New polling released Monday by the Beacon Center of Tennessee revealed that a majority of Tennesseans across the political spectrum now support lifting the limit on the number of students able to participate the Education Freedom Plan made law earlier this year.
While expanding the school choice plan had the greatest support from Republicans, the pollsters revealed it also has the support of a majority of independents and Democrats living in the Volunteer State.
In total, 58 percent of Republicans said they supported lifting the cap on scholarships, which is currently set at 20,000, with the legislation set to create a marginal annual increase.
A similar number of independents supported lifting the cap, with 56 percent telling pollsters all eligible families should be allowed to participate in the system. Democrats supported raising the cap with a slimmer majority, as 52 percent told pollsters it should be raised.
By contrast, just 23 percent of independents, 28 percent of Republicans, and 38 percent of Democrats said they were opposed to lifting the cap.
The Beacon Center polled 1,200 registered voters in Tennessee on the Education Freedom Plan, and said their findings were accurate within a margin of 2.77 percent.
It is the second survey from the pollsters to show support for expanding the school choice plan, as data released in July showed 66 percent of Republicans supported lifting the cap.
The program has proven popular with parents, as the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) announced that the number of applicants nearly exceeded the number of total scholarships available just days after the program became available to the public.
School choice may prove to resurface as a political issue in the coming weeks, as the Education Freedom Plan was referenced in an ad released last week by the Club for Growth’s School Freedom Fund, which noted that State Representative Jody Barrett (R-Dickson) voted against the bill.
Barrett is now one of several Republicans vying for the party’s nomination in 7th Congressional District, which became vacant following the recent departure of former Representative Mark Green, who previously postponed his retirement from Congress at the behest of President Donald Trump. Green has endorsed Matt Van Epps for the seat.
In addition to referencing Barrett’s vote against the school choice bill, the School Freedom Fund ad highlighted social media posts about Trump made by Barrett during the 2016 presidential primary.
“Jody Barrett is anti-Trump and voted against School Choice,” wrote Club for Growth President David McIntosh. “He’s the opposite of what we need in TN-07.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
One of the candidates you have put on a pedestal refuses to come to the rural counties and speak to the people but wants to say he will do all these bills in DC without knowing what he’s going to do has already been done or is in the works. we don’t care about endorsements, they mean nothing to us. We want someone that knows what is going on at the School board and county commissioner meeting, not the country club and private elite gatherings. We want the constitution and bill of rights to be followed.
So the taxpayers can pay for public and private education. YES they will double dip……pay for the kid to go to private school and reimburse the public school for the loss of head cound and we will pay double. I wonder what job awaits Governor Lee once he leaves office. Pay close attention to where he lands. Instead of fixing a broken system they just throw good money after bad as if the answer is money. If we have private schools that are doing a better job (I am doubtful about that) then the public sector should copy what is working in the private sector. Our TN Constitution says we are to provide and maintain a FREE PUBLIC education. It says nothing about a free private education. AND none of it is FREE. What people do not realize and refuse to acknowledge is these schemes are how they will suck private education into the public system. That has been the goal since the implementation of Common Core. There could be no outliers and private education and home education are the outliers they were referencing. When the private schools work this scholarship money into the bottom line budget they will be willing to do whatever they are told in order to keep that money flowing. There are also not enough private schools, especially in poor communities to educate all of these kids so I predict a bunch of fly by night private schools opening up that are in it for the money an not for good education. The voters are every bit as guilty. So ready to put your hand out for the carrot but your kids will be the ones that feel the brunt of the stick when it lands. This should be repealed and we need to put real fixes in place. If you think President Trump is going to shut down the US Dept of Education you are not paying attention. All they will do is move the deck chairs over to their partner the Dept. of Labor. So they shut down the DoEd but nothing actually goes away or change.
Only lift the cap if the public school losing a student also loses funding equal to the “scholarship” amount. Public education is overpriced without paying double for students.