In Nashville, Tennessee, information acquired by News Channel 11’s affiliate, News 2, through the Tennessee Department of Education, reveals that most of the newly introduced “Education Freedom Scholarships,” or school vouchers, were distributed to students residing in metro/urban zones, as well as some affluent suburbs of the state.

These vouchers utilize public funds to cover costs for students attending private schools or other educational pathways, contingent upon parental preference. This debated initiative was approved in a January special legislative session.

After submitting a public records inquiry regarding the students’ zip codes who received vouchers, our analysis of the obtained data indicates that most recipients live in Knoxville, Memphis, Nashville, and Chattanooga.

Knoxville emerged with the highest number of recipients, with 2,557 students securing vouchers. Following Knoxville, Memphis had 1,888 voucher recipients, while Nashville followed with 1,267 students.

Furthermore, News 2 identified that a larger proportion of vouchers was allocated to students in some of the state’s more affluent regions over those from higher poverty areas.

For instance, students in Franklin received 439 vouchers, Brentwood had 126, and Belle Meade secured 168. In contrast, Lawrenceburg had 20 voucher recipients, fewer than 10 in Smithville, and Newport had 13.

Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) defended the program Friday. He told News 2 that 10,000 of the education freedom scholarships were awarded to income-limited families, or those making less than $173,000 a year, and 10,000 were awarded to families making any amount of money.

“It’s very widespread, it’s evenly divided between those that have income limits and those who don’t; the program is working like it should,” Gov. Lee said.

He also pointed out that the nearly 42,000 applications the state received for the 20,000 scholarships are a sign that the program is desired across TN.

Gov. Lee hopes the fact that the high demand will encourage lawmakers to expand the program next year.

“So you’re happy with the results?” News 2 asked.

“The only thing I’m not happy with is that we don’t have more scholarships to give to more income-limited, low-income families and families that aren’t limited in their income,” Gov. Lee said. “I just hope that the recognition that so many Tennesseans wanted this, the applications, there were so many that outnumbered the number available, I’m hoping that we’ll be able to, through the General Assembly, provide more scholarships for Tennessee families.”

Gov. Lee told reporters he plans to include additional funding to expand the Education Freedom Scholarship Act in his next proposed budget.