Published by the Elizabethton Start, Contributed Content – June 14, 2023 Earlier this week Governor Billl Lee signed Senate Bill 781 into law at the Tennessee state capitol. Senator Rusty Crowe (R-Johnson City) and Representative John Holsclaw (R-Elizabethton) as well as area physicians were in attendance. Crowe carried the bill through the Senate in this…
Published by the Tennessee Lookout, Reporter Sam Stockard – June 13, 2023 The Tennessee Education Association sued the state Tuesday claiming a new ban on automatic payroll dues deduction to professional organizations is unconstitutional and singles out teachers among public employees. Filed in Davidson County Chancery Court on behalf of association members and local education…
Published by the Tennessee Lookout, Reporter Sam Stockard – June 9, 2023 The Aug. 21 special session to react to shooting deaths at The Covenant School is pressing closer, but some lawmakers are quietly making plans for 2024 to arm school teachers. Extreme risk protection orders aren’t being given much chance to pass later this…
Published by the Tennessee Lookout, Reporter Adam Friedman – May 31, 2023 Third-grade reading scores by school district show a slight improvement for most Tennessee schools in 2023 compared to the average of recent years. Last week Tennessee released its statewide testing scores, showing 60% of third graders weren’t proficient at reading. This is common…
Published by Rolling Stone, Commentator Representative Justin Pearson – May 17, 2023 Mary Joyce’s daughter witnessed the unspeakable. “The day after the children were murdered at the school, grief therapists passed out ‘Feelings Cards‘ with faces on them to help the children identify what they were feeling,” she recalled. “My nine-year-old daughter, Monroe, who saw…
Published by WSMV 4, Reporter Daniel Smithson – May 18, 2023 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Tennessee teachers could soon be getting a pay raise thanks to the newly signed Teacher Paycheck Protection Act. The bill raises the minimum teacher salary to $50,000 by 2026, an increase from $35,000 in 2019. Gov. Bill Lee signed the…
Published by the Tennessee Lookout, Reporter Adam Friedman – May 16, 2023 Hillsdale College’s affiliated charter schools are asking for an exception in Tennessee law to teach a curriculum linked with Common Core, which state lawmakers banned twice. American Classical Education (ACE) — the Hillsdale-affiliated charter school group — asked in its five applications for an…
Published by the Chattanoogan, Reporter Hannah Campbell – May 16, 2023 House Speaker Cameron Sexton continues to muse about rejecting $2 billion in federal funding for education. After revealing the idea in February, he proposed a task force to make a feasibility recommendation by Dec. 1 this year. “Our state can afford not to take…
Published by Raw Story, Reporter Matthew Chapman – May 15, 2023 Carolyn Mickey, a school librarian at Alpine Crest Elementary School in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area, was shocked when a far-right group targeted her over a Mother’s Day lesson that they claimed was “Leninist” indoctrination and an attack on Western civilization. The lesson, designed to be inclusive…
Published by Chalkbeat Tennessee: Reporter Marta W. Aldrich – May 8, 2023 Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced Monday that he will call the legislature back Aug. 21 for a special session to address firearms and public safety concerns following a deadly school shooting in Nashville this spring. “There is broad agreement that action is needed,”…