Members of the House Education Administration Committee advanced proposed legislation Wednesday to help public charter schools access school buildings that are sitting unused by local districts.The legislation would require local school districts that have public charter schools in them to provide a list of vacant and underutilized buildings on an annual basis. Under the bill, school districts would additionally be required to make those properties available to public charter schools at a fair market value and give charters a first right of refusal for either purchase or lease.

Downtown Memphis Commission leader Paul Young will be Memphis’ next mayor, a position that gives him no formal authority over Memphis-Shelby County Schools, but could allow him to revive the relationship between city and district if he follows through on his campaign plans.Such a change would come at a pivotal time, bringing additional dollars to the district as it faces hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred maintenance projects and seeks to develop a facility plan that better supports academic improvement.

Nashville mayoral candidates Freddie O’Connell and Alice Rolli have taken part in numerous debates in the last few months but education hasn’t always played a large role in the discussion.In the forums leading up to their advancement to a runoff, mayoral candidates have largely only fielded one question at most on their educational positions.  That changes this Thursday.

Without objection, the council suspended its rules to immediately nominate and approve Jones to fill the District 52 seat as Jones sat in the gallery.

Many Memphis youths are already struggling to overcome emotional and psychological trauma inflicted or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.But the specter of being held back in third grade if they can’t pass the state’s reading test will pile onto that trauma, Memphis and Shelby County child and education advocates said during a town hall Wednesday.

As Tennessee’s largest district moves into the second half of the 2022-23 school year, Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) is seeking feedback from the community for what the district should prioritize in  the 2023-24 school year budget.

The Shelby County Commission Wednesday moved closer to resolving a decade-old dispute over control of three schools in Germantown, approving a deal that would, among other things, provide funding for a new high school in Cordova.But their vote wasn’t a slam dunk. Five commissioners voted against the pact, some of them citing the cost to county taxpayers, and others objecting to the state law that put the future of the Germantown schools and their students in limbo.

Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced a plan Wednesday to provide every district run public high school athletic program with new or improved sports fields.The announcement is part of a $15 million partnership with the Tennessee Titans and the Foundation for Athletics in Nashville Schools, Inc. (The Fans Inc), a non-profit organization dedicated to endowing athletic programming at Metro Nashville Public Schools.

Homelessness among Memphis-Shelby County Schools students has hit its highest level in at least four years, more than doubling from the same time last year.New district data shows 1,504 students were identified as homeless as of Oct. 7, the end of the first quarter of the school year. That’s a nearly 180% increase from last fall, when the number of homeless students stood at 538.

Despite promising scores in this year’s Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP), Tennessee students continue to show the same signs of learning loss as their peers across the country in national testing.Tennessee's National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores released today mirror a historic national drop in the first testing following the pandemic.  While students in the Volunteer state are roughly at the national average in math proficiency and just under that in reading, proficiency in both subjects dropped to their lowest levels since 2011 with significant drops for students of color, English learners, and students with disabilities.

The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission approved the Tennessee Nature Academy in a 5-3 vote, overturning MNPS's rejection. Several other charter school appeals were denied.

Michelle McKissack, the recently reelected chairwoman of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board, announced Monday she is mulling a run to become the city’s next mayor.McKissack, who has represented District 1 since 2018 and was elected chair of the board in 2021, will on Tuesday announce an exploratory committee for a campaign to succeed Mayor Jim Strickland, whose term expires at the end of 2023.