School choice? Why not?

Bill Dunn works within the system to give students education freedom

By Bill Brewer

Bill Dunn was convinced that school choice was right for Tennessee education in the 1980s when he was a 4-H representative just out of college and working in Grainger County.

What began as an idea he believed in morphed into a passion when he entered public service as a state legislator in the 1990s.

Now, after more than 30 years serving the state of Tennessee and campaigning for universal school choice, Mr. Dunn gets to see the program he so fervently promoted for decades take effect this month as Tennessee parents and students use Tennessee Education Freedom scholarships (TEFS) for the first time.

With students now in class for the 2025-26 academic year, 20,000 of them are using the new scholarships to attend the school of their choice.

Under the Tennessee Education Freedom Act, tax-exempt education scholarships of $7,295 each were made available in the 2025-26 school year. Half of the scholarships go to students living in households with an annual income less than 300 percent of the level to qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program ($173,160 for a family of four). The remaining 10,000 scholarships were made available to students across the state, regardless of income or ZIP code.

The state General Assembly passed the act during a special session in January, and Gov. Bill Lee signed the bill into law on Feb. 12. The state then had three months to develop a program to award the scholarships based on specific criteria, such as U.S. citizenship and Tennessee residency.

With the number of state-funded scholarships set by law, it was up to a team assembled by the governor’s office and the state Department of Education to implement the program and award the scholarships.

As a senior adviser to Gov. Lee, Mr. Dunn was instrumental in the process to move school choice from a “good idea” to law, and then to a workable program that benefits thousands of students and their families. Prior to joining the governor’s staff in 2021, he served 27 years as a state representative, including stints as speaker of the House and speaker pro tempore.

Strong response

Once the Tennessee Education Freedom Act passed the House and Senate and became law, the state jumped into action to build a framework for the scholarship process. As Gov. Lee signed the act into law at the Tennessee State Capitol building, he was surrounded by students from St. Edward School, St. Henry School, Holy Rosary Academy, and St. Pius X Classical Academy in the Diocese of Nashville.

The Tennessee Department of Education began crafting regulations, hiring contractors, and creating an application process for implementation during the 2025-26 school year. It was an ambitious timeline. The scholarships were granted on a first-come, first-served basis via a registration site that parents could access from their home computer.

Mr. Dunn was confident that interest in the scholarship program by families would be strong, but there was no way to pinpoint demand ahead of time. He and other members of the TEFS team had to focus on putting the scholarship program in place.

“There was a real quick turnaround because the bill passed and we had to be ready to go for this school year. There were a lot of things that had to be done; certain rules had to be passed by the state board (of education), designing the application for people to go online, how you made sure they were state residents, that they were eligible, etc. There was a whole lot of work behind the scenes once it was passed,” Mr. Dunn said.

In addition to response, other vital areas the team was concerned with were an effective communications effort in advance to get the word out statewide about the program, an accessible and understandable application form that was comprehensive and ironclad, and a computer system for making the applications available and reviewable that wouldn’t crash, Mr. Dunn shared.

“There were a lot of decisions that had to be made. First of all, we had to look at the law and what did it say. It says certain things like you have to be a citizen of the United States. In the application process, we had to make determinations about how we are going to look at that. What kind of identification does a parent need to have? Do you have to have a birth certificate? You take the law and then you actually have to implement it,” Mr. Dunn pointed out.

“We also have the state school board, which passes rules. They take what we want to do, and then they flesh it out. They look at it and actually have to pass the rules that go into the specifics on how to carry out the law.”

Those working on the process had to hit certain benchmarks to keep the scholarship program on time to meet its deadline.

“At the same time, you have to communicate with schools that might want to participate and tell them in order to participate you have to be a Category I, II, or III school, and this is what you need to do, and at the same time, you set up a website for people to see frequently asked questions. So, you collect the e-mails of people who are interested,” he explained. “Then, you have schools that might schedule a night to instruct parents on what the program is and how you can take advantage of it. Then, you must have vendors who assist with the application process, the computer experts who set it up so that you don’t have glitches or something doesn’t crash,” he said.

Private schools in categories one through three are approved by the state or are accredited by a state-recognized accreditation agency, or are affiliated with an organization approved by the state.

When the big day arrived, at 1 p.m. EDT on May 15 the system was put to the test.

Reports of parents hunkering down over their computers and electronic devices for an hour or more waiting for the TEFS system to go live were widespread, as were reports of applicants who shared on social media that they had been approved, turned down, or placed on a waiting list.

“It was so popular, even though there were only 20,000 scholarships available, over 40,000 applications were turned in,” Mr. Dunn said, expressing some surprise at the strong demand.

“The system didn’t crash and there weren’t any glitches that couldn’t be fixed right there. It was all hands on deck. When the applications started coming in, people had to check them. The system was set up so that each application was looked at by two people who would have to agree that the applicant met the criteria. That took a lot when you consider that we had 40,000 applications and each one had to be looked at twice. It really was something to watch,” Mr. Dunn said.

“It was very rewarding to me that on the day the application process went live I was in the command room and watched the numbers start coming in. They were looking at responses from ZIP codes around the state, how many people were in the waiting room, determining how long it took someone to fill out an application, and those kinds of things. I sat in the corner. I didn’t want to get in the way of the people who were making this happen. I just watched the reality come about and saw how many people were excited about the opportunity to put their kids in the best position to achieve,” he added.

The application process closed on June 13. Parents began receiving positive or negative notifications soon after the system went live and those notifications continued through the summer.

In Mr. Dunn’s estimation, the process has gone “remarkably smoothly.”

“You will always have a few people who will have a complaint about this or that, but it has gone very smoothly. The people I have talked to say the communication is there and the instruction is there. Those who followed what they were supposed to do and what the rules called for, they didn’t have a problem. You do feel sorry for those who applied, and we just ran out of scholarships for them,” he shared.

“This year, because it was the first year and the timeline was so short between the passage of the bill and implementing it, it was whoever gets their application in first comes to the front of the line. Going forward, if you received the scholarship before, then you will be at the top of the list to get it again. You still have to apply, but you will be at the top of the list. It will be done differently going forward than it was this first year,” he added.

Mr. Dunn was gratified to see so many people from different parts of government work together to make school choice a reality.

“Commissioner (Lizzette) Reynolds, she is over the Department of Education. So, it was her team that helped get it across the finish line. But more importantly, she and her team helped flesh it out, to make it so it actually works, so that there was an application online, so that they were looked at, so that there was communication between people. From a political standpoint, it made all the difference that the speaker of the House and the speaker of the Senate were behind this, and they talked to their members about how important this was for Tennessee and for our future,” he noted.

Moving forward

Mr. Dunn said the state already is looking ahead to the 2026 scholarship process.

And based on the overwhelming response in the initial year, he is hopeful the program will expand as the new law calls for.

“The law has a trigger that you can increase the number of scholarships if there is enough interest. And there is definitely enough interest. But next year’s budget would have to reflect that increase. It’s not a done deal, but if the House and the Senate agree, then they can expand the number,” Mr. Dunn explained.

According to the Tennessee Education Freedom Act, if 85 percent or more of the available scholarships are awarded in the first year, 5,000 additional scholarships may be made available in the second year.

“So, obviously the number of scholarships can increase from 20,000 to 25,000, but you are still 15,000 short based on the number of applications,” Mr. Dunn said, remarking that it will be interesting to see how lawmakers address the demand for scholarships during the 2026 legislative session.

When asked what the high demand for scholarships tells him, Mr. Dunn said, “There are a lot of people who were struggling in order to have their kids go to the school of their choice. This was a way to relieve that burden.”

He pointed to the fact that many Catholic schools already have financial pressures in accommodating students whose families can’t afford full tuition, but they remain dedicated to providing a Catholic education. “They have to make sure every Catholic child will get a Catholic education whether they can afford it or not.”

Tennessee Education Freedom scholarships can relieve much of that burden, according to TEFS supporters.

While Mr. Dunn said he could not predict whether the General Assembly will expand the number of scholarships beyond 20,000, he did say “the vision of the governor and others is that every family will have a choice eventually.”

He shared that while much attention has been placed on implementing the new school-choice program, the state continues to emphasize public education. He pointed to the fact that the state legislature has been putting money into public schools and has come up with programs that have led to improvements in student achievement.

And he noted that Tennessee is moving forward in student achievement while other states are falling behind, which hasn’t always been the case.

“When I started in the legislature, Tennessee was at or near the bottom. We have moved so far up through the rankings in achievement that other states are looking to see what Tennessee has done. If you are focused on kids instead of adults, you want them to succeed wherever they are, whether public school or private school. We are not going to leave any kids behind. We’re going to make sure each one gets the education they deserve,” he noted.

School choice: the early years

Mr. Dunn, who is 64, is a longtime parishioner in the Diocese of Knoxville. He and his wife, Stacy, have five children and nine grandchildren. He attended St. Joseph School and Knoxville Catholic High School before going to the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science and a master’s degree in extension education. After serving with 4-H, he went to work for a Knoxville arborist, where he was able to pursue his political interests.

He recalls his first race to represent state House District 16 in 1993 and noted that his campaign literature then said “school choice for everyone.”

“I was so sold on it because it made so much sense. On this issue, it was nice to know that this was the right thing to do. Issues where it is hard to figure out what is the right thing to do, that’s where you struggle. But once I figured out on an issue that this is the right thing to do, it made it easy. I stuck with this. And every time someone ran against me, they made it an issue. But I always received like 70 percent of the vote. That let me know that people believed in what I was saying,” Mr. Dunn said.

Mr. and Mrs. Dunn were so sold on it that they made school choice a family practice in the early years of their marriage some 40 years ago. They homeschooled their children until they reached an age where the Dunns enrolled them at St. Joseph School and then on to Knoxville Catholic High School.

“We saw with educational choice that you pick what you think is best for your child at that time. We could see it and we lived it,” he said.

The road to school choice has been a bumpy one for Mr. Dunn.

Despite promoting it in the legislature for years, there was little appetite for it among lawmakers until recently.

Mr. Dunn remarked that Gov. Bill Haslam, who served as Tennessee’s chief executive from 2011-19, wanted universal school choice but was unsuccessful in getting the legislation passed in the General Assembly.

“Gov. Haslam had looked at the program and how it had worked in other states. He decided that Tennessee needed this. So, he put it out there. I carried it in the House. He had a somewhat limited program, and the Senate wanted to go bigger. It ended up not going anywhere. I always thought that if the Senate had just gone along with the original idea, look at how much farther down the road we would have been,” Mr. Dunn said.

“We tried it again later in the Haslam administration, and it came up two or three votes short in the House. Then, when Gov. Lee took office in 2019, he was very passionate about it because he had helped a young man who had really been struggling and failing in his education situation. Before he was governor, Gov. Lee helped the young man go to a different school, and it made all the difference. When he saw that in real life, what it can mean for someone to pick the school that is the best fit, that is why he is so passionate about it,” he explained.

Support for school choice began to grow in the legislature, and there was enough backing to launch an introductory program in Chattanooga, Nashville, and Memphis in 2022. The movement was picking up steam in Tennessee—finally, and it was about time, according to Mr. Dunn.

“School choice is not a new thing. It has been around for a long time. We’ve had the G.I. Bill. We’ve had Pell Grants. We have the HOPE Scholarship. Now, those are all at the higher-education level, but it’s the exact same principle. It’s where you take public dollars and you give them to the family (and the students) and they pick the best fit for their child. So, basically we’re doing what we’ve been doing in higher education for decades and saying let’s do it in K through 12. It’s been wildly successful in higher ed. I imagine it will be the same in K through 12,” Mr. Dunn said.

“What we’ve learned through studies is that when parents have choice, everyone improves. Whether they are public schools or private schools, they up their game because they realize they don’t have a monopoly anymore. They are going to have to perform and have academic excellence,” he added. “It takes leadership and passion to pass something as big and meaningful as this. Gov. Lee, Commissioner Reynolds, House speaker Cameron Sexton, and Senate speaker Randy McNally were all instrumental in putting the time and energy and passion into passing this legislation.”

Mr. Dunn addressed the concerns of those opposed to universal school choice, who have cited worries about funding being diverted from public schools to private schools.

State officials have said money appropriated for public education will not shift to private schools. Funds for the Tennessee Education Freedom Scholarships come from a one-time appropriation of $144.2 million in general revenue funds. Each student approved for the program will receive $7,295 in the first year.

“It (school choice) puts the power with the parents. And parents know their child better than anyone. So, they can look at a school, and if it’s just not a good fit for whatever reason, then they can find where their child needs to be. Society benefits. Every child who gets in a better environment and grows that much more and attains that much more, in the end that’s a plus for everybody in society,” Mr. Dunn said.

“The studies clearly show that when you have a robust school-choice program, everybody benefits. The public schools improve immensely. Florida is a perfect example. When it went school-choice statewide, you saw the public schools improve radically,” he noted.

As he looks to the future, Mr. Dunn believes Tennessee can and should continue to make advancements in education. But he warned that the state also can move backward.

“Tennessee is in a great spot right now. There is always the chance that those who put adults first will put pressure on legislators, and they will go back to the bad old days as I call them. We’ve seen that in some other states, where they have pulled back from what they were doing. I predict in five or six years, we will see those states really suffering when it’s time to rank how states are doing,” he said.

He acknowledges that changes in the General Assembly could bring about an end to school choice in Tennessee.

“That could happen. But once people taste freedom, they don’t want to give it up. There will be a lot of people who taste freedom, and they will talk to others and say how wonderful it’s been for their family and for their children. So, I think it will be very hard to go back. Also, it’s harder to pass a bill than defeat a bill. For someone to do away with school choice, they would have to pass a bill. I don’t see that happening in the near future,” he said.

While there is a sense of fulfillment in finally seeing one of the campaign issues closest to his heart for more than 30 years become the law of the land, Mr. Dunn is focused on the bigger picture.

“The emotion really comes from knowing it’s going to make a difference in a kid’s life,” he said.