The Tennessee Department of Education has appointed Jonathan Criswell as Chief Program Officer, where he will lead school improvement efforts and key programming initiatives across the state.

East Tennessee House candidate Jason Emert has a very personal reason for supporting Governor Bill Lee’s universal school choice plan to let families use public dollars to send their children to private school.

Few issues have united Tennessee Democrats more this year their opposition to Governor Bill Lee’s plan to let families across the state use taxpayer dollars to send their children to private school. That opposition now has company in East Tennessee from across the aisle.

While Gov. Bill Lee’s universal school voucher proposal is clearly a key issue this election year, there is less agreement on where Tennessee voters stand on the contentious education policy, incentivizing many state legislative candidates to avoid discussing the matter.

Governor Bill Lee is stepping into a House primary race to help ensure the seat remains supportive of his school choice proposals.On Thursday Lee announced the endorsement of Clarksville-Montgomery County School Board member Aron Maberry in the House District 68 Republican Primary.

In April Tennessee Governor Bill Lee promised to bring his plan to let parents use taxpayer dollars to send their children to private school back next year, and this week he’s taking a new step to help it pass.The governor announced his endorsement of Blount County attorney Jason Emert in the House District 20 race.  Emert is facing county commissioners Tom Stinnett and Nick Bright in the August Republican primary.

Tennessee has begun its process of accepting applications for $194 million in school safety grants after Gov. Bill Lee signed a $230 million school security bill in early May.The largest portion of the grants are $140 million toward full-time school resource officers at Tennessee schools. The grants will pay up to $75,000 a year for an officer. Local law enforcement agencies are asked to apply for the grants, which will be reviewed by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security on a rolling basis.

This month school districts across the state are continuing a learning strategy that saw success during the pandemic.Summer learning camps played a valuable role in 2021 and in 2022 helping Tennessee students regain ground they lost during virtual learning. Education leaders considered the camps such a success, the Tennessee General Assembly made them permanent with legislation this year.

The Tennessee Education Association (TEA) filed a legal challenge this week that could delay recently passed teacher raises.The TEA’s lawsuit challenges a provision of the “Teacher Paycheck Protection Act” Governor Lee signed last month.  The legislation is set to raise the minimum teacher salary to $42,000 in July, but the TEA is objecting to a section that also prevents unions like it from deducting dues from teacher paychecks.

Governor Bill Lee announced Friday that he’s signed legislation to expand the Education Savings Account to Hamilton County.

The House Finance, Ways, and Means Subcommittee advanced Governor Bill Lee’s legislation to raise teacher salaries without debate or even discussion Wednesday afternoon.The plan would increase teacher salaries to at least $42,000 next school year, $44,500 for the 2024/2025 school year, $47,000 for the 2025/2026 school year, and $50 thousand for the 2026/2027 school year.

Tennessee Senators passed Governor Bill Lee’s legislation to raise teacher salaries on a partisan 25 to 6 vote Thursday.The plan would raise teacher salaries to at least $42,000 next school year, $44,500 for the 2024/2025 school year, $47,000 for the 2025/2026 school year, and $50 thousand for the 2026/2027 school year.

Governor Bill Lee told Middle Tennessee’s business leaders his proposed investments in education are needed to keep Tennessee moving forward.Those comments came Thursday morning as Governor Lee provided his annual address to the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.

Gov. Bill Lee is proposing sweeping changes to enhance school safety across Tennessee, requiring all K-12 public schools to keep their exterior doors locked, or risk losing escalating amounts of state funding with each violation.

Lee stated he will propose an additional investment of $350 million into TISA which would include $125 million for teacher pay raises.

Tennessee is taking steps to ensure that private schools get the opportunity to receive nearly $60 million in unused federal COVID relief funds set aside for them in 2021.But the state is considering loosening some of the strings that the federal government initially attached to those funds. In particular, under several options outlined Monday by Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn, private schools wouldn’t necessarily have to serve a “significant” share of students from low-income families to be eligible for aid, as the Biden administration had required.