Tennessee legislature sends governor pared-down school voucher expansion bill, omitting Knox County

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Tennessee lawmakers agreed Friday to expand the state’s private school voucher program to Hamilton County — but not to Knox County — as they prepared to wrap up their legislative session for the year.

On Wednesday, the House approved a bill to add both counties to the program currently operating in Shelby County and Metro Nashville, allowing eligible families to use taxpayer money for private school tuition. However, the Senate, which had already voted in February to extend vouchers to Chattanooga-based Hamilton County, rejected the broader House expansion on Thursday without providing an explanation.

On Friday, the House voted 57-27 to concur with the Senate’s narrower version of the bill, sending the measure to Gov. Bill Lee for his signature.

Although pared down, the final bill marks the first significant expansion of the private school voucher program, which launched last fall under a 2019 law. The program faced a series of legal challenges but ultimately cleared those hurdles, although it remains the subject of ongoing court battles.

With 44,000 students, Hamilton County Schools is one of the largest districts in Tennessee. Gov. Lee pushed for the expansion, aiming to give parents more education choices for their children. Critics, however, argue that private school vouchers do not improve student outcomes and siphon resources away from public schools, which primarily serve disadvantaged or special needs students.

Tennessee’s law caps enrollment in the voucher program at 5,000 students for its first year. The program still has significant room for growth, according to the latest data from the state education department. As of April 14, the state had approved 705 applicants for vouchers this school year to exit Memphis-Shelby County Schools and Metro Nashville Public Schools. Of those, 453 applicants had submitted proof of enrollment in state-approved private schools and are using their vouchers, worth nearly $8,200, toward tuition.

Although the Senate offered no public discussion on why it rejected the House’s proposal to extend the program to Knox County, none of the three Republican senators representing the area — Sens. Richard Briggs, Becky Massey, and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally — supported it.

“I think we have a very good school system in Knox County, and parents already have a lot of choices,” Briggs told Chalkbeat last month.

He noted that students in his district have access to magnet schools, a charter school, specialized learning academies, international baccalaureate programs, and the ability to transfer between the district’s 90 schools, provided there’s available space.

“The last time we voted on (school vouchers) in the legislature, the majority of our Knox County delegation voted against it,” Briggs added. “And there’s definitely not support for them among our citizens.”

”Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.