Thousands applied for vouchers. What Memphis schools will accept them?
The new Education Freedom Scholarship (EFS) voucher program expanded eligibility to students already enrolled in private schools, a population that legislative projections have expected to make up about 65% of all Tennessee recipients. (Getty Images via Chalkbeat)
When Tennessee established a second, expansive voucher program in January, many private schools in Shelby County opted to accept the new funds. The new program, which relaxed family-income thresholds and academic testing requirements, has attracted thousands of Tennessee families.
The new Education Freedom Scholarship (EFS) voucher program expanded eligibility to students already enrolled in private schools, a population that legislative projections have expected to make up about 65% of all Tennessee recipients. Schools that accept the money have to administer academic tests to students to measure their performance, but they aren’t required to give students a state test that would more easily allow comparisons with public school peers.
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Laura Testino
Laura Testino is an enterprise reporter on The Daily Memphian’s metro team who writes most often about how education policies shape the lives of children and families. She regularly contributes to coverage of breaking news events and actions of the Tennessee General Assembly. Testino’s journalism career in Memphis began six years ago at The Commercial Appeal, where she began chronicling learning disruptions associated with the pandemic, and continued with Chalkbeat, where she dug into education administration in Memphis. Her reporting has appeared in The New York Times, The Times-Picayune, The Tuscaloosa News and USA Today.
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