The Tennessee State Senate passed a bill allowing teachers to be armed in the classroom following a chaotic discussion that included state troopers clearing spectators from the gallery above.Demonstrators in the crowd shouted their opposition to the legislation and one woman could be heard saying, “We’re all Covenant mothers,” referring to last year’s school shooting in Nashville that killed six people.

Members of the House Government Operations Committee unanimously advanced legislation Monday that’s designed to help the state do a better job connecting students with the jobs that are available in their communities.That so-called “data bill,” sponsored by Representative Chris Hurt, R-Halls, would require the state to create a publicly available dashboard that includes data employers and students could use to see how well various instructional programs are working in Tennessee.

A bill that would require schoolchildren to watch a fetal development animation video made by abortion opposition group Live Action is on its way to Governor Bill Lee’s desk.The State Senate voted 21 to 6 in favor of the legislation Thursday, voting down four proposed amendments by Senate Democrats hoping to provide parents and teachers with more discretion and consent for whether not to show the “Meet Baby Olivia” video.

A key House committee advanced legislation this week that’s designed to address workforce shortages and early childhood literacy in one swoop.Representative Mark White’s, R-Memphis, “Promising Futures” bill intends to make this happen by combining an early childhood literacy program with childcare services for children. The goal is to help parents around the state where unaffordable childcare interferes with the workforce.

Tennessee lawmakers have expressed a desire to reduce the number of fourth-graders held back this summer under new state reading requirements, but with the legislative session winding to a close, there’s still disagreement on the best way to make that happen.Two different bills are advancing through House committees that would address the issue and a recent House committee meeting illustrated the potential challenges that may lie ahead deciding on one of them.

A proposal to shift low-performing schools from Tennessee’s sputtering takeover and turnaround district to other state-approved but locally managed intervention models passed unanimously Monday in the full Senate.The bill, which is awaiting action in the full House, seeks to phase out the Achievement School District, the state’s most ambitious and aggressive school improvement model, by the end of 2025-26 school year.

The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) is proposing sending school districts across the state an extra $215 per student next school year.If approved by the Tennessee General Assembly, that funding would increase the base amount districts receive for each student under the new Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) funding formula from $6,860 to $7,075 a year. TISA replaced the Basic Education Program (BEP) funding formula the state had been using last year.

Each school day more than a thousand children and teenagers travel from across Shelby County to the University of Memphis for a reason you may not expect.Those school-aged students aren’t there for a tour, but are instead attending one of three public schools the university operates.

Members of the House K-12 Subcommittee voted Tuesday to advance a bill designed to reduce the number of fourth-grade students held back under the state’s new Third-Grade Retention Law.The new law allows third-graders who fail to show reading proficiency on state tests in the spring of their third-grade year to advance to the fourth grade through summer school and/or tutoring in their fourth-grade year. Those children who receive tutoring still need to show “adequate growth” on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) in the fourth-grade to advance to the fifth-grade.

The House Government Operations Committee advanced Governor Bill Lee’s Education Freedom Scholarship Act Monday with a positive recommendation following a sometimes testy debate on accountability and costs.The legislation would expand on the concept of the existing Education Savings Account (ESA) pilot program in Davidson, Shelby, and Hamilton counties to allow families across the state to send their children to private school with taxpayer dollars.

Members of the House Education Administration Committee advanced legislation Wednesday that supporters say will help the state do a better job connecting students with the actual jobs available in their communities.That bill, sponsored by Representative Chris Hurt, R-Halls, would require the state to create a publicly available dashboard that includes data employers and students could use to see how well various instructional programs are working in Tennessee.

Members of the House K-12 Subcommittee turned their focus to school safety Wednesday by voting on a series of bills designed to prevent future school shootings, including prior legislation from last year’s Special Session on Public Safety.One that received considerable attention is a bill to update safety measures listed in the Safe Schools Act of 2023, by requiring an improved standard of window film or security glass on each exterior door and any glass adjoining an exterior door. This change would include replacing the quarter-inch thick windows in schools with thicker and stronger glass that would be considered bullet-resistant.

Viktor Nemykin heads up a chemistry department that’s ranked second in the world for its polymer program and boasts the third largest number of undergraduate credit hours on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville campus.As solid as the department’s foundation is academically, it couldn’t be standing on shakier ground physically.The department operates out of a 113 thousand square foot Buehler Hall that’s slowing sliding off the hill it sets on.

University of Tennessee President Randy Boyd told members of the Senate Education Committee that there are three myths tied to higher education.Those myths are that no one is going to college, it’s unaffordable, and debt is inevitable.Boyd said the UT College System has seen total enrollment grow by 7 thousand students over the last five years and it’s planning to increase enrollment from 59 thousand students to 71 thousand students by the year 2030. 

Walter Blanks Jr. says his experience with public schools growing up in an economically disadvantaged neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio was hard.Blanks says he struggled to learn how to read and was bullied to the extent his mother feared for his safety.  That changed when his family took advantage of a school choice program that allowed Blanks to attend a private school.

Two years ago, Linton Beck unexpectedly suffered a cardiac arrest in his chemistry class.The Station Camp High School senior is alive today and able to talk about his experience thanks to the quick work of school staff and their training.Beck says a school nurse and teachers responded within minutes to perform CPR and a school resource officer restarted his heart with an automated external defibrillator (AED).

The Tennessee State Board of Education is joining the list of government entities that have expressed an interest in changing the state’s new Third-Grade Retention Law.The board unanimously approved a resolution from board member Ryan Holt on Monday asking state lawmakers to reconsider the law and move back the grades where interventions take place to as early as kindergarten.

Members of the House Higher Education Subcommittee unanimously shot down a bill Monday that would establish prohibitions for public universities and other public institutions of higher education regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.Before the vote, bill sponsor Representative John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, told committee members that DEI promotes discrimination. Ragan said his bill is designed to be colorblind and sex neutral.

When Governor Bill Lee announced his Education Freedom Scholarship Act last year, he made it a point to say the Tennessee General Assembly would work some out critical details like whether participating students will have to take state assessments.That decision has led to three different versions of the Governor’s basic proposal to let up to 20 thousand families use public dollars to attend private school. That question about state assessments is a key difference in each.

Tennessee teachers could receive help with childcare under legislation that advanced from a key House committee Wednesday.Representative Scott Cepicky’s, R-Culleoka, bill would authorize school districts and public charter schools to reimburse teachers 66 percent of their monthly childcare expenses.