Each year the Knox County Board of Education provides members of the Tennessee General Assembly with a list of legislative priorities the board hopes legislators will adopt in the upcoming session.As board member Jennifer Owen described it at a meeting last month, the 2023 priorities are designed to be for the betterment of schools, and she says political hot-button phrases have been removed from them.“We need to remember that when we carry these, we are taking them to people of all parties and so we don’t want to have something that’s going to get stuck somewhere and be offensive to our legislators,” said Owen.This year’s priorities included supporting literacy instruction, parental transparency, age-appropriate content, and women’s sports, but several board members, including Owen herself, declined to stand up for them.
Support for Women’s Sports and Age-Appropriate Materials in Classrooms¶
The priorities of “Support for Women’s Sports” and “Age-Appropriate Materials in Classrooms” attracted the most noticeable lack of support from these board members.Those priorities read, “We support the legislature’s efforts to protect women’s sports, ensuring that young women in Knox County have the opportunity to compete and succeed,” and “We support the legislature’s effort to prohibit explicit content from elementary school libraries to protect young children and ensure parental rights.”Both priorities passed with five members voting yes, but board members Katherine Bike and Daniel Watson voted against them while Dr. John Butler and Jennifer Owen passed on voting.None of the four board members gave any indication why they opted not to stand for women’s sports and age-appropriate materials in the classroom.
Parental Transparency and Literacy Instruction¶
Several of these same board members also showed a similar lack of support for the “Parental Transparency” and “Literacy Instruction” priorities."Parents are best equipped and informed to know their children and make decisions regarding their needs and challenges. The Knox County Board of Education supports the efforts of the State legislative bodies to clarify the rights and empower parents in their child’s education,” wrote in board in its recommendation on parent transparency.The priority passed with seven votes, but board members Dr. John Butler and Katherine Bike passed on voting.The board’s legislative priority for “Literacy Instruction” was the longest, encouraging the support of the science of reading.“The Knox County Board of Education believes that phonics is fundamental for children to learn to read. The Knox County Board of Education urges the State legislative bodies to continue to support the science of reading through teacher trainings and materials for literacy instruction. The science of reading is defined as a body of research that incorporates insights and research from disciplines that include developmental psychology, educational psychology, cognitive science, and cognitive neuroscience. The science of reading has demonstrated the methods that best help children to learn to read, from the earliest steps in spoken language to being able to successfully decode unfamiliar words,” wrote the board in its recommendation for “Literacy Instruction.”Once again, Butler and Bike passed on voting while Owen voted against the legislative recommendation.
