NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Democratic pickups in the Tennessee House are changing the arithmetic for another drive to grow the Education Freedom Scholarship program that Governor-elect Marsha Blackburn put at the center of her campaign.
Ninety-five House members voted in April on expanding the private-school scholarship plan. Support came from 52 Republicans, while 43 Democrats and Republicans together voted no, and the bill cleared by nine votes. Six of the 52 yes votes belong to Republicans who lost to Democrats this week. Replay that lineup with the new members and the April count turns into a 46-49 loss.
The GOP will still enjoy a legislative supermajority when lawmakers reconvene in January, giving leaders room to twist arms on education bills. Even so, the flipped districts and Blackburn razor-thin win — the closest Tennessee governor race in more than 100 years — leave voucher growth less secure inside a caucus that has already fractured on the issue. Each of the six Democrats who flipped a Republican seat ran against vouchers and for public schools.
Blackburn says she wants enough seats that eligible families are not stuck hoping for a lottery draw. Demand last year topped 56,000 applications for 35,000 awards. At her first Capitol news conference after Election Day she would not say whether she wants a phased expansion or an end to the cap, only that she intends to work with the General Assembly. On the trail she also pledged to keep pushing until parents are not locked into a single model of schooling. Public school advocates argue the scholarship money competes with per-pupil funding even though the programs sit outside the main K-12 formula.
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