Majority of new Tennessee vouchers awarded to higher-income families

“Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools. The majority of Tennessee’s new vouchers for the upcoming school year were awarded to higher-income families, despite new income rankings meant to prioritize lower-income families. In February, the Tennessee Department of Education said nearly 17,500 new families applied for income-based Education Freedom Scholarship vouchers for private schools for the upcoming school year. New data shows that only 3,970 vouchers — just one-quarter of newly available vouchers — were awarded to those in the lowest income category, indicating that relatively few lower-income families applied or were eligible to participate in the program. Republican Gov. Bill Lee quietly signed the expansion of the Education Freedom Scholarship into law on May 7, adding 15,000 seats to the program that started with 20,000 students this school year. New income categories kicked in for the 2026-27 school year when applications opened up earlier this year. Lawmakers said the new categories would prioritize families with the highest financial needs. But the latest data on new voucher recipients could fuel ongoing debates about the extent to which vouchers should help relatively well-off families, including those who’ve already sent their children to private schools without vouchers. The General Assembly this spring passed a law requiring the Tennessee Department of Education to provide lawmakers with more data about families in the program in the coming months. Using 2024 federal data to determine student eligibility for free and reduced-price lunch, the state said that families of four earning less than $57,720 could apply for the vouchers under the lower-income category. The new categories from highest to lowest priority for 2026-27 EFS vouchers were: Priority 1 - Renewal applicants. Priority 2 - Students whose family income does not exceed 100% of the free or reduced-price lunch income level, and students eligible for Tennessee’s other small voucher programs. Priority 3 - Students whose family income does not exceed 300% of the free or reduced-price lunch income level. Priority 4 - Current Tennessee public school students or incoming kindergarteners. Priority 5 - All other eligible students. The majority of the new vouchers – 9,360 – went to students in the Priority 3 category, where a family of four could earn up to $173,160 and still qualify to receive a voucher, which is valued at more than $7,500 for the upcoming school year. Tennessee awarded the final 3,117 vouchers to Priority 4 applicants, which means at least 18% of newly available vouchers will be going to either first-time kindergartners or students leaving public schools. Education officials announced 18,553 vouchers for the 2026-2027 school year will go to returning EFS students. Previous school enrollment has been a major question mark in the universal voucher program’s first year . Education officials did not explicitly ask first-year applicants if they were switching from public to private schools or had previously attended a private school. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle previously criticized the lack of transparency in the program about students’ previous enrollment. They said it left taxpayers in the dark about whether the program significantly expanded private school access for public school students, or sent millions to students already enrolled in private schools. But due to changes state lawmakers made to the program this year, the education department is now required to annually report the number of applications received from each county, the number of eligible applicants who were enrolled in public school, and details about applicants’ annual household income. The department is required to submit its first annual Education Freedom Scholarships report by June 1 including student data from the 2025-26 school year. It will submit another report on Oct. 1 with data for the 2026-2027 school year. It’s not yet clear if the department, which denied multiple media requests last year for 2025-26 school year data on EFS students’ previous school enrollment, will now produce that data to state lawmakers. Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org .

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