MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The state will pay more to educate a child who leaves a Tennessee public school than it pays the public school the child left.

For the 2026-27 school year, per-pupil funding for public schools stands at $7,272, while an Education Freedom Scholarship voucher is worth $7,530, a difference of $258 per student, according to Tennessee Board of Education figures compiled and released by Senate Democrats and reported by the Memphis Flyer on August 27, 2026.

The statewide average understates the spread. In 29 school districts, public schools receive less per student than voucher recipients do. At University Schools in Memphis the gap reaches $663 per student, and in Sevier County it reaches $4,049, per the Flyer.

"In some Tennessee communities, the state funding is dramatically worse than the statewide average," Senate Democrats said in the release.

State Senator London Lamar, a Memphis Democrat, tied the funding question to results: "All the evidence we have shows students in public schools are outperforming these voucher programs in academics." The Memphis Flyer noted that a Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury report found voucher students scored below statewide public school averages.

The figures come from the Board of Education but reached the public through the Senate Democratic caucus, which opposes the program. Supporters of the Education Freedom Scholarship argue that a voucher''s value and a district''s per-pupil allocation are not equivalent measures, since districts receive additional local and federal revenue that does not flow to a voucher, and that families should be able to direct the state''s share of their child''s education. The legislature expanded the program to 35,000 students this year in a $260 million expansion.

Why It Matters for Memphis

Memphis-Shelby County Schools is the largest district in Tennessee and the one the state is currently in federal court seeking to take over, on an argument built on school performance. The same state is funding an alternative to that district at a higher per-student rate while its own Comptroller reports the alternative''s students scoring below public school averages. Whatever a reader concludes about vouchers, the two policies are being run simultaneously on the same children, in the same city, out of the same budget.