Friday Feature: Tennessee Education Savings Account Pilot Program
Some Tennessee families got good news this week with a state Supreme Court ruling on a new school choice option.
In 2019, Tennessee enacted a targeted education savings account (ESA) program aimed at students in the Metro Nashville and Memphis‐Shelby County school districts. The program would create accounts worth up to $7,300 per student to be used for approved educational expenses, such as tuition, transportation, and tutoring, for students who enroll in a private school. Only families earning less than 200 percent of the income limit for the federal free lunch program—about $67,000 for a family of four—would be eligible.
While the program is called an ESA, its requirement that students enroll in a private school makes it more limited than other ESAs—including Tennessee’s Individualized Education Account Program. Typically, ESAs can be used by students who are educated at home as well as in a private school. This gives parents much more flexibility in seeking the best education for their children. Still, the program would be tremendously beneficial for families who need another option but can’t afford it.
The ESA program is capped at just 5,000 children in the first year with a maximum of 15,000 in year five and beyond—a small percentage of the enrollment in the two eligible districts. Despite the modest size, Davidson County (Nashville), Shelby County, and the Metropolitan Nashville Board of Public Education filed a lawsuit against the program in early 2020 claiming it violates the Tennessee Constitution. This unfortunate development halted implementation of the program.
Two mothers who wanted their children to receive ESAs, Natu Bah and Builguissa Diallo, are working with the Institute for Justice to defend the program. Both mothers are unsatisfied with their local assigned district schools and want to use the ESAs to send their children to private schools. The lawsuit means they either have to leave their children in a school that isn’t working for them or suffer financial hardship to pay for a different school. By stepping up to defend the program, they aren’t just helping their own children; they’re helping thousands of children who need a better education.
There were several specific challenges made in the lawsuit, but the court decided to first consider the claim that the program violates Tennessee’s home rule provision. This Wednesday, the state Supreme Court ruled against the home rule challenge and sent the case back to the lower court to deal with the other claims. It’s unclear how long the next phase will take.
While the legal battle isn’t over, this ruling is a significant step for families who want other education options in Tennessee.
As the Friday Feature shows each week, it’s a new era in education. After decades of people thinking their assigned district school was their only option, parents are seeing things in a new light. Education entrepreneurship is blossoming—often with the help of school choice programs like Tennessee’s ESA.