As Tennessee’s education savings account program begins its second year in Hamilton County, data shows that county students attending public schools outperformed those receiving vouchers to attend private schools on state tests.
Known informally as private school vouchers, the education savings account program allows low-income students to use around $9,000 of state money for private school tuition and other education-related expenses. The program launched for students zoned to Memphis-Shelby County Schools and Metro Nashville Public Schools at the start of the 2022-23 school year and expanded to Hamilton County Schools the following fall.
In the most recent legislative session, Gov. Bill Lee pushed to bring a similar program to all 95 of the state’s counties, but the bill failed to make it out of committee. His proposal would have provided more than $7,000 to each participant, regardless of family income, to use to attend a private school. Lee has vowed to bring the legislation back next session.
Hamilton County public school students met or exceeded grade-level expectations on the English language arts Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program test at a higher rate than their counterparts who received state funding to attend a private school — 38.9% to 32.2%.
The difference is greater in math. The county’s public school students in third through eighth grades performed at or above grade-level expectations at nearly double the rate of the county’s voucher recipients — 39.5% to 21.4%. High school math results are expected to be released in the late fall after the Tennessee Department of Education reassesses its math standards.