The applications for the Tennessee Education Freedom Scholarship officially opened on May 15 at noon Central Time, and by 5:45 pm, there were more applications than available vouchers.
The Tennessee Department of Education said in a press release on the evening of May 15 that over 33,000 applications were submitted for the Tennessee Education Freedom Scholarship within “hours of the program’s launch.”
“This remarkable response demonstrates what we have known all along: Tennessee parents want choices when it comes to their child’s education,” Gov. Bill Lee said in a statement. “I’m grateful to the General Assembly for their partnership in delivering universal school choice to families across our state, and I thank the Department of Education for their dedication to a smooth implementation.”
The state only has 20,000 scholarships available this year, but the number could increase by 5,000 during the next fiscal year if demand is high enough and the fiscal appropriations are made for the program. The scholarships will be awarded in the order the Department of Education received the applications, with the first 10,000 set aside for students who meet the guidelines outlined by the department.
Gov. Bill Lee, signs the statewide school voucher bill at Tennessee State Capitol building in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025.
“The response to universal school choice in Tennessee has been an overwhelming success,” said Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds in a statement. “Families have embraced the educational opportunities that have been unleashed for their students through the state’s Education Freedom Scholarship program.”
How does the voucher program work?
Out of all the vouchers, 10,000 vouchers were open to anyone to apply for. The remaining 10,000 were reserved for families with incomes below 300% of the income limit to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is roughly $170,000 for a family of four.
Scholarships for the 2025-26 school year are worth $7,295. The family would be responsible for the remainder of the tuition, but many private schools offer financial aid and other scholarships.
The Tennessee Education Freedom Scholarship, despite its controversy, passed during the 2025 special session in January. Lee called the special session to pass voucher, immigration and disaster relief legislation.
The scholarship program passed after a years-long, controversial push by Lee. After a failed effort to pass the expansion in 2024, lawmakers ultimately passed legislation after Lee called a special session.
This is the latest iteration of a private school voucher program in Tennessee, but is the first of its kind in the state to apply to all 95 counties. The Education Savings Account, established in 2019 and started during the 2022-23 school year.
The ESA program only applied to K-12 students who attended public schools in the 2019-20 school year in Davidson, Shelby or Hamilton counties. Those students also could not have a family income that exceeded twice the eligibility for free lunch.
For more information about the EFS Program and for additional resources, visit the EFS webpage.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Brooke Muckerman is the education and children’s issues reporter for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at [email protected] and 901-484-6225.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Tennessee private school voucher program gets 33K applications in hours
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