NASHVILLE — The Tennessee General Assembly has approved a universal voucher bill, the Education Freedom Act of 2025.
It is to spend up to $447 million on publicly funded vouchers for up to 20,000 students to attend private schools, starting in the next school year.
Among the all-Republican Northeast Tennessee lawmakers, the delegation Thursday split 5-4 with the majority voting against Gov. Bill Lee's voucher legislation during a special session that started Monday. Lee is expected to sign it into law and have is start with the 2025-26 school year.
Voting no were state Sen. Bobby Harshbarger of Kingsport and state Reps. Rebecca Alexander of Jonesborough, David Hawk of Greeneville, Gary Hicks of Rogersville and Renea Jones of Erwin.
Those voting yes were state Reps. Tim Hicks of Gray, Timothy Hill of Blountville, John Crawford of Kingsport and Bud Hulsey of Kingsport.
The program is an expansion of a voucher program in Shelby, Davidson and Hamilton counties, which had been limited to 5,000 but never served that many. It also drew supportive comments from President Donald Trump, who is pushing the streamlining of school choice nationwide.
The program is to pay $7,075 per student attending a private school but not lessen state funding for public school systems that lose students to private schools.
However, opponents argued the outcomes funding and other additional funding from the state mean most students generate about $12,000 or $13,000 in state funding, plus the state has no control over local governments that could reduce funding as enrollment declined.
Area school boards, including those in Sullivan County, Kingsport and Bristol, Tennessee, and the Hawkins County Commission went on record opposing the plan, but the eight Northeast Tennessee county mayors signed a letter in support of it.
At least one change: The legislation was amended to require local school boards sign off on the program before their teachers receive a $2,000 state bonus. The original bill would have given the money automatically.
