TN “school voucher program” begins excepting applications

Beginning May 15, families can start applying for Tennessee’s new Education Freedom Scholarships for the 2025-26 school year. The controversial program, which will use public dollars to pay for students’ private school tuition, passed during a special legislative session earlier this year. There are 20,000 vouchers, available for K-12 students, which are worth $7,295 each. According to the state, 230 private schools have either expressed interest in participating or have officially registered to accept the vouchers. The program is billed as “universal school choice”, but the schools are in just 39 of Tennessee’s 95 counties. And some lawmakers say that some of the schools enrolling in the program are very questionable, and that reputable private school’s tuitions are more than the voucher and the schools can still choose which students to accept, or not. Some lawmakers are also concerned about the cost of the program, which is projected to cost the state $1.1 billion within the first five years.