NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — FOX 17 News pressed state leaders ca school vouchers will go before state lawmakers again. While some said it was about parental choice, others said it was robbing public schools.

New legislation was introduced today by House Majority Leader William Lamberth and Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson called the Education Freedom Act of 2025. The bill is nearly identical to the previous school voucher program bill, which did not succeeded last year in the Tennessee legislature because of a deadlock. . Supporters of the bill remain confident, while opponents say it’s a scam.

The push to bring back school choice would allow parents to use taxpayer dollars for their children to attend private schools.

20,000 students would receive vouchers or scholarships worth about $7,000 each.

Half of those vouchers would go to students with fixed-income parents. The other half would go to any student, regardless of the parent’s income.

Democratic State Rep. John Ray Clemmons told FOX 17 News the focus should be on public schools.

He is concerned about declining enrollment and the siphoning of tax money from public schools into private hands.

“We strongly oppose defunding our public schools, diverting tax dollars that are meant to support and fund our public education system,” he said.

Gov. Bill Lee, in a news conference Wednesday, addressed that fear.

“This bill is designed to ensure that no public school system will lose any funding at any time as a result of the waiver,” he said.

The school voucher program would also include teacher bonuses and public school construction.

“The issue of putting school construction dollars and teacher bonus dollars into a voucher scam bill is pretty offensive considering we have the money to do it as stand-alone legislation,” said Rep. Clemmons.

144 million are in the state budget since the last proposal did not enter into force.

Opponents of the bill question why the money was used to fund private schools in the first place. They said if it’s there to fund private schools, then why wasn’t it used to invest in public schools instead of being considered a stimulus bill?

FOX 17 News asked Gov. Bill Lee, and he said, “Well, what we want to do is fund public schools soundly, and we want to give parents a choice, and that’s why we have funding streams that allow for both . We include, we plan to include $250 million in funding for our public schools, as well as teacher pay raises that will put us 16th best in the nation, as well as teacher bonuses.”

Critics also said the school voucher pilot program failed, but Gov. Bill Lee told FOX 17 News it was successful for 91 percent of parents whose children use the voucher program.

The next legislative session hasn’t started yet.

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