Tennessee Approves School Vouchers, Excludes Children of Illegals

Tennessee’s governor has signed a law expanding K-12 school vouchers for parents, excepting illegal migrants, who will not be eligible.

The law orders the state’s Department of Education (DOE) to deny any application where a family “cannot establish the eligible student’s lawful presence in the United States.”

However, the bill also seems to lack any process for the DOE or schools to determine a family’s immigration status, so, it isn’t exactly clear how that status would be checked.

When he signed the bill, Tennessee’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee noted the new law would not “change anything about the state’s obligation as it currently stands to educate children,” but he also insisted that “for this scholarship, it’s only available to Tennessee citizens.”

The bill provides for 20,000 vouchers worth around $7,000 each and sets 10,000 aside for lower income and disabled students while the other half is open to any citizen. The vouchers will be available for the coming school year.

Source: Tennessee Approves School Vouchers, Excludes Children of Illegal Aliens