(The Center Square) – Education Freedom Scholarships for Tennessee students would increase to 35,000 if a measure approved 52-43 on Monday in the House of Representatives becomes law.
Twenty Republicans were in opposition with Democrats after a lengthy debate. The Senate is scheduled to vote on its version of the bill Wednesday.
House Bill 2532 adds 10,000 scholarships to the 5,000 already approved by the 2025 law that enacted school choice. It’s 5,000 below the recommendation from second-term Republican Gov. Bill Lee.
The bill was amended in the Finance, Ways and Means Committee to require an annual report on scholarship recipients. It would include county of residence, whether they were in a public school when they applied, and annual household income.
The amendment creates what he called a “pecking order” as to who receives the scholarships, said Rep. Ryan Williams, R-Cookville, who sponsored the amendment in committee. Current recipients would be considered first, followed by students in households whose income does not exceed 100% of the amount required for the student to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, followed by those whose income does not exceed 300% of that same level.
Also included is a provision that allows school districts to recoup student enrollment funding losses if a student leaves the system due to a scholarship.
“This ensures that no public school will lose one red cent of money because of the Education Freedom Scholarship Program,” said House Majority Leader William Lamberth of Portland, the bill’s primary sponsor. “It does not come from public funding, which is going to go up if we approve the suggested budget from the governor this year by $340 million plus.”
Rep. Jody Barrett, R-Dickson, presented an amendment that would ban education freedom scholarship money to schools that do not “threaten our American freedoms or American form of government,” he said.
“We’re giving taxpayer dollars to private that are teaching our students to hate this country, hate our Christian faith,” Barrett said. “We are funding our own demise. This amendment will allow us to stop that.”
The amendment passed.
The debate reignited Democrats’ position that the scholarships would divert funds from public schools. Nashville Democrat Caleb Hemmer said the bill is “not about reform but retreat.”
“We each held an obligation to uphold our constitution,” Hemmer said. “Our constitution says we should fund and maintain public schools. That’s not what we’re doing at the end of the day comparably to other states, what we should be doing.”
Kingston Republican Monty Fritts said he thought the program was unconstitutional. He voted against the school choice bill passed by the General Assembly in January 2025.
“The average Tennesseean pays between $4,500 and $4,700 per year in state and local taxes,” Fritts said. “If each scholarship or voucher is worth $7,350, one scholarship exceeds what that person has paid in. We are reaching in one person’s pocket to pay another person’s choice.”
The Senate’s proposal includes an additional 15,000 scholarships, in addition to the 5,000 already approved in the original bill, doubling the scholarship amount from 20,000 this current school year to 40,000 for the 2026-27 year.
