Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Crestview, said that at any given moment the state does not know where 30,000 students are in terms of school categories — traditional public or voucher-supported private or home schools — together worth $270 million in education support.
Sometimes, the students are “double-dipping” – enrolled in a private school where voucher dollars have been sent, but actually attending a local public school – the cost, then, is borne exclusively by the local school district.
Tennessee’s private school coupon scheme already has 20,000 takers. It will grow to 25,000 in 2026-27 unless the legislature intervenes to expand the program further.
And, that’s just what Gov. Bill Lee and House Speaker Cameron Sexton plan to do – with some suggesting a doubling of the program to 40,000 students next year.
A mechanism in the state law will allow lawmakers to easily expand the program for 5,000 new students since the state received more than 40,000 applications, well above the expansion threshold set by state law. But Gov. Bill Lee and other Republican lawmakers say they want to expand the program even further.
But it’s unlikely the number of new seats will be decided on by the time applications close on Jan. 30, just days into the 2026 legislative session.
NewsChannel9reports on the Chattanooga-area private schools getting taxpayer dollars from Gov. Bill Lee’s school voucher scheme:
New data shows that just over 600 Hamilton County students are enrolled in private schools this school year through Tennessee’s Education Savings Account (ESA) program, also known as school vouchers.
Here’s the list of Hamilton County students using Education Savings Accounts (ESA) for the 2025–26 school year:
Annoor Academy of Chattanooga – 47
Avondale SDA School – 29
Beacon Academy – 26
Belvoir Christian Academy – 42
Berean Academy – 31
Bethel Christian Academy – (number not listed)
Brainerd Baptist School – 20
Chattanooga Christian School – 95
Dolphin STEM Academy – (number not listed)
Enlightium Academy – 10
Grace Baptist Academy – 95
Hamilton Heights Christian Academy – (number not listed)
Hickory Valley Christian School – (number not listed)
Imagine Learning Excellence Academy – (number not listed)
A Tennessee Republican who stood up for public education in the state legislature paid the price, as a conservative political action group backing Matt Van Epps attacked him with millions of dollars in advertising.
Barrett was attacked because he voted against Governor Bill Lee’s Education Freedom Act – also called vouchers.
State Representative Jody Barrett (R-Dickson) ran for the open congressional seat in Tennessee’s recent special election, but he finished second to Matt Van Epps in the Republican primary.
After the primary, the head of the conservative PAC, Club for Growth, took credit for Barrett’s loss and called it a warning to other candidates.
After the primary, the head of Club for Growth wrote, “I made it clear that any republican lawmaker who failed to support Governor Bill Lee’s Education Freedom Act … should expect to lose an expensive primary funded by Club for Growth.”
Lee’s so-called “Education Freedom Act” essentially provides discount coupons to private schools for use by wealthy families.
On a related note, a new dark money group with ties to the state’s top Republicans has formed and announced plans to push for a rapid expansion of the voucher scheme – costing the state billions and taking nearly 500,000 students out of public schools.
Tennessee Leads appears to have been launched with the help of a group of political finance consultants tied to top GOP leaders in the state.
The address and Registered Agent of the group match that of Political Financial Management, a group that has helped the Tennessee Republican Caucus and Gov. Bill Lee.
The group says it is advocating to have 200,000 students using school vouchers and 250,000 students in charter schools by 2031.
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.
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.
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.
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.
As Tennessee embarks on a school voucher misadventure, it is important to look at other states with universal voucher schemes to see how they are (not) working.
Today, we turn to Arizona. There, voucher recipients are using tax dollars to fund family vacations – Disney, Sea World, etc. – there’s even a Facebook group where users discuss how to game the system to finance vacations.
As 12News points out, most tickets to San Diego attractions or others outside of Arizona are likely to get approved regardless of cost — at least up to $2,000. Why? Supt. Tom Horne’s ADE implemented a new policy in December that all expenses less than $2,000 are approved automatically, without any review, with the plan to audit later.
Will Tennessee taxpayers end up on the hook for trips to Dollywood or Panama City Beach?
