(The Center Square) – Two families participating in Tennessee’s Education Freedom Scholarship program are intervening in a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.
Five organizations representing 10 plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in Davidson County Chancery Court last month, saying the scholarship program diverts money from public schools and discriminates against students with disabilities.
EdChoice Legal Advocates are representing Denise Fair of Jefferson City and Mike and Monica Sweeney of Knoxville. They say the scholarships helped them send their children to a school that best met their needs.
Fair said the scholarship allowed her to scale back her work hours and attend more school activities with her children, who attend Lakeway Christian Academy.
“A judgment or injunction taking away the EFS program would impose a real financial burden on our family,” Fair said in a release. “It would make it impossible for us to be able to afford Lakeway Christian Academy’s tuition for both of our school-aged children.”
Five parents and five taxpayers are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, the Education Law Center, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Public Funds Public Schools campaign and the Southern Education Foundation in the legal challenge, according to a release from the ACLU.
“They call this ‘school choice,’ but the choice isn’t yours, it’s the private school’s,” said Crystal Boehm, a Hamilton County parent, preschool teacher and plaintiff in the lawsuit. “They can reject your child for a disability, for your family’s religion, for any reason at all. Meanwhile, public schools that educate everyone are losing the funding they need.”
Thomas Fisher, executive vice president and director of litigation at EdChoice Legal Advocates, said the lawsuit could take choices away from families.
“Behind every legal filing are real children whose futures hang in the balance,” Fisher said. “Tennessee’s EFS law vindicates parents’ constitutional rights to direct their children’s education.”
A hearing date has not been set, according to online court records.
Gov. Bill Lee advocated for school choice and made it the focus of the January special session. More than 42,000 applications were filed for the 2025-26 school year, according to the Tennessee Department of Education. The Tennessee General Assembly approved 20,000 scholarships of $7,295 for the 2025-26 school year, with the first 10,000 based on income and the second 10,000 open to all families.
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“This remarkable response demonstrates what we have known all along: Tennessee parents want choices when it comes to their child’s education,” Lee said previously. “I’m grateful to the General Assembly for their partnership in delivering universal school choice to families across our state, and I thank the Department of Education for their dedication to a smooth implementation.”
The application window for students receiving Education Freedom Scholarships opens on Dec. 9, according to the Tennessee Department of Education. New applications will be accepted beginning Jan. 13.