Another Republican state has seemingly followed the example of Alabama by providing more educational freedom to their students and families.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee called a special session so lawmakers could working on passing the Education Freedom Act — a bill not too dissimilar to the CHOOSE Act that was passed in Alabama just last year.
“I’ve said all along that we should and we could have the best public schools in America and provide parents with choice, and we’ve done that,” Lee said.
“It is in fact a momentous day for students and for teachers and for parents across Tennessee. I’m grateful to the parents and teachers who have advocated here at the Capitol, not just at the Capitol, but all across the state to make sure that Tennesseans have this opportunity.”
The legislation creates 20,000 scholarships, each worth about $7,000, that allows Tennessee families who choose to participate to send their children to private schools. Half of those scholarships will be reserved for low income families and half will be available to any Tennessee family.
The school choice bill also had support from President Donald Trump earlier this week. Trump is putting forward policies through the Dept. of Education that will promote more school choice on the federal level.
“Congratulations to Tennessee Legislators who are working hard to pass School Choice this week,” Trump said, “which I totally support.”
Stand with me and @realDonaldTrump, and support school choice. pic.twitter.com/8hSgj6lusn
— Marsha Blackburn (@VoteMarsha) January 28, 2025
Alabama’s school choice program has already seen some early success as over 14,000 applications have submitted applications for the 2025-2026 school year.
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee
