On the morning of November 28th, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee unveiled a proposal to expand the state’s school voucher program to begin in the 2024-25 school year. The Governor was joined by his Arkansas counterpart Sarah Huckabee Sanders who has recently supported similar policies in her state.
The Governor’s proposal would provide scholarships of $7,075 to 20,000 students across the state of Tennessee in 2024-25, with 10,000 being appropriated to students “at or below 300% of the federal poverty level” and the other 10,000 being spread amongst a “universal pool of students entitled to attend a public school.” In subsequent years, the scholarships would be allotted to an uncapped number of students across the state, restricted only by funding availability, with no financial requirements. “If demand exceeds available funding,” the proposal states, “low-income and public school students” would be prioritized.
This new program, titled the Education Freedom Scholarship Act (EFSA), builds on a current Tennessee program that provides scholarships of around $8,000 to selected low and middle-income students in Davidson, Shelby, and Hamilton counties. Students participating in this program during the 2022-23 school year performed poorer on standardized TCAP tests than their public school counterparts, raising doubt as to the program’s value. Defenders of school vouchers have argued that this statistic is the consequence of the students’ being in their first year at their new schools, and it should be expected that their test scores improve as they further acclimate.
Marisa Cannata, Vanderbilt Professor and Director of the National Center on Scaling Up Effective Schools, expressed doubt as to the efficacy of using average test scores to measure a program’s success, noting that “rigorous evaluations of similar programs in other states have found negative impacts on student learning.” Professor Cannata encouraged the state to “conduct an independent evaluation of the program” in order to provide legislators with adequate information before voting to expand such a policy.
Tennessee Democratic Leadership fiercely criticized the Republican proposal, echoing long-held concerns about such programs and their efficacy. Both Democrats and educators across the state fear that funding this program would reduce funding for the state’s public school system, which holds nearly one million students. Furthermore, critics argue that funds will inevitably go to upper-class Tennesseans with children already enrolled in private schools, citing the lack of income requirements for recipients of EFSA scholarships beyond 2025. State Senator Heidi Campbell, D-Oak Hill, called the program “a real scam that’s been going on for a long time in [Tennessee].”
Professor Cannata noted economic concerns, observing that the state may struggle to fund both an expansion of school vouchers and its new Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) program, a recent proposal by the state’s Department of Education changing its approach to public school funding. “In current economic conditions, the state may be able to fund both. But economic recessions come every several years and the state will need to make hard decisions about education spending,” stated Cannata.
Despite widespread opposition and concerns, stopping the Governor’s proposal seems impossible for the Democratic opposition, as Republicans hold overwhelming majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. Although the bill will likely take months to pass through the requisite committees, Tennesseans can prepare for the expansion to pass. Moving forward, further changes to the Tennessee school system can be expected, as it is ranked a lowly 34th in the nation by US News.
Photo by Jessica Ruscello via Unsplash
