Draft language has emerged — and disappeared — for Gov. Bill Lee’s school voucher expansion proposal. The plan would offer $7,075 each to up to 20,000 Tennessee students beginning next school year to pay for direct and indirect costs of attending private school and some homeschools.
Back in November, Lee announced the broad strokes of the plan. The draft offers new details on how the state would prioritize who receives the funds.
The draft bill was briefly available online Monday but was later removed. A senate spokesperson told WPLN News that the language of the proposal was “filed accidentally due to a miscommunication.” They did not address questions about when the bill may be reintroduced, or whether the language is anticipated to stay the same.
Eligibility and prioritization
The draft bill clarified that students cannot participate in multiple voucher programs at the same time. So students in the current Education Savings Account pilot program cannot participate in the new voucher program concurrently.
However, 10,000 seats would be set aside next year for students eligible for the state’s current voucher programs, as well as students whose household income is 300% of the federal poverty level or less.
The other 10,000 vouchers would be awarded on a first come first served basis.
Then, beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, any student could apply for one of 20,000 vouchers. That includes students from wealthy families who are already enrolled in private school. The draft legislation said applications would be prioritized in the following order:
- Students who received a scholarship the previous year
- Students whose household income is 200% of the federal poverty rate or lower
- Students whose household income is 300% of the federal poverty rate or lower
- Students currently enrolled in public school, or students entering kindergarten in the coming school year
- Everybody else on a first come first served basis
No mention of accountability
The draft policy did not address testing, tracking or any other accountability measures for participating students or schools.
The current pilot voucher program for lower income students requires them to take the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program each year. So far, those students have performed significantly worse than their public school peers.
Without requiring testing, it’s unclear how Tennessee would measure the success of its universal voucher program. One number that proponents have been citing so far is parent satisfaction rate among participating families. A report based on feedback from the 2022-2023 school year found that 99% of parents were satisfied with the ESA program overall.
Intention to expand
The draft bill also demonstrated the administration’s desire to grow the voucher program beyond 20,000.
“It is the intent of the general assembly that the number of scholarships provided pursuant to this part will increase in subsequent years until all eligible applicants who apply are provided a scholarship,” the draft reads.
Basically, if the budget allows, the Education Freedom Scholarship Act would expand until it meets demand.
Arizona has enacted a similar plan, and it has ballooned. The program is expected to cost the state about $1 billion in the coming fiscal year, and about half of recipients there have never attended public school.
Gov. Bill Lee will likely talk more about this proposal during his state of the state address Monday, Feb. 5 at 6 p.m.
