Serving Hohenwald, Lewis County Tennessee Since 1898
Senator Joey Hensley, MD
Last week, Governor Bill Lee announced the Education Freedom Scholarship Act of 2024, his administration’s legislative proposal to establish statewide universal school choice. The legislation aims to provide every Tennessee parent with the opportunity to choose the right education for their child, while prioritizing families with the greatest need.
While the details of the legislation, including its financial impact, will be carefully vetted in the upcoming legislative session, I do support the legislative goal to expand school choice throughout Tennessee.
School choice is about expanding access to a high-quality education and ultimately improving lives. Parents know best and should have the ability to decide what’s best for their child when it comes to education. The goal of the proposed legislation is to do just that and give families a choice where their taxpayer dollars are spent.
Tennessee residents entitled to attend K-12 at a public school, including homeschoolers enrolled in umbrella or church-related schools, will be eligible for the program. The bill is structured to prioritize eligibility for the most at-risk students before ramping up to universal eligibility.
Under the bill, a total of 20,000 scholarships will be awarded in the 2024-2025 school year on a rolling first-come, first-served basis. Of those, 10,000 scholarships will be available for Tennessee students who are at or below 300% of the federal poverty level, have a disability or are eligible for the existing ESA pilot program. An additional 10,000 scholarships will be available to a universal pool of students entitled to attend a public school.
By the 2025-2026 school year and beyond, the bill proposes universal school choice eligibility for all students entitled to attend a public school. If applications exceed available scholarships due to funding, lower income, public-school and returning scholarship students will receive priority.
The General Assembly has been working to expand school choice in recent years with the establishment of the Education Savings Account program in 2019 in Memphis-Shelby County Schools, Metro Nashville Public Schools and Hamilton County Schools as well as at schools in the Achievement School District (ASD). That program allows the use of state and local money toward education expenses, including tuition and/or fees at approved private schools.
I look forward to working with Governor Lee and my colleagues in the General Assembly as we consider this very important legislation. Educating our children to the best of our ability is the issue we should all be concerned with accomplishing. There are still many details concerning this legislation that needs to be clarified and I will be analyzing the impact on our children and our public schools. I strongly support our public schools and will continue to work to make them better in the future as I have in the past. I invite my constituents to reach out and share their thoughts on this legislation as it winds its way through the committee process. I am eager to hear the ideas and concerns of my constituents. Let’s continue to work together to improve education in Tennessee.
Contact Senator Hensley at
425 5th Avenue North, Suite 746
Nashville TN 37243
615-741-3100
Toll Free 1-800-449-8366
ext. 13100
Fax 615-253-0231
855 Summertown Highway
Hohenwald TN 38462
Phone 931-796-2018
Cell Phone 931-212-8823
E-mail:
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