Non-partisan think tank the Sycamore Institute told Tennessee lawmakers other states would likely receive most federal education dollars Tennessee chooses to reject.Organization Deputy Director Mandy Spears provided a briefing to members of the Joint Working Group on Federal Education Funding Tuesday morning. That group is currently holding meetings to consider whether rejecting federal education dollars is a realistic option for Tennessee.

When Tennessee launches the School Letter Grades next month parents will be able to see how well their child’s school is serving students by reviewing whether it received A, B, C, D, or F grade. The hard part has been determining what makes one school an A and another a B or lower.The School Letter Grades Working Group held five meetings this month to work that out and most members appear to agree that student growth should matter just as much as student achievement.

The possibility of Tennessee rejecting federal education funding is back on the General Assembly’s agenda.Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, and Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, announced a new Joint Working Group on Federal Education Funding Monday that will study whether the state can provide education services without taking federal dollars.

Shelbyville parents and educators gave the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) a lot to consider as it fine tunes the new system to provide an A through F grade to each public school.TDOE plans to unveil the School Letter Grades to the public in November and the department has spent the last few weeks hosting public events across the state to gather input.Thursday night’s meeting in Shelbyville provided a number of concerns from both parents and school leaders who don’t want the school grading system to devalue student growth in favor of student achievement.Bedford County Superintendent Tammy Garrett was among them, saying increasing the importance of student achievement on School Letter Grades won’t help with the teacher shortage poorer counties like hers are facing.

Nashville parents and education leaders provided a wide variety of concerns for the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) to consider as it creates a new system to provide an A through F letter grade to public schools.TDOE plans to roll out the School Letter Grades to the public in November and the department has spent the last few weeks hosting town hall events across the state to gather input.Wednesday night’s meeting in Nashville brought concerns from Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) about the timing of implementation.

Accountability was the main focus for Cookeville parents, educators, and administrators during a Tuesday night discussion about how schools should be graded for serving students.The public meeting is the latest in a series of forums hosted by the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) to gather state input on how to improve the new School Letter Grades evaluation tool. The tool will provide an A through F letter grade for each public school when it launches in November.Grading schools based on student academic growth has been a common topic discussed in prior meetings, but this time, multiple speakers stressed the importance of School Letter Grades providing a measurement for student achievement and career/college readiness.

The special session on public safety ended much as it has proceeded over the last week, with chaos.After the session wrapped up in the House, Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, and Representative Justin Pearson, D-Memphis, collided with each other as Sexton was making his way out of the chamber and Pearson and fellow Representative Justin Jones, D-Nashville, were holding signs close to the speaker’s face.

The special session on public safety produced another chaotic meeting in the State House Monday.House members voted 70 to 20 to silence newly re-elected Representative Justin Jones, D-Nashville, under a House rule for speaking out of order twice. Members instituted the new rule specifically for the special session.

The first week of the special session on public safety may have seen more criticism for what lawmakers didn’t do than what they did.Only a bill to fund the special session made it through both houses of the Tennessee General Assembly and members are unexpectedly opting to return for a second week.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers voted down a controversial bill to increase the number of people allowed to carry a gun on school property in Tennessee.By a tied vote of 9 to 9 the members of the House Education Administration Committee failed to advance House Bill 7064 Wednesday evening.

The House Civil Justice Committee proved to be nearly as eventful on Wednesday as its subcommittee the day before.Representative Jason Powell, D-Nashville, began the meeting by calling for subcommittee chair Representative Lowell Russell, R-Venore, to apologize for removing the spectators who were holding signs and clapping during Tuesday’s meeting. That included family members of Covenant School Shooting survivors.“I think the member and the chair of this Civil Justice Subcommittee owes the public and the people of Tennessee an apology for the way they were treated yesterday. That has no place in this building and to turn a school shooting tragedy into a travesty of democracy and the First Amendment is shameful. And I would ask that member to share with many of these people who are in our audience today, who couldn’t be here, and who are watching to express that apology and make sure that never happens again,” said Representative Powell.

For the second straight day, members of the Tennessee State Senate continued to table the vast majority of bills they’ve filed in the special session on public safety.Members of the Senate Education, Health and Welfare, and State and Local Government Committees tabled every bill on their agenda Wednesday. 

Members of the Tennessee State Senate appear to be approaching the special session on public safety in a more abbreviated fashion than their House counterparts.

Formerly expelled Representatives Justin Jones, D-Nashville, and Justin J. Pearson, D-Memphis, will serve on multiple House committees during the special session on public safety this week.Tuesday morning House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, reappointed both to the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee and Subcommittee. Jones will additionally serve on the Education Administration and Transportation Committees and Pearson will serve on the Education Instruction and Local Government Committees and the Elections and Campaign Subcommittee.Jones himself questioned whether he’d serve on any committees before the appointment and that led to a heated discussion when Sexton ruled the Nashville lawmaker out of order, without answering the question.

Members of the Tennessee General Assembly have filed more than two dozen bills in advance of Monday’s special session on public safety.  More legislation is expected to be filed before the session begins at 4 PM, but bills filed so far deal with mental health facilities, gun locks, and extra penalties for threatening a mass shooting.

Parents can now take part in creating a long awaited system that grades how well their child’s school is serving students.The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) invited Tennesseans to participate in in a series of public meetings across the state to create the A through F school grading system.

After failing to reach contract terms with its first choice to run its growing private school voucher program, Tennessee has turned to a young Indiana company with a small staff, modest cash flow, and no state-level experience managing education savings accounts.

Tennessee’s new law banning unions from deducting dues from teacher paychecks is clear to go into effect.A panel of three Davidson County Chancery Court judges issued an order Friday denying the Tennessee Education Association’s (TEA) request for a temporary injunction of the new law.