Governor Bill Lee told Middle Tennessee’s business leaders his proposed investments in education are needed to keep Tennessee moving forward.
Those comments came Thursday morning as Governor Lee provided his annual address to the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.
Lee praised the impact last year’s Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) will make updating the way Tennessee funds public education and he looked ahead to his proposals this year.
Lee’s administration is supporting investing $350 million into education, including dedicated dollars to raise teacher salaries.
“When I came into office the teacher pay rate was, the entry level rate was $35,000. This legislation will raise that to $50,000, as a minimum starting pay for teachers by the time I get out of office,” said Governor Lee.
This week the General Assembly advanced Lee’s teacher salary plan and both houses voted to pass his proposal to make summer learning camps designed to support students following the pandemic permanent.
Legislators also advanced a compromise bill to add more to tweak the state’s Third-Grade Retention Law to provide more support to students and reduce the number of children who are held back a grade.
The controversial law passed in 2021 to hold back third grade students who’s test scores show a need for additional reading assistance. It has since faced criticism from opponents who worry it goes too far.
Governor Lee didn’t reference the controversial law by name, but he did stress the importance his administration places on reading.
“If a kid a can’t read a kid won’t succeed. That is just the reality of education and if a kid can’t read by the third grade the likelihood that they will have success diminishes dramatically,” said Governor Lee.
Governor Lee also told business leaders his administration is firmly committed to vocational education.
Tennessee provided investments last year designed to bring career and technical education to every public high school.
Lee told business leaders he’s proposing to invest a billion dollars this year into the state’s public colleges for technical training. Lee says new companies moving to Tennessee desperately need the workforce these colleges help create.
“We spent many years not investing enough in vocational education,” said Lee. “These are two-year colleges of technology that have waiting lists and 90% of their graduates have job placement in the field in which they studied. If we make this investment smartly we can deliver 10,000 more workers.”
