Image Credit: American Federation for Children / YouTube
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
Governor Bill Lee is partnering with a fake conservative group in order to push his pet project: “universal” school vouchers.
In a new TV ad, Lee is seen promoting his proposal to expand school vouchers for all Tennesseans.
The ad, funded by the American Federation for Children (AFC), shows Lee stating that the Education Freedom Act will not only “empower parents” with universal school choice but also support teachers and invest in public education.
“Freedom is at the core of being a Tennessean,” says Lee in the beginning of the ad, “So when it comes to education, more freedom is what our children need.”
American Federation for Children’s PAC, AFC Victory Fund spent tens of thousands of dollars in Tennessee in 2024 on a combination of mailers and research for state candidates, doubling their yearly lobbying expenditures compared to past years.
When the PAC was launched in 2023, AFC promised to spend $10 million in races across the United States to defeat lawmakers opposed to school choice.
AFC founder, former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, is also one of the top donors to the related PAC, along with husband Dick DeVos, and billionaire Jeff Yass.
Lee has connections with the group such as Gillum Ferguson, political strategist for AFC. Ferguson served as press secretary to Lee during the pandemic.
It’s no secret that expanding the state’s school voucher program is at the top of Lee’s legislative list with the 114th Tennessee General Assembly soon to reconvene in Nashville at the beginning of the new year.
Even as voters around the country voted against ballot measures during the November 5th election to fund school choice, Tennessee Republican lawmakers filed a bill to tackle the issue again the very next day.
Lee strongly supported the state’s current Education Savings Account Program which is limited to Davidson, Hamilton, and Shelby counties. Passed in 2019, the program endured a series of legal challenges but now is open to families who meet income restrictions.
During the 113th legislative session earlier this year, a push to expand the program failed. Even so, $144 million in recurring funds for the expansion was secured in the state budget.
With The Education Freedom Act of 2025, Lee hopes to open the program up to 20,000 families in Tennessee. Half of these will qualify due to income restrictions, but for the other 10,000, income will not be a consideration.
Opponents of Lee’s plan have long argued that vouchers will take funds away from public schools in the state. This remains a concern, even among Republicans.
In Northeast Tennessee, News Channel 11 polled regional Republicans on the issue.
While three lawmakers in the area support Lee’s proposal, two are definitely opposed with two more leaning that way.
Former Bristol Senator Jon Lundberg, who was Lee’s Senate sponsor, lost the primary for the 4th District seat to Bobby Harshbarger, who has several concerns about the bill.
Although Lee’s House sponsor Representative William Lamberth (R-Portland-District 44) has said that education funding for LEAs will not decrease due to students disenrolling to take advantage of vouchers, it remains a concern for Harshbarger.
The new bill takes into account last year’s vehement opposition from homeschoolers and concerns from private school representatives.
Homeschoolers have been expressly left out of the new proposal, while the language surrounding testing of private school students has been amended.
In the new version of the legislation, private schools would not have to administer the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) unless they wanted to, but instead would be required to administer a “nationally standardized achievement test” aligned to the each school’s instructional plan. The Tennessee Board of Education will be tasked with creating rules that address this mandated testing and reporting.
The language in the bill is supportive of private schools retaining their autonomy, explicitly stating that private schools that accept students using vouchers will not have to alter their “creed, practices, admission policies, hiring policies, or curriculum in order to accept recipients.”
The bill reads, “Private schools that enroll recipients must have the maximum freedom to provide for the educational needs of recipients without government control.”
The Tennessee Conservative’s founder, Brandon Lewis, did a breakdown of the bill in a video posted on November 15th.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
