Tennessee lawmakers are giving a $356 million raise to the company handling the state’s two private school voucher programs, despite the vendor’s woes in two other states.
The legislature’s Fiscal Review Committee approved the increase Wednesday, pushing the maximum contract amount for Student First Technologies, LLC to nearly $637 million over the life of its five-year contract to run an online portal where parents can apply for the funds and receive payments.
The increase for the last two years of the contract comes after the legislature added 15,000 students to the “Education Freedom Scholarship” program this year, pushing it to a total of 35,000 for the 2026-27 school year…