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Seven months after Gov. Bill Lee’s first universal school voucher bill died over disagreements within the legislature’s Republican supermajority, GOP leaders were unified as they introduced new legislation Wednesday.
Senate and House majority leaders filed identical bills to create Education Freedom Scholarships that would give $7,075 each in public funding for a private education for up to 20,000 Tennessee students, beginning next fall. The proposal was the result of months of negotiations with the governor’s office.
Recipients in grades 3-11 would be required to take a national or state standardized achievement test to track the program’s effectiveness.
In an effort to garner support among public school advocates, the proposal calls for giving every public school teacher a one-time $2,000 bonus. It also would redirect 80% of tax revenues from Tennessee’s four-year-old sports betting industry toward local school building costs, especially for emergency needs and the state’s 38 rural counties designated as distressed or at risk.