Tennessee ESA Cleared by Court

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee's Education Savings Account (ESA) program, which will allow eligible families in Memphis and Nashville to use public funds to attend private schools, is ready to be rolled out after a three-judge panel lifted an injunction imposed by the state’s highest court in 2020. 

In 2019, Governor Lee and the Tennessee General Assembly established the ESA program, allowing low-income families in Nashville and Memphis to receive funds for their children's tuition, fees, and books. According to the Associated Press, this law enables eligible families to receive up to $7,000 of public tax dollars for such expenses.  

In proposing the ESA to the Tennessee General Assembly, Governor Lee said, "We need to challenge the status quo, increase competition, and not slow down until every student in Tennessee has access to a great education. We're not going to get big results from our struggling schools by nibbling around the edges. That is why we need education savings accounts in Tennessee this year."

According to the Associated Press, Governor Lee allocated $29 million in the 2023-24 year to fund this voucher program. The program is scheduled to run as a three-year pilot. 

Governor Lee has been pushing to implement this program since he assumed office in 2019. After the favorable ruling from the three-judge panel striking down the injunction, Governor Lee tweeted, "Every child deserves a high-quality education & today's Tennessee Supreme Court opinion on ESAs puts parents in Memphis & Nashville one step closer to finding the best educational fit for their children."

Several activists opposing this program described it as unconstitutional, as only a small subset of students in Memphis and Nashville schools are covered by the program. According to The Nashville Tennessean, "The county governments argued the law violated the ‘home rule’ provision of the Tennessee Constitution since it was narrowly tailored to their jurisdictions without their consent.” In addition, opponents of this program contend that the law will undermine public education by moving scarce resources to private schools.

- S. Karn