In November 2023, Gov. Bill Lee announced his plan to make universal private school vouchers a reality in Tennessee. It’s now increasingly likely that this flagship legislation will not pass during the current legislative session.
The House and Senate remain at odds over what should make it into the final proposal, and the chambers are nearing the end of the session now. Lawmakers have enacted flow motion, allowing bills to travel to the floor more quickly. Lawmakers may be eager to get back to their districts and begin campaigning ahead of elections later this year.
But in response to coverage earlier this week that negotiations had broken down, House Majority Leader William Lamberth said the bill is “not dead yet.” On Tuesday legislators said negotiations were ongoing.
Both bills would create 20,000 “education freedom scholarships” beginning in the fall. The vouchers would offer $7,075 dollars in public money for families to put toward attending private or religious schools, regardless of their income or previous enrollment in a non-public school.
The House bill is far more expansive than the Senate version, making a laundry list of changes to the public school system. The House bill would also eliminate the 10,000 seats in the first year set aside for lower income and disabled students under the governor’s original proposal. Instead, it would prioritize student who come from families making at or below 400% and 500% of the federal poverty level. (For example, a family of four at 400% of the federal poverty level would earn abut $120,000 annually.)
The Senate version is more narrow, but adds a new dimension to school vouchers: using them at public schools. Currently, student who attend an out-of-district public school can be charged a fee. The Senate version would allow families to use voucher money to pay that fee. This draft of the bill also requires participants to take standardized tests, but not the same ones that are used to measure the achievement of Tennessee’s public school students.
Public school testing has also become a major sticking point in negotiations. The House bill would reduce testing for Tennessee students and make teacher evaluations less frequent.
Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, said the Senate feels strongly about preserving school accountability.
“Some of us would argue [the House bill] rolls back some of the changes that we fought for for well over a decade within these legislative chambers,” Watson said Tuesday.
And there’s another wrinkle. Even without a voucher bill passed, both chambers are moving forward with the budget, which sets aside $144 million for the program. The House version of the program is significantly more expensive than that. If that version of the budget passes, House Speaker Cameron Sexton said “it’s not a good sign for it.”
If the budget passes and a program does not, money for vouchers would go unused and rollover to the next year’s budget. Both chambers are expected to take up the budget for a floor vote in the next day or two.
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