Legislator Profile: Senator Raumesh Akbari finds common ground to improve education

Memphis Senator Raumesh Akbari’s journey to being the highest-ranking Democrat in the State Senate began when she watched the 1992 Presidential debate as an elementary school student.“When I saw this election between sitting President at the time Bush and then Bill Clinton I was fascinated,” said Senator Akbari. “We watched the inauguration once Clinton won and I remember asking my mom, you know I want to go to the inauguration, and she said, well, we’ll make that happen. We’ll make that happen at some point.”Senator Akbari didn’t attend a presidential inauguration until years later when former President Barak Obama was elected, but her lifelong interest in politics was firmly established.In 2013 politics became much more.At the encouragement of family acquaintance and former Representative Barbara Cooper, Akbari ran for an open State House seat. She beat out seven other candidates to win it.“I knew right away education was going to be a priority.  It’s something I campaigned on,” said Senator Akbari.  “I think education really is the ultimate way that we can transform communities.  If you have a great education, you can have a great career, which means that you are not committing a crime, you have better health outcomes. Your neighborhoods look better.”Akbari was placed on the Education Committee during her first term in the House and transitioned to the Senate Education Committee when she won the Senate District 29 in 2018. She’s currently the committee’s Second Vice-Chair.“The things that I like to focus on are literacy. That’s a big one in our state. Making sure that you know, we’re really looking at school discipline because again that’s a part of chronic absenteeism.”

Finding Common Ground on Education

Akbari admits it’s not easy getting legislation passed as a Democrat in the Republican supermajority in the Tennessee General Assembly, but she’s found ways to find common ground with conservatives to accomplish important educational changes.One of the biggest was the legislation Akbari co-sponsored to create the Tennessee Promise.It provides Tennessee high school graduates with the opportunity to attend a community or technical college free of tuition and mandatory fees.“We were the first state to do it in a statewide application,” said Senator Akbari. “It really does prepare Tennessee to have the workers that we need for the future.”Last year provided another opportunity to find common ground and change the antiquated way Tennessee has funded public schools since the 90s.Senator Akbari was an important supporter in the passage of the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) Act. The legislation invested a billion dollars into K-12 education and updated school funding to be based on the individual needs of students.Senator Akbari says TISA was a great first step to creating generations of prosperity.“Last year Shelby County Schools was strongly in support of it, and I was as well because of that,” said Senator Akbari. “I hope that the long term impact is that student who need the most help, whether you’re talking about our second language speakers, our folks from urban communities, communities that are in poverty, some of our smaller districts, I’m hoping that they will receive the help that they need and the funding that they need, so that we really can transition certain communities from surviving to thriving.”Akbari is hopeful this year will provide another opportunity to find common ground on changing the Third-Grade Retention Law.The legislation passed in 2021 to ensure students who need additional support in reading, receive them before being promoted to fourth grade but some opponents on both sides of the aisle worry it may do more harm than good.Senator Akbari is among those who believe the law needs to be tweaked to rely on more than just the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) scores.“My concern is that, you know, you’re relying on the TCAP to determine if that child is literate or not and I don’t think that’s an accurate assessment. So, I would prefer that there’s some sort of portfolio of evaluation.”

Public Charter Schools

Senator Akbari represents the northwest and southwest sections of Memphis. Its school district has more than fifty public charter schools and there are five new ones that are now in the application process.Nationwide public charter schools are an issue Democrats don’t always agree on, but Akbari feels like some are serving a valuable purpose for students in her district.She’s not supportive of outside national groups trying to establish public charter schools in Tennessee communities but Akbari says she does support locally grown public charter schools that serve a specific community need, like the Circles of Success Learning Academy in Memphis.“Every classroom is a small size.  They have two teachers, one man, one woman.  I think that they have a mission that focuses on the student. So, I like these locally grown charter schools,” said Senator Akbari. “If there’s a need that needs to be met, then a charter school was fine to do that I mean these are public schools. And it’s not to say that the traditional public school is not working, because quite frankly I think that they can work hand in hand.”