to families, with half reserved for students from low-income families. Excluding illegal immigrants, families will be eligible to use the funds in the 2025-26 term.
“Education changes the trajectory of a child’s life forever, and today we put in place a piece of legislation that will change the future of Tennessee forever because it changes the trajectory of the next generation of Tennesseans,” Mr. Lee, a Republican, said at the signing.
According to Private School Review, the average private school in Tennessee charged $11,672 in tuition for the 2024-25 school year. That includes $11,833 a year for private elementary schools and $12,596 for private high schools.
School choice advocates on Thursday called the law’s signing an important step toward giving control of education funds directly to parents, rather than federal bureaucrats and teachers unions.
“Tennessee was a huge win for education freedom and parental choice,” said Jonathan Williams, president of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a network of conservative state legislators. “We need to be looking at ways to fund alternative forms of education and reexamine how states operate if the Education Department ceases to exist.”
The country’s two largest teachers unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.
Both have opposed state voucher measures and warned that Linda McMahon, Mr. Trump’s nominee for education secretary, will siphon funds away from needy public schools if confirmed. Ms. McMahon appeared before the Senate on Thursday for her first confirmation hearing.
“As I travel around the country, I have heard from parents and educators that they want more resources, more opportunities that will help students live into their brilliance,” Becky Pringle, NEA president, said at a Wednesday rally against Ms. McMahon’s confirmation outside the U.S. Capitol. “They do not want to dismantle public schools and privatize them.”
Ms. Pringle noted that 90% of schoolchildren attend public schools, making it essential to “reduce class sizes, recruit qualified staff and keep students safe.”
The 12 other Republican-led states that have enacted universal school voucher laws taking effect between this year and the 2026-27 term are Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah and West Virginia.
School choice measures have failed in some other states, partly thwarted by rural voters who lack private schooling options.
The NEA celebrated the defeat of school voucher ballot initiatives it lobbied against in Kentucky, Colorado and Nebraska during November’s election.
Last month, Mr. Trump intervened to persuade several GOP holdouts to support universal K-12 vouchers in Tennessee. His administration has directed the Education Department to earmark discretionary funds for school voucher programs and new guidance for states to use federal dollars to support them.
In a Jan. 30 social media post, Mr. Trump praised Tennessee lawmakers for “working hard to pass School Choice this week, which I totally support.”
Under Tennessee’s new law, the state will offer 5,000 more scholarships in the 2026-27 school year if the program exceeds 75% capacity in the first year. Lawmakers haven’t ruled out further growth from there.
The American Federation for Children, a Dallas-based school choice advocacy group, hailed Wednesday’s signing as an omen that more is to come.
“Parents across the country gave elected leaders a mandate to expand education freedom, and Tennessee has delivered it,” said Ryan Cantrell, the federation’s vice president of Government Affairs.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.