An expansion of Tennessee’s school vouchers could impact undocumented students

An amendment to a voucher expansion bill advancing in the Tennessee statehouse links public school funding with the immigration status of students. Education advocates warn that this measure would discourage undocumented students from enrolling for school.

Republican lawmakers are pushing to expand the statewide voucher program — also known as Education Freedom Scholarships — to 40,000 students. This comes after the first year of implementation of a smaller program. The new move would double the available vouchers at a cost to taxpayers of over $150 million dollars. Critics of the program are worried about its fiscal impact and how it weaves immigration policy into voucher expansion efforts.

More: Will Tennessee block undocumented students from school? Lawmakers divided. 

Pushback over financial impact and immigration checks

The Senate finance committee voted 6-4 to advance SB2247 on Tuesday. Sen. Joey Hensley, R- Hohenwald, voted against the measure, saying that he supports school choice but is against expanding the voucher program too quickly.

“’m just concerned that we’re on the path to make it difficult for us to continue funding everything,” he said.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jack Johnson, stressed that investing in public schools remain a priority — noting that Gov. Bill Lee has proposed to increase spending for K-12 public schools by $4 billion over the next 10 years.

Still, critics of the program insist that vouchers divert funds away from public schools. In November 2025, a group of Tennessee families filed a lawsuit against the state alleging that this diversion of funds violates the state constitution. Each voucher is a little more than $7,000 and allows families to use taxpayer funds to defray the costs of attending private school.

When the voucher program was passed during the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers stressed that public school districts would be held “harmless” — meaning their state funding wouldn’t decrease if they lost students, for any reason.

This funding is based on a per-pupil rate, and an amendment to the House version of the bill — sponsored by Rep. William Lamberth, R-Portland — would require public schools seeking reimbursement to prove that the students they lost were citizens, legal residents, or in immigration proceedings without a final deportation order.

This amendment also lowered the proposed count of vouchers for next year to 35,000 (the Senate version which is still pushing for 40,000). Current state law limits the growth of the program to 5,000 additional vouchers each year, as long as there’s enough demand.

Nikkolette Hunter, senior policy analyst at EdTrust Tennessee, insists that these changes are designed to create a tracking system for undocumented students.

“Even if a district loses 500 students, they can only count the ones that have documentation to show citizenship or immigration status,” she said. “We know that it’s likely to discourage undocumented students from enrolling in school.”

Research shows that increased immigration enforcement contributes to increased absenteeism and dropout rates, decreased student achievement, and worsened school climate and parent disengagement.

The House finance subcommittee voted to advance the voucher expansion proposal on Wednesday with little discussion.

Next, the House bill will go before the finance committee on Tuesday and its Senate counterpart will go to the full Senate for a floor vote.