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SB2624 would eliminate every major school choice mechanism in Tennessee, stripping families of the tools they depend on to direct their children's education.
OUR POSITIONSB2624 is not a technical correction or a modest reform. It is a sweeping repeal of three distinct school choice programs: the Tennessee Education Savings Account Pilot Program, the Education Freedom Scholarship Act, and the Individualized Education Act. Each of these programs represents a deliberate legislative commitment to empowering families. Eliminating all three in a single bill removes, in one stroke, the full landscape of alternatives Tennessee has built for its students.
Scripture is clear that the responsibility to raise and educate children rests with parents, not the state. Proverbs 22:6 calls parents to train up a child in the way he should go. Deuteronomy 6 places the instruction of children squarely in the home. These are not abstract principles. They have direct bearing on whether a family can choose a school whose values, curriculum, and character align with their faith and their conscience. These programs make that choice possible for families who could not otherwise afford it.
The burden of this repeal falls hardest on low-income families. Families with means have always had options. They can move, pay tuition, or homeschool. The Education Savings Account and scholarship programs exist precisely because Tennessee recognized that families without financial resources deserve the same ability to seek an education consistent with their values. Repealing these programs does not create equity. It restores a system in which only the wealthy can exercise genuine educational choice.
There is no compelling public interest served by concentrating all educational authority back into a single government-run system. Competition and choice improve outcomes across the board, including in public schools. Tennessee's choice programs have not harmed the public school system; they have expanded opportunity. Repealing them eliminates that opportunity without offering families anything in return.
The American Council urges members, constituents, and legislators of conscience to oppose SB2624. Parental authority over the education of children is not a political preference. It is a moral and constitutional principle. This bill moves Tennessee in the wrong direction, and it should not advance.
SB2624 is currently in the Tennessee Senate Education Committee, having cleared Second Consideration on February 5, 2026 and been referred to that committee for review. The committee deferred action on March 11, 2026 and rescheduled the bill for consideration on March 18, 2026, indicating the panel has not yet voted on whether to advance it. Tennessee's 2026 legislative session is active, and the bill remains at the committee stage where members vote on whether to send it to the full Senate floor. Constituent contact is most impactful now, before the March 18, 2026 Senate Education Committee meeting, when committee members are still deliberating.