School choice expansion moves to Senate floor calendar

(The Center Square) – A bill that would double Tennessee’s Education Freedom Scholarships was moved to the Senate floor calendar on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 2247 creates an additional 15,000 scholarships. The law passed by the General Assembly in a 2025 special session, creating the initial 20,000 scholarships, automatically allowing an additional 5,000.

If the bill passes, the number of $7,530 scholarships available to 40,000 students for the 2026-27 school year. Second-term Republican Gov. Bill Lee proposed more than $300 million for the scholarships in his fiscal year 2027 budget proposal.

Passage was 6-4 by the panel, with Republicans Tim Hensley of Hohenwald and Page Walley of Savannah joining Democrats Lamar London of Memphis and Jeff Yarbro of Nashville in voting no.

Hensley asked why the money allotted to each student under the state’s school funding formula, known as the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement or TISA, is not used.

“If they’re receiving education scholarships, why...