Tennessee’s Education Freedom Scholarship program is no longer a proposal. It is operating, expanding and oversubscribed. Marsha Blackburn, Jerri Green and Lauren Pinkston are asking voters to decide what happens next.
Nashville, Tenn – Tennessee’s next governor will inherit an education debate that has already moved past the hypothetical.
The state’s Education Freedom Scholarship program began with 20,000 scholarships for the 2025-26 school year. Gov. Bill Lee and the General Assembly expanded it to 35,000 scholarships for 2026-27. By May, the Tennessee Department of Education reported 56,440 applications, with all available scholarships reserved and another 17,735 applications waiting for possible openings. Nearly 300 nonpublic schools were registered to participate.
That leaves Tennessee voters with three substantially different directions.
Marsha Blackburn wants to continue the school-choice model.
Jerri Green wants to end it.
Lauren Pinkston is trying to draw a line between preserving educational choice and continuing to increase state voucher spending.
Blackburn: Keep moving toward more choice
Blackburn’s education philosophy begins with parental control.
Her campaign says parents, rather than government officials, should have the strongest voice in deciding how their children are educated. She supports Tennessee’s Education Freedom Scholarship law and says that as governor she would fully implement it while working with legislators to ensure children can access an education fitting their needs regardless of income or ZIP code.
That places Blackburn closest to Lee’s direction.
The current program allows eligible Tennessee K-12 students to use state-funded scholarships primarily toward tuition and fees at participating nonpublic schools.
Blackburn’s broader campaign also emphasizes charter schools, parental rights, vocational education and reducing the federal government’s role in education. Her public campaign material has been less specific about future teacher-pay increases or major changes to Tennessee’s testing system.
That does not mean those policies would remain unchanged.
It means voters currently have considerably more detail about how Blackburn would expand educational options than about how she would change traditional public schools.
Green: End vouchers and reinvest in public schools
Green starts from the opposite premise.
Her campaign says Tennessee should end what she describes as an unaccountable voucher system and direct those resources toward public education. Green has specifically called for ending the Education Freedom Scholarship program rather than merely limiting future expansion.
Her platform proposes higher teacher pay, additional counselors, nurses and support personnel, universal pre-K, greater special-education investment and additional support for rural schools. She also proposes a dedicated child care and early-education fund and a fellowship intended to attract more teachers into special education.
But Green could not simply cancel the scholarship program after taking office.
Education Freedom Scholarships exist in Tennessee law. Repealing the program or substantially rewriting its funding structure would require the General Assembly.
That distinction becomes especially important because a Green administration could propose a very different education budget while still confronting lawmakers who may favor maintaining school choice.
A governor can lead the argument.
The Legislature still has to pass the law.
Pinkston: Keep choice, redirect the expansion
Pinkston occupies a less familiar position.
Her platform does not call for eliminating private schools, homeschooling, microschools or alternative educational models. In fact, she proposes bringing homeschool cooperatives, microschools, private schools, universities, community colleges and technical schools into a broader discussion about education standards and learning options.
But she also says increased Education Freedom Scholarship funding should instead be directed toward affordable early-childhood education.
That is an important distinction.
Pinkston is not presenting the same position as Green, who wants the voucher program ended.
Nor is she presenting Blackburn’s approach of continuing the existing school-choice trajectory.
Her proposal is closer to drawing a fiscal boundary: maintain a diverse education system, but spend additional state education dollars elsewhere.
Pinkston also proposes higher teacher salaries, reduced benchmark testing, expanded trade education and new pathways for local professionals to teach career courses.
The debate is no longer simply vouchers versus public schools
Tennessee is also increasing public-school spending.
The state minimum teacher salary reaches $50,000 for the 2026-27 school year under legislation enacted before this election.
That matters because arguments describing every dollar spent on scholarships as proof Tennessee has abandoned public education — or describing every criticism of vouchers as opposition to parental choice — flatten a more complicated budget.
The next governor will inherit both systems.
And the real disagreement is becoming clearer.
Blackburn sees expanding choice as part of improving education.
Green sees public dollars leaving the public-school system as part of the problem.
Pinkston accepts educational choice but questions whether continued voucher expansion is the best use of the next education dollar.
The next governor will not be deciding whether Tennessee enters the school-choice experiment.
Tennessee already has.
Voters are deciding what the state does with it now.
I am a retired detective and criminal justice / government educator based in Tennessee. I founded The Redemption Project, as a place to focus on civics, rebuild non-partisan trust, and provide educational and emotional grace while learning about the news. I also have a column in Knox TN Today. My reporting and commentary have also appeared in other outlets including; Governing, The Arizona Capitol Times, South Florida Sun Sentinel, Police1, among other state and regional outlets.
