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Tennessee’s private school voucher program, currently limited to eligible students attending public schools in Memphis and Nashville, would expand to all four of the state’s urban districts under new legislation.
A bill to extend the program to Chattanooga-based Hamilton County Schools passed last week in the Senate. And under a new GOP measure filed recently in the House and facing its first vote next week, the bill could be amended to include Knox County Schools, too.
Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, who is co-sponsoring the expansion bill with Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, said Thursday that he is seeking to add Tennessee’s third-largest district at the request of some Republican state lawmakers from the Knoxville area.
The proposal marks the latest effort to expand eligibility for Gov. Bill Lee’s education savings account program, which gives taxpayer money to eligible families to use toward private school tuition.