Testimony Before the Tennessee House Finance, Ways, and Means Subcommittee
in Support of HB 2532
Tim Benson, Senior Policy Analyst
Heartland Impact
March 25, 2026
Chairman Williams and Members of the Subcommittee:
Thank you for holding this hearing on HB 2532 and allowing me the opportunity to give my perspective on this bill.
My name is Tim Benson, and I am the senior policy analyst with Heartland Impact. Heartland Impact is the advocacy and outreach arm of The Heartland Institute. Both are independent, national, nonprofit organizations working to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. Heartland specializes in providing state lawmakers the policy and advocacy resources to advance free-market policies towards broad-based economic prosperity.
According to the 2026 EdChoice Friedman Index—a measuring system by the titular education reform organization, which is designed to measure how much educational choice families in a particular state actually have— Tennessee ranks 12th overall, with an index score of 4 in a range from 0 to 100.[1]
To measure a Friedman Index score, EdChoice uses three criteria. If a state meets all three criteria, it earns a score of 100 on the index. The first, “All Students,” measures whether “100% of the students in the state are eligible to participate in a choice program, with funding available for all who wish to participate (universal funded eligibility).”
The second criteria, “All Options,” measures whether “all choice students are able to participate in an education savings account-style program (ESA), which means families have the opportunity to use the taxpayer funds placed in their child’s account to offset tuition payments at private schools and to purchase educational goods and services outside of schools, (e.g. tutoring, textbooks, test fees, special needs therapies, etc.).”
The third criteria, “All Dollars,” measures whether “average awards per choice student are equal to the average state and local revenue per public school student, which means that choice students receive the same amount of funding as public school students (sans federal funding), on average.”
The formula for calculating the Friedman Index is relatively straightforward. The percentage of students eligible for a choice program (with funding) is multiplied by the fraction of average dollar award per choice student divided by state and local revenues per public school student. This number is then multiplied by 100. If a state does not have an ESA or similar program permitting families to purchase education services “outside of school walls,” that state receives a five-point deduction from the formula.
The report provides examples to illustrate how the formula works. In the first example, the fictional state of Narnia has two ESA programs in which a combined 50 percent of the state’s students are eligible for either program. Additionally, “the average ESA award among choice students across the programs is $8,000, and the public schools in Narnia receive an average of $16,000 in state and local funding.” Applying those numbers to the formula, 50 percent is multiplied by the fraction of $8,000 divided by $16,000 and then multiplied by 100. So, 50 percent (.5) times 50 percent (.5) equals .25, which is then multiplied by 100 to yield a final score of 25.
You may be thinking “we signed a universal ESA bill into law last year, why is our score on this index so low?” The Volunteer State technically provides full eligibility to education choice to all Tennessee children through the Tennessee Education Freedom Scholarship Act (TEFSA), and 20,000 students, the full amount allowed under the cap, were already participating in the program this school year.
However, the escalator provision in the governing law only allows an increase of 5,000 students in the program, at most, per school year. In reality, only about six percent of Tennessee children have access to TEFSA or its sister ESA programs as of this moment. Hence, Tennessee’s score of 4 on the Friedman Index.
That is why the expansion of the number of available TEFSA accounts under HB 2532 is most welcome. The quicker the State of Tennessee can make this program available to all the children in the state, the better.
The goal of public education in Tennessee today and in the years to come should be to allow all parents to choose which schools their children attend, require every school to compete for every student who walks through its doors, and make sure every child has the opportunity to attend a quality school that best fits their unique needs and circumstances. Tennessee is already very close to reaching this goal, and passing HB 2532 will help the state reach that goal in a more expedient manner. There has not been a time when providing these opportunities has been more urgent and more needed than right now, so please vote to pass HB 2532.
Thank you for your time.
Heartland Impact can send an expert to your state to testify or brief your caucus; host an event in your state; or send you further information on a topic. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if we can be of assistance! If you have any questions or comments, contact Cameron Sholty, at csholty@heartlandimpact.org or 312/377-4000.
[1] Ben Scafidi & Colyn Ritter, The 2026 EdChoice Friedman Index, EdChoice, February 2026, https://www.edchoice.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Friedman-Index-2026-WEB.pdf.
