Governor Lee’s Education Freedom Act of 2025, which provided scholarships to private schools, passed the House with a vote of 53-45-1 on Thursday afternoon. The Senate waited until the House concluded its business before taking up the legislation. After significant discussion, it passed the bill 20-13. 

The bill provides funding for 20,000 scholarships, half of which have some income limitation. The limit is based on 300% of the income level to qualify for free or reduced lunches. The scholarship would be in the same amount as the base per pupil funding level in TISA (currently $7,075 but expected to be increased in next year’s budget).

The final version of the bill also includes a $2,000 one-time bonus for teachers. It requires school systems to pass a resolution to request those funds. There were news reports that the bill requires school systems to endorse the entire piece of legislation to get those funds, but the language only requires them to approve the section related to these bonuses.

The legislation makes some funding from the tax on sports betting available for capital funding for public K-12 schools but with limits to ensure the Hope Scholarship account is still fully funded. It is unclear exactly how much revenue from that source will be sent to public schools, but it is expected to be around $62 million. School systems that are economically distressed or at-risk (systems where 50% of the schools are graded A) and school systems that qualify for high growth funding are eligible to receive $25 per pupil for capital funding. The remainder of these funds would be made available for school systems that suffered damage from a natural disaster or have a demonstrated need for capital funding.

The bill also includes what has been termed a “funding floor” to protect public school systems’ TISA funding. The bill provides that public school systems that lose enough students that they would receive less total TISA funding year-over-year will instead receive the same total dollar amount as they did the previous year. Estimates from the legislature’s fiscal review committee indicate that this will protect approximately 15 school systems. Many other systems will likely lose some students, but their reduction would be offset by per-pupil funding increases.