As the 2026 legislative session comes to a close, lawmakers are now looking at yet another effort to expand Gov. Bill Lee’s signature scheme: A private school discount coupon plan for wealthy families.
Some call them vouchers.
Realists call it a scam – exclusionary, expensive, and harmful to public schools and Tennessee communities.
A reverse Robinhood scheme that would make Ronald Reagan proud – taking tax dollars from Tennessee’s working class and sending them to the wealthy to fund private school education discounts.
In an email, Metro Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda notes:
After securing an expansion of Governor Lee’s voucher scam, well-funded special interests are now pushing to grow the state’s older and more costly ESA private school voucher system and the legislation is already moving quickly.
Tennessee lawmakers are advancing amended legislation (HB 1881/SB 1585) that would significantly expand the state’s ESA voucher program.
Key concerns with the amended bill:
- Dramatically expand the income limit for the Education Savings Account (ESA) program and add Knox County, in addition to the Achievement School District, Hamilton County, Metro Nashville, and Memphis-Shelby. The income limit would be so high that almost every Tennessee family would qualify.
- Remove the 15,000-student cap on ESA vouchers. School districts affected by the program must reimburse the state for each ESA scholarship awarded from their respective counties. Most of these dollars come from local funds in each of these four counties. Without the cap, school districts may have to send additional funding to the state to cover the additional ESA recipients, taking resources out of the neighborhood public schools and classrooms.
- Allow the ESA program to serve additional students when the statewide voucher program reaches capacity. The four additional counties that would now be included in the ESA program already have the highest number of families participating in the voucher program. This could explode the number of vouchers in Tennessee and cause irreparable fiscal harm to the state’s largest school districts.
- Remove TCAP testing and annual reporting requirementsfor the ESA program. By removing these requirements, lawmakers reduce transparency and accountability, leaving families and taxpayers without the information they need to see how students in the ESA program are performing compared to their peers in public schools.
Use the buttons below to take action to stop special interests from taking your tax dollars to give private school coupons to Bill Lee’s rich friends.
EMAIL: https://bit.ly/fundourschoolstn
CALL: https://bit.ly/vouchercallscript2026
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