Lawmakers debate expansion of K-12 education scholarships and a bill to restore voluntary school prayer

Panelists at the Williamson Inc. Policy Talks described two prominent education measures moving through the Tennessee legislature: an expansion of K-12 education scholarships and House Bill 1491, which would allow voluntary vocal prayer and reposition Bible instruction as historical and literary content.

Sen. Jack Johnson said the governor's proposal to expand education scholarships into multiple tranches is likely to pass in the Senate. "The first tranche is someone who has previously been awarded a scholarship...the second tranche is at or below 100% of the free-and-reduced-lunch threshold...the third tranche is up to 300%, and effectively after that, it opens up to anyone," Johnson said.

An audience member, Sean Kehoe, asked where scholarship funding originates. A lawmaker clarified that K-12 education freedom scholarships are funded from the general fund, not lottery proceeds; higher-education programs such as the HOPE scholarship are lottery-funded.

Separately, a lawmaker described HB1491 (sponsored in the Senate by Joey Hensley) as allowing vocal, voluntary prayer outside instructional time with parental written consent, and returning the Bible to K'12 classrooms as a historically taught text rather than divine scripture. The sponsor framed HB1491 as consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court's Kennedy v. Bremerton decision. Alderman Bev Berger raised concerns about implementation and the variety of religious practices; the lawmaker said implementation details would be left to local education agencies and participation would be voluntary with parental consent.

Panelists said both measures are active in committee processes and that some House amendments were being discussed; they expected some iteration of the scholarship expansion to reach a conference between the chambers this session.

No final vote was reported at the forum, and no bill text was displayed during the discussion.