A bill that would change the age cutoff date for children enrolling in enrolling in kindergarten failed to advance out of the House K-12 Subcommittee Tuesday.Representative Jody Barrett, R-Dickson, says he initially sponsored the bill following a request from a director of schools in his district who wanted to change the cutoff date for when a child must be five years old to start kindergarten.

State Senators Jon Lundbeg, R-Brisol, and Bill Powers, R-Clarksville, and Representative William Slater, R-Hendersonville, utilized their downtime in between federal education funding hearings Tuesday afternoon to learn more about a unique public charter school that’s about to expand into the suburbs.The three lawmakers toured the campus of the Nashville Collegiate Prep on Bell Road.

Newly elected Republican Representatives William Slater and Kevin Raper don’t even have their pictures posted yet on the Tennessee General Assembly website, but both are now occupying leadership positions in key House Committees.Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton appointed Slater as the Vice-Chair of the House Education Administration Committee Thursday and assigned Raper to be the House Education Instruction Committee Vice-Chair.

Perhaps no issue was more impactful in last year’s legislative session than education. The 112th General Assembly ended with the historic passage of the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) Act that completely overhauled the way public schools are funded in Tennessee.The 113th General Assembly that begins at noon today likely won’t pass legislation as sweeping, but that doesn’t mean legislators won’t have an opportunity to make an impact on K-12 education.

When the Tennessee General Assembly returns to Nashville next Tuesday, Representative William Slater will be among 19 new members in the State House.Slater won the Republican primary for House District 35 last August and then ran unopposed in November to represent Trousdale County and part of Sumner County.  He’s succeeding former Representative Jerry Sexton who decided not to seek another term in office.