Key Republican to push statewide expansion of Tennessee's school voucher program

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds.

Tennessee House Education Committee Chair Mark White, R-Memphis, says he will propose a statewide expansion of Tennessee’s school voucher program ― from three counties to all 95 ― when the legislature returns in January.

“I think it’s time,” White told The Tennessean in an interview. “It just baffles me that we are pro-choice on so many things, but we still struggle with freedom of choice when it comes to schools.”

Tennessee's Education Savings Accounts program provides almost $9,000 in state funds to qualifying low- and mid-income students in Davidson, Shelby, and Hamilton counties to attend accredited private and parochial schools of their choice.

Participating families must be below an income threshold and complete a state application for the program. Once approved, families can apply and enroll in their chosen participating private school, and pay for expenses using state funds. State grant funds can be used for tuition, books, uniforms, technology, transportation costs, and other education-related expenses. All participating students are required to take the TCAP, the state's standardized test.

Lawmakers included only Davidson and Shelby Counties in the original, contentuous legislation in 2019, of which White was a prime co-sponsor. The vote saw bipartisan opposition, and passed 51 to 46, with just one more vote than was required for passage. Several Republicans voting to support the bill did so after being promised their county would not be affected.

After a years-long constitutional challenge, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled the program legal in 2022, and the state launched the program in those two counties just in time for the 2022-23 school year. This spring, lawmakers added Hamilton County.

"We warned everyone that this wasn't stopping at the Davidson or Shelby County lines: this was going to go statewide," House Minority Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, told The Tennessean. "A lot of people during the initial vote on this voucher bill several years ago, only voted for it because it wasn't going to affect their county. They didn't mind sticking it to Nashville or Memphis, but they didn't want it in their county. ... But here we go, statewide."

So far, more than 3,400 students have applied to participate this year ― including students who were eligible when the bill first became law in 2019 and were grandfathered into eligibility by new legislation this spring. More than 450 students enrolled in private schools during the ESA program's first year in 2022-23, according to the Tennessee Department of Education.

Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, said it's too early in the five-year pilot program to consider expanding to more counties.

"There are no audits or data showing Tennessee's so-called pilot has been sufficiently successful to justify continuing vouchers where they are, much less expanding them elsewhere," Yarbro told The Tennessean. "We should do what is right for Tennessee students rather than sticking with a high-risk, evidence-free, ideological experiment."

White said eligible students and their parents everywhere in the state should be allowed to participate in the program, as it offers options to parents when public schools don’t perform well. Some rural counties have few private schools.

“I would like to see it expanded mainly for parental choice and for options where there are not a lot of options,” White said. “If a public school is doing well, I don’t think they have anything to worry about."

Expanding school options has been a high priority of Gov. Bill Lee, who initiated the ESA legislation during the first months of his administration in 2019. While in office, Lee has also established a Public Charter School Commission to handle charter school appeals.

Lee declined to comment personally on White's proposal for this story.

Elizabeth Johnson, a spokesperson for the governor, told The Tennessean that "the opportunity to choose the right school can change the trajectory of a child’s life, particularly for those living in an underserved ZIP code."

"The Governor is always interested in working with the General Assembly to empower more Tennessee families with the freedom to choose the best education for their child, and we will continue discussions with legislative leadership in the months ahead," Johnson said.

Tennessee Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds, whose agency administers the ESA program, declined to comment.

Critics have said the program funds private and religious schools with taxpayer dollars, and takes funding away from already underfunded public schools. Children are only eligible to participate in the program if they were previously enrolled in a public school, or if they are just entering a Tennessee school for the first time (either in kindergarten or as a new resident).

"This is another step in the controlling party's plan to privatize our entire public education system, and it's driven by out-of-state extremist organizations," Sen. Heidi Campbell, D-Nashville, told The Tennessean. "TISA (the state's new funding formula), vouchers and the discussion to deny federal education funding are all part of the effort to significantly diminish the quality of education in our state at a time when we're already struggling."

"Everything education-focused up here is designed to steer taxpayer dollars into private hands, whether it be through charter school commission overreach, overriding local officials and LEAs or this voucher program," Clemmons agreed.

White argues taxpayer dollars are already going to private colleges and universities.

“I don’t mind using taxpayer funds for K-12 because we do the same thing as soon as you graduate from 12th grade,” White said. “You can get a federal Pell grant to go to any private college in the country – why not K-12?”

It will be a fight. Legislation expanding the program to Hamilton County last spring also faced bipartisan opposition, though it saw more Republican support than the original bill in 2019. White remains optimistic.

“The majority up here believe in parent choice in a lot of things, including vaccines,” White said. “How do we convince everyone that school choice is just as important as parental choice and everything else? That's the challenge.”

Vivian Jones covers state government and politics for The Tennessean. Reach her at vjones@tennessean.com. 

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee school voucher program: Republicans look to expand option