Senate committee kills legislation to inject more partisanship into schools

Tennessee’s Senate Education Committee voted down legislation 6 to 3 Wednesday that would add more partisanship to public schools by allowing elections for school superintendents.Some counties held elected superintendents prior to 1992 when Tennessee removed that option to align with nationally recognized practices of appointing a director of schools.Strawberry Plains Senator Frank Nicely hoped to change that through legislation that would have given counties the option of deciding whether to appoint or elect a superintendent.“It gives back local control to the counties, and it lets them determine how they select a director of schools,” said Senator Nicely. “There’s nothing un-American about an election.”The legislation would have required two-thirds of the members of a country commission to approve the office of an elected superintendent and it would additionally have to pass a public referendum before a county could make the change.Committee members also heard from retired Jefferson County educator David Seal who said Florida has a similar elected superintendent system that works well there.“57% of their superintendents are elected and it certainly hasn’t hurt them academically,” said Seal. “Having a school superintendent grounded in community has its own set of advantages. This bill allows local communities to adopt a system that works well for them.”Critics say electing superintendents may create unnecessary political pressure on educators to support one candidate over the other along with encouraging superintendents to focus on campaigning instead of serving students.There's also concern that electing superintendents could further limit the talent pool of qualified and diverse candidates.