Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R) unveiled the Education Freedom Scholarship Act, which will offer education savings accounts (ESAs) for students in all 95 counties in the state, in a Tuesday event that featured Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) and included state lawmakers and school choice advocates.
Lee said the legislative proposal will establish statewide universal school choice, stressing at his press conference that “a high-quality education has the power to change a trajectory of a child’s life forever.”
Sanders, who successfully championed school choice legislation in Arkansas, joked about the athletic and cultural rivalries shared by Tennessee and Arkansas before declaring the states are now “competing to be the best state in the nation on education freedom,” adding that “this is a rivalry that will benefit everyone in both of our states.”
“There is an absolute conservative education revolution happening in this country,” she said.
Sanders added that she is “proud of the fact that [Lee] is recreating some of the same successes” seen in Arkansas, which she noted was recently ranked the fourth best state for education freedom.
In a video played at the event, Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) said “students should not be boxed in for attending a school that doesn’t fit their needs.” He applauded the governor’s proposal, adding that it will “give Tennessee parents to make” the “fundamental choice” of “where their child goes to school.”
House Speaker Cameron Sexton also cheered the bill, stressing that the “ultimate” education decisions for families “should be made by parents, not government bureaucrats.”
Lt. Governor Randy McNally declared school choice a “worthy goal,” and said he was “grateful” the governor “brought forth this proposal,” and said he looks forward to working with Sexton and Johnson to enact it.
The America First Policy Institute was among the first conservative organizations to applaud the move, with director Laurie Todd-Smith calling the bill “a major win for parents and children” if it is enacted. Todd-Smith said the legislation “would offer parents a stronger voice in the conversation about their child’s education and would empower families to choose the school that best fits their child’s unique needs.” She added that “[a]ll Tennessee students, regardless of their zip code or parents’ income, deserve a choice and the chance to receive a quality education.”
Sources at the Tennessee General Assembly previously told The Tennessee Star that Lee’s legislation will likely begin with strenuous income limits, allowing only families who are 200 percent or less of the poverty line access to the ESA program. However, the income limits are expected to widen over a 10-year phase-in, ultimately opening the program to all K-12 students in Tennessee.
Watch the full press conference:
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Getting out from under the tyrannical rule of the Department of Education does not begin to guarantee improvement in public schools. It could and should eliminate a variety of mandates that come along with the “free” dollars. However, much of the failure of public schools is at the ground level with flawed curriculum, do-nothing school boards, an overload of administrators, incompetent teachers and the absence of parental involvement. We can worry about the state government sticking its nose into private schools if and when the issue occurs. Meanwhile give ALL students the opportunity to excel.
If the state is looking at getting us out from under the heavy hand of the US Dept. of Education why the need for any scholarships or vouchers? Isn’t the reason we are trying to get out of the US DoE is to improve our public schools and provide REAL education not dictated by the federal government? This makes no sense unless our state government is not really sincere about divorcing ourselves from the unconstitutional Dept. of Ed. When you give PUBLIC money to PRIVATE schools eventually those PRIVATE schools will be forced to follow the mandates of the federal government and state. Lee will not be our Governor forever and our Assembly will not be a Republican majority forever. The real agenda behind these choice schemes is only to suck private education into the system.