As Tennessee voucher application launches, parents report mixed results on wait times

Yahoo

15-05-2025

Some Tennesseans reported long waits and wildly fluctuating estimated times while others moved through with no issues as they applied for the newly launched Education Freedom Scholarships on May 15.
The scholarships are taxpayer-funded vouchers that families can use to offset private K-12 tuition and expand the state's previously limited program to statewide participation. A total of 20,000 scholarships worth $7,295 each are available for the 2025-26 school year. The first 10,000 are reserved for families with limited incomes, children with disabilities and previous recipients of state school vouchers. The remaining 10,000 are available to students regardless of income.
AT Rice logged on as the applications opened at noon CT and waited nearly two hours in the queue. Rice said the estimated wait time bounced from 102 minutes to 11 minutes to 222 minutes. Others posted similar accounts on social media, expressing frustration over the process.
Tennessee school vouchers: How to apply, who qualifies for the first-come scholarships
When Bobby Anderson logged on around the same time, he also saw large fluctuations in the wait time before getting through the queue in about five minutes. He was able to put in two applications for his kids easily and said the process from entering the queue to finishing the applications took only 10 minutes total.
Anderson, who lives in Bethesda, said his two children he submitted scholarship applications for are already enrolled in private school. He thinks Tennessee's approach to offering a limited number of scholarships is a smart move.
"I think it's great," he said of the program. "I think that public school just isn't for everyone. ... Private school, at least for our kids, worked out better."
Ahead of the application launch, the Tennessee Department of Education shared resources with families to guide them through the process. It also said it prepared its website for a high volume of traffic and tested its site and virtual queuing tool to manage the influx.
More information on the scholarships can be found at TN.gov/education/EFS.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TN school vouchers: Parents have mixed results on application wait times