• Gov. Bill Lee signed the school voucher program into law Wednesday after years of pushing for the program.
• Lee would not commit to a competitive contract bid process for the voucher vendor that stands to make millions from the program.
• Lee said the program would ‘change the future of Tennessee forever’.

Gov. Bill Lee signed his long-awaited private school voucher program into law on Wednesday but would not commit to using a competitive bidding process for the vendor company that stands to make millions on the new program.

The Tennessee Department of Education previously drew bipartisan criticism for awarding the state’s contract to a vendor without a competitive bid for Lee’s first voucher initiative.

“I’ll defer to the department on the procurement process, one that makes sure that we have transparency,” Lee said on Wednesday.

More: Lee administration won’t commit yet to competitive bid for Tennessee voucher contract

Lee hopes to launch the $477 million program by the start of the 2025-2026 school year.

The short runway gives the state just months to contract with the vendor, hire new staff and implement rules for the program in time for families to apply for around $7,300 to pay for private school tuition.

“I have every confidence that we’ll be able to do that,” Lee said when asked if he was committeed to rolling out the program this year. “There are a lot of details to work out, but you’ve got to remember we already have an education savings account plan in place in this state for our three largest school districts, so we have some expertise within the department in how to implement this plan.”

In the program, 10,000 vouchers will be open to anyone to apply for. The other 10,000 are reserved for families with incomes below 300% of the income limit to qualify for free or reduced price lunch, about $170,000 for a family of four.

Under the new law, Tennessee can block undocumented students who are otherwise eligible from the program if they “cannot establish the eligible student’s lawful presence in the United States.”

The small clause received little attention as the voucher bill quickly passed last month, and there are no details in the legislation on how the department should confirm lawful presence. The clause raises constitutional questions about the bill, given longstanding federal legal precedent that blocks school districts from requiring proof of citizenship or legal residency.

The Tennessean has requested further information from the Department of Education regarding its plans to determine “lawful presence.”

“I think what’s most important to know is that this language doesn’t change anything about the state’s obligation, as it currently stands, to educating children,” Lee said. “But for this scholarhsip, it’s only available to Tennessee citizens.”

On Wednesday, Lee signed the bill into law flanked by Republican lawmakers and dozens of students from local private schools at the Capitol building in Nashville.

“I learned a long time ago that education changes the trajectory of a child’s life forever,” Lee said. “Today we put in place a piece of legislation that will change the future of Tennessee forever, because it changes the trajectory of the next generation of Tennessee.”