The Tennessee House of Representatives passed a bill Monday to expand the state’s school voucher program for the next school year and add provisions related to the collection of student data, including the use of Social Security numbers.
The legislation, HB 2532, would expand the state’s Education Freedom Scholarship program to 35,000 students, an increase of 15,000 scholarships from the initial 20,000 offered during the program’s first year.
In addition to the expansion, lawmakers adopted an amendment that would change how public school districts are compensated for enrollment losses under the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA).
For the 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 school years, districts would receive additional funding for students who leave, but only if those students had provided a Social Security number at the time of enrollment. Districts would also be required to report the reason each student disenrolled.
Beginning in the 2028-2029 school year, the bill would further limit funding protections by allowing districts to receive additional support only for students who leave to participate in the voucher program, rather than for all enrollment declines.
The measure passed by a narrow 52-43 vote and now moves to the Tennessee State Senate.
State senators are expected to vote Wednesday on their version of the legislation, which would allow up to 40,000 scholarships in the 2026-2027 school year. Any differences between the House and Senate versions must be resolved before the bill can be sent to the governor for final approval.
The Social Security number requirement in the amended legislation comes as lawmakers have weighed other proposals to collect data related to student citizenship status.
Earlier this year, separate legislation – HB 793 – sought to require schools to request and report students’ citizenship information to the state. That proposal was scaled back to focus on anonymized data collection after concerns it could jeopardize federal education funding.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
This stinks!!