Lifting income caps and expanding voucher access are on the menu in 2026:
House Speaker Cameron Sexton has expressed interest in removing income caps and enrollment limits from Tennessee’s Education Savings Account program.
“Whether you’re making $30,000 or $140,000, you should have the opportunity,” Sexton said.
This comes as lawmakers also discuss expanding Education Freedom Scholarships, which launched last year with a cap of 20,000 students.
TC Weber takes a look at ACT data:
Average composite scores for selected Middle Tennessee public school districts were as follows:
Cheatham County School District: 19.3 Clarksville–Montgomery County School System: 19.3 Dickson County School District: 19.0 Maury County Public Schools: 18.0 Metro Nashville Public Schools: 17.5 Robertson County Schools: 18.3 Rutherford County Schools: 19.8 Sumner County Schools: 20.8 Williamson County Schools: 25.3 Wilson County Schools: 20.4
These figures are frequently contextualized by differences in student demographics, including poverty rates, mobility, and the proportion of English Learners. Those factors are relevant and should be acknowledged.
They do not, however, alter the practical reality that students across districts compete for the same postsecondary opportunities. Colleges and employers evaluate individual applicants, not district-level explanations.
Nashville education blogger TC Weber takes a look at some well-intentioned legislation that may end up presenting more problems than it solves.
State Senator Bill Powers (R–Clarksville) has announced plans to sponsor legislation requiring school districts and public charter schools to implement a computer system for documenting what the bill describes as “early warning signs” related to student health, safety, and behavior. According to public statements, these signs would include bullying, harassment, intimidation, mental health concerns, substance abuse, and self-harm.
At first glance, the intent appears straightforward: identify concerns earlier and intervene before harm occurs. The difficulty lies in the details.
As Weber notes, information documented about students tends to remain in databases – traveling with the student, creating a profile, opening or closing options.
From a family perspective, the stakes are equally high. Students do not reset each academic year. Behavioral records can follow them for years, shaping perceptions long after the original incident has passed. Any system that formalizes behavioral data must grapple with the possibility of long-term impact based on short-term judgment.
More fundamentally, this proposal reflects a recurring pattern in education policy: diagnosing relational problems as data deficits.
Schools do not struggle because they lack information about students. They struggle because time, staffing, and structural support for meaningful relationships have been systematically reduced.
In response to news that the State of Tennessee will be “partnering” with Turning Point USA to create “clubs” in every high school and college in the state, Democrats have something to say:
The Trump Education Agenda is clear: End public schools.
Education Department officials are openly calling for plans to move a majority of kids to private schools (by way of vouchers, for example) within just 5 years.
One official even suggested that the ideal number of kids in traditional public schools would be “zero.”
For all the talk of the benefits of “school choice,” the reality is more stark: Choicers simply mean they want ZERO government responsibility for education, other than handing taxpayer cash to private school operators.
Tennessee’s Gov. Bill Lee is no exception, as he and his allies work to rapidly increase the state’s new, universal school voucher scheme.
Will Gov. Bill Lee do the right thing in the last year of his term? Will he accept federal assistance for Sun Bucks – a summer EBT program that provides help for families with kids who receive free or reduced lunch?
Probably not.
But, local elected officials are asking him to.
33 County Mayors are calling on Gov. Bill Lee to participate in the federal Sun Bucks program in 2026.
The local leaders penned a letter to Lee asking him not to forego the summer program that provides additional EBT funds for families during the summer. The program is designed to provide additional assistance during a time when kids are unable to get free or reduced-cost meals at school.
Lee refused to participate in Sun Bucks last summer – and left hundreds of thousands of kids without the food assistance their families need.
Among the ways the current President is taking down public institutions is the federal school voucher scheme embedded in the Big, Beautiful Bill.
These federal vouchers divert public funds to private education uses, with all the attendant harms, and they must be recognized as such, even if it may be possible to use the voucher money for public school students.
All vouchers harm students and undermine public education, and the federal voucher law is no different:
o Vouchers divert public funds to private schools.
o Vouchers lead to worse educational outcomes for students.
o Vouchers put students’ civil rights at risk.
o Vouchers lack quality and accountability standards and encourage fraud and abuse.
Gov. Bill Lee, Sen. Jack Johnson, and U.S. Senator and gubernatorial candidate Marsha Blackburn joined together to announce they are backing a “partnership” between the state and Turning Point USA to help the extremist right-wing group indoctrinate kids at high schools across the state.
Tennessee state leaders announced Friday morning that the state will partner with Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit founded by the late Charlie Kirk.
Those state officials announced at an event at the Tennessee State Capitol that there would be Club America chapters, student-led organizations affiliated with Turning Point USA, at every high school in the state.
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who is running for Tennessee governor, and state Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, spoke at the event announcing the partnership. No media was invited, but a 30-minute video was posted on Rumble, a social media platform that’s particularly popular with right-wing creators.
It’s not clear how the state will facilitate Club America chapters – if there will be a mandate from the Department of Education, how state funds may be used to pay for the expansion of the group’s clubs, or if other groups may be able to obtain the same type of explicit state support.
Knoxville News-Sentinel reports:
Knoxville Preparatory School, an all-boys charter school that opened in fall 2024, failed to meet or fell far below nine of 25 state standards and must work to get up to requirements.
The school struggled in finance management, boosting enrollment compared to projections, protecting the rights of students with disabilities, and complying with government requirements . . .
Students at one Nashville high school are learning about business management and cooking by operating a food truck, NewsChannel5 reports:
McGavock High School students are getting hands-on experience in both culinary arts and business management through their food truck program called Raider Bites.
The program, which launched in recent months, teaches students everything from cooking and food preparation to financial management and customer service. Matthew Long, a student who serves as sous chef of the food truck, said the experience has prepared him for college and beyond.