Category Archives: Vouchers

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The End of Public Education in Tennessee

TC Weber notes that a new nonprofit wants to essentially end public education in the Volunteer State.

But a new nonprofit, Tennessee Leads, has even bigger ambitions: 200,000 voucher students and 250,000 in charter schools by 2031.

If those goals are met, traditional public schools would serve just 550,000 students—a seismic shift.

Gov. Lee and Speaker Sexton want to double the number of voucher students in 2026 – from 20,000 to 40,000 – with a total of 100,000 by 2030. But, Tennessee Leads is pushing for more than that.

The result of meeting this goal would be a rise in unaccountable private education sources – and an end to traditional public education in our state.

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An Extreme Agenda for Schools

TN Loses in Trump Education Budget

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Fritts Proposes Suspending School Voucher Scheme

GOP gubernatorial candidate Monty Fritts says if elected, he’ll suspend the state’s school voucher scheme. Fritts currently serves as a State Rep. from Kingston.

State Rep. Monty Fritts of Kingston told the Lookout this week he considers the governor’s new program unconstitutional and would try to block expansion on those grounds.

The state Constitution says the General Assembly “shall provide for the maintenance, support and eligibility standards for a system of free public schools,” according to Fritts. It doesn’t mention private schools, but he interprets that as a “specific and restrictive statement” that doesn’t permit spending public money to send kids to private schools.

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A Conservative Argues Against Trump’s Voucher Scheme

Trump Budget Means Millions of Dollars in Cuts for TN Schools

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Blackburn, Rose Back Voucher Scheme

U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn and U.S. Rep. John Rose, both Republican candidates for Tennessee Governor, back the state’s new school voucher scheme.

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and U.S. Rep. John Rose have said in various public comments they support vouchers. Blackburn is considered the favorite in the primary election that will take place in August 2026.

Gov. Bill Lee and House Speaker Cameron Sexton have proposed doubling the program – one that already costs the state more than $140 million this year.

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Florida’s $47 Million Voucher Problem

Trump’s Extreme Agenda for Schools

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Vouchers Gone Wrong

A story out of Florida should give pause to those who think public money should just “follow the child” to whatever school or education experiment is out there:

The rapid expansion of the state’s School Choice scholarship program burrowed a $47 million hole in the Florida Department of Education’s budget and left public and private schools complaining they aren’t getting properly paid.

Money problems that arose during the 2024-2025 school year can largely be attributed to the mobility that students enjoy to shift from public to private or to home education freely, said Adam Emerson, director of the Department of Education Office of School Choice.

In short: Both public and private schools aren’t being paid in a timely fashion for the students in their care.

Voucher madness is unsustainable.

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Trump Budget Leaves Families Hungry

Voucher Fraud in Arizona

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On The Danger of Trump’s Vouchers

Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” included a federal school voucher scheme. Not only will it cost taxpayers billions, but it will also be harmful to states.

The National Education Policy Center (NEPC) released a brief explaining the potential impact of these vouchers.

In a summary explainer, NEPC notes:

NEPC director and University of Colorado Boulder professor emeritus Kevin Welner cautions governors that the promised state flexibility under the new federal “scholarship” program is unlikely to materialize, leaving states vulnerable to federal overreach and harmful voucher expansion.

Ultimately, unless states are guaranteed full flexibility to protect their students and taxpayers, opting in would mean ceding state authority to Washington and exposing students to the well-documented harms of today’s voucher programs.

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Vacations Paid for By School Vouchers

Trump Budget Cuts Millions from TN Schools

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Doubling Down on a Bad Idea

Lee, Sexton want to expand state’s private school coupon scheme

Tennessee’s school voucher program is already taking a $144 million chunk out of the state budget. When fully implemented, the cost is expected to exceed $1 billion annually.

Vouchers are expensive – and undermine local public schools. Research consistently suggests vouchers do not improve student outcomes – and, sometimes, actually lead to a decline.

Expensive. Hurting local communities. Failing to help students.

That’s the program Gov. Lee wants to expand. And House Speaker Cameron Sexton is cheering him on, calling for at least a doubling of the voucher scheme in the upcoming legislative session.

The governor added that because of the large number of applications, he hopes to persuade the legislature to “provide more scholarships to Tennessee families” when lawmakers return for the 2026 session.

Lee, whose term runs out in January 2027, wasn’t specific about how much he would like to see the program expand. But Sexton’s spokesperson, Connor Grady, said the speaker is committed to “at least doubling” the number of available vouchers to meet student demand, Chalkbeat reported.

Gov. Bill Lee promoting school privatization

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Trump Administration Decimates Hunger Relief Programs

Vouchers: Expensive and Ineffective

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Vouchers Destroy Local Schools

When we look at Arizona, we get a preview of what an ESA voucher scheme (like the one we have in Tennessee) does to local schools.

Instead of investing in local public schools to meet students’ needs and ward off school closures to ensure equal access to quality neighborhood schools, Republican state lawmakers voted to force through universal ESA vouchers, which are now draining a massive $1 billion a year to instead pay for private, for-profit models that pick and choose students.

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Trump Budget Puts Education Programs At Risk

Is the Future a School Without Teachers?

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Fraudsters Love Vouchers

Will Arizona-style voucher fraud come to Tennessee?

Tennessee now has a big, universal school voucher scheme.

ESAs, they’re called.

And, in other states, similar programs have been susceptible to fraud.

If you don’t live in Arizona or have any kids going to school there, you can still get access to that state’s voucher funds.

A man from Florida gained access to the state’s ESA voucher funds by indicating he had children in school in the state. Of course, he didn’t – these ghost kids, though, netted him as much as 25,000.

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Kids Go Hungry in Trump’s America

An Extreme Agenda for Schools

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Conservatives Push Back on Trump’s Voucher Scheme

The Big, Terrible Bill included lots not to like, including the creation of a federal school voucher program.

While conservatives tend to be proponents of state-level voucher schemes, some are raising concerns over the Trump scheme:

Though attractive on the surface, this generous credit effectively removes the burden of K-12 funding from the state and transfers it to private SGOs. This undermines states like North Carolina, who did the difficult work of reforming their education funding model to ensure dollars follow the student.

As we saw in the last administration, given enough leverage, the federal government will always try to turn funding into a cudgel to promote its social policy goals.

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Arizona Bankrolls Extreme Education Agenda

Trump Scheme Puts Key School Programs At Risk

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It Just Keeps Getting Worse

The scandal that is Arizona’s school voucher scheme keeps getting worse.

It’s not enough that an investigation revealed families using voucher funds to pay for vacations. Now, there’s evidence the voucher money was spent on diamond rings, necklaces, and iPhones.

12 News’ Craig Harris requested reports of all of the reimbursements being approved by Supt. Horne’s ADE, and the laundry list of fraud, waste, and abuse is shocking. The investigation found that private school parents using ESA vouchers for their kids “bought diamond rings and necklaces, Kenmore appliances, and even lingerie with education tax dollars… more than 200 Apple iPhones

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Betting on Vouchers in Pennsylvania

Trump Budget Cuts Funds for TN Schools