Category Archives: Bill Lee

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Another Voucher Warning

As the 2026 legislative session comes to a close, lawmakers are now looking at yet another effort to expand Gov. Bill Lee’s signature scheme: A private school discount coupon plan for wealthy families.

Some call them vouchers.

Realists call it a scam – exclusionary, expensive, and harmful to public schools and Tennessee communities.

A reverse Robinhood scheme that would make Ronald Reagan proud – taking tax dollars from Tennessee’s working class and sending them to the wealthy to fund private school education discounts.

In an email, Metro Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda notes:

After securing an expansion of Governor Lee’s voucher scam, well-funded special interests are now pushing to grow the state’s older and more costly ESA private school voucher system and the legislation is already moving quickly.

Tennessee lawmakers are advancing amended legislation (HB 1881/SB 1585) that would significantly expand the state’s ESA voucher program.

Key concerns with the amended bill:

  • Dramatically expand the income limit for the Education Savings Account (ESA) program and add Knox County, in addition to the Achievement School District, Hamilton County, Metro Nashville, and Memphis-Shelby. The income limit would be so high that almost every Tennessee family would qualify. 
  • Remove the 15,000-student cap on ESA vouchers. School districts affected by the program must reimburse the state for each ESA scholarship awarded from their respective counties. Most of these dollars come from local funds in each of these four counties. Without the cap,  school districts may have to send additional funding to the state to cover the additional ESA recipients, taking resources out of the neighborhood public schools and classrooms. 
  • Allow the ESA program to serve additional students when the statewide voucher program reaches capacity. The four additional counties that would now be included in the ESA program already have the highest number of families participating in the voucher program. This could explode the number of vouchers in Tennessee and cause irreparable fiscal harm to the state’s largest school districts.
  • Remove TCAP testing and annual reporting requirementsfor the ESA program. By removing these requirements, lawmakers reduce transparency and accountability, leaving families and taxpayers without the information they need to see how students in the ESA program are performing compared to their peers in public schools.

Use the buttons below to take action to stop special interests from taking your tax dollars to give private school coupons to Bill Lee’s rich friends.

EMAIL: https://bit.ly/fundourschoolstn
CALL: https://bit.ly/vouchercallscript2026

Gov. Bill Lee promoting school privatization

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Lawmakers Push Back Against Bill Lee’s Summer Hunger Games

Gov. Bill Lee has made it clear he doesn’t want to feed hungry kids in the summer if it means he has to take federal money to do so.

While this may seem a cruel way to prove a political point (the point, ostensibly that TN doesn’t NEED federal help), Bill Lee just doesn’t care.

He’s opted-out of a program known as Sun Bucks two years in a row – in spite many hunger and education advocates encouraging him to participate.

Oh, and this starvation scheme doesn’t save the state any money – in the federal program, TN spends about $5 million to draw down $84 million. Those federal funds ensure some 700,000 kids get some meal help in the summer. Lee took that same $5 million in state funds and created a much smaller program – one that only feeds 25,000 kids. That’s a terrible ROI. It seems Lee’s capitalist supporters would be shocked at his terrible business sense on this one.

Or, well, just shocked that he’d starve kids and not even save the state some cash.

And, in fact, some lawmakers – among them, many Republicans – are resisting Lee’s cruel approach.

In an apparent rebuke to the governor, two rural Republicans — Sen. Paul Bailey of Sparta and Rep. Michael Hale of Sparta — are sponsoring a bill to require the state to apply for the federal Summer EBT funding. In past years, the program has distributed $84 million in federal funding to low-income families to help them buy their children food at the grocery store when school is out.

So far, a bipartisan group of 30 lawmakers have signed on – and the bill has passed unanimously in every committee where its been heard.

Will these lawmakers prevail?

And where do the current candidates for Gov stand on feeding hungry kids over the summer?

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Voucher Budget Eats $300 Million

In his final State of the State address, Gov. Bill Lee made clear his support for rapid privatization of schools.

Lee called on the legislature to double the number of school vouchers (essentially, discount coupons for private schools), with a total voucher cost of $303 million.

Chalkbeat reports:

Gov. Bill Lee wants Tennessee lawmakers to invest more than $155 million into the state’s voucher program, which would double the Education Freedom Scholarships pool from 20,000 to 40,000 private school vouchers.

Lee’s proposed budget also would more than double the costs of the program and blow past the expansion cap lawmakers voted on last year, growing the program beyond its original limits despite little data to indicate the program is impacting student achievement.

If Lee achieves his goal, Tennessee would spend more than $303 million in public dollars next fiscal year to help send 40,000 students to private schools across the state.

Lee’s budget move for vouchers follows a trend in other discount coupon states: Rapid expansion that eats more and more of the state budget and also disrupts local school funding.

Indiana, Arizona, and Florida have all seen voucher budgets grow to consumer significant state dollars, leaving crumbs on the table for public schools.

This is Lee’s top legislative achievement – voucherizing Tennessee public schools. It’s been his top priority since 2019, and as he leaves office, his dream (and the state’s nightmare) is on the verge of being realized.

Gov. Bill Lee promoting school privatization

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Supporting Students in Tough Times

Bill Lee’s Other Legacy: Hungry Kids

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Bill Lee’s Hunger Game

Will Bill Lee make sure Tennessee kids get summer food assistance OR will he continue to be a lackey for Trump?

Easy: Lee chose Trump over kids. For the second year in a row.

Following last year’s “liberation” from federal assistance in feeding hungry kids during the summer, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee will also forego funding for food assistance in 2026.

Tennessee Lookout reports on this year’s decision:

Despite the urging of county mayors, child advocates, clergy and educators, Gov. Bill Lee has declined to secure millions of dollars in federal funding to provide food to low-income kids by the government’s Jan. 1 deadline.

Lee joins a group of a dozen GOP governors who are refusing summer EBT benefits at the behest of Trump, who wants states to be less “dependent” on the federal government.

And, apparently, Lee is willing to score political points even if it means hundreds of thousands of kids face food insecurity.

Which, by the way, what kind of sick political game creates incentives for actively promoting childhood hunger?

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Privatizing Just to Privatize

It turns out, all that “school choice” talk Gov. Bill Lee used to promote his signature policy issue – private school discount coupons – was just talk.

Kids aren’t leaving failing schools.

Kids aren’t performing better once they are in private schools.

It’s just state-sponsored privatization of a public good.

More from Chalkbeat:

Most Tennessee public school students who use Education Savings Account vouchers aren’t leaving low-performing public schools, while ESA students overall are underperforming their public school peers in both academic achievement and growth.

Overall, students receiving ESA money performed worse on the state’s standardized tests than students in public schools, although ESA students outperformed their peers in Memphis-Shelby County schools last year. The comptroller’s report also notes that scores from students receiving ESAs have increased over time.

Meanwhile, virtual schools participating in the ESA program for the first time last year performed worse than both private schools with ESA students and local public schools. Just 20% of ESA students enrolled in virtual schools were proficient in English language arts, and just 17% were proficient in math.

And, the kids aren’t leaving behind schools that are “failing:”

“Most schools that students are leaving to participate in the ESA program are neither reward nor priority schools, which would indicate their performance is neither among the highest or lowest of public schools in the state,” the comptroller’s report states. “When considering schools that have received state and federal designations, more ESA students are leaving reward schools than priority schools.”

Read the Comptroller’s report on Education Savings Accounts (ESAs)

Gov. Bill Lee promoting school privatization

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Will Bill Lee Do The Right Thing in 2026?

It’s never too late to start

Gov. Bill Lee refused federal funds in 2025 to help provide food assistance to families during the summer – allowing extra SNAP funds for those who qualify for free/reduced lunch.

Yes, all school meals should be free for every kid every day.

But for now, free meals are limited to those who fill out forms and qualify based on income.

Lee has an opportunity to accept federal funds for 2026 -and the deadline for that decision is fast-approaching (It’s January 1st).

Groups are asking Lee to take action – County Mayors, pastors, and more are calling on Lee to accept the funds that help some 700,000 kids access food assistance in the summer.

Below is a statement from the Tennessee High School Democrats:

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A Christmas Letter for Gov. Bill Lee

What Tennessee kids want for Christmas is Summer EBT funding

Gov. Bill Lee took Tennessee out of the Sun Bucks program in 2025.

Sun Bucks is a Summer EBT program through SNAP that provides extra funds ($120) to help bridge the summer gap while kids are not getting meals at school.

Now, Lee must once again decide what to do about Sun Bucks – will he take the money in 2026 and feed as many as 700,000 kids? Or, will he return to his failed 2025 model that only helped a few thousand?

From pastors to County Mayors, people around the state are asking: Will Bill Lee do the right thing?

We respectfully write to you to implore you to take immediate action to address the nutrition needs of Tennessee’s most vulnerable children. We write not merely as constituents, but as people of faith. We recognize and appreciate your public commitment to leading our state with a heart for the “least of these,” and it is in this spirit of shared moral responsibility that we—314 faith leaders from across the state—petition you to intervene for the 700,000 children in Tennessee whose health and future depend on a decision that must be made before January 1.

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Trump and Allies Work to End Public Education

In 2019, Jack Johnson and Bill Lee Supported DEI

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Moving Toward the End of Public Education

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.

Gov. Bill Lee promoting school privatization

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Will Bill Lee Feed Hungry Kids in 2026?

Jack Johnson, Bill Dunn, and DEI

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A Plea for Bill Lee

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.

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