Despite several state initiatives in recent years to strengthen the teacher pipeline and fill K-12 classrooms with trained educators, many Tennessee districts are still struggling to meet their staffing needs, a recent report from the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) said.

State leaders criticized Tennessee State University for financial and operational mismanagement during a Thursday State Building Commission Meeting, amid recent fears that the university is running out of money.

Metro Nashville Public Schools has attained a Level 5 growth score from the Tennessee Value Added Assessment System (TVAAS), an announcement from the district said.

Since opening its doors for the 2015-16 school year, LEAD Neely’s Bend Middle School has garnered support from many parents in the Madison area who say the charter school’s approach to education has been beneficial for their children’s academic growth.

One of the key investments in Tennessee’s 2021 special legislative session was the creation of summer learning camps designed to help children overcome pandemic learning losses. The state has continued operating them ever since, and at Wednesday’s state budget hearing, Department of Education Commissioner LIzzette Reynolds made the case for an additional $57.8 million investment.

You can add Tennessee Governor Bill Lee to the growing list of Tennessee lawmakers who support President-elect Donald Trump’s controversial proposal to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. Lee posted a video on social media Wednesday to proclaim his support for the idea, even though the federal department is directly responsible for funneling more than $800 million to Tennessee.

The Hamilton County Schools Board of Education will vote next week to finalize an updated district facilities plan to establish a new career and technical education (CTE) center and combine some schools under one facility, among other proposals.

The Metro Nashville Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve a rezoning plan that effectively diverts students away from LEAD Cameron Middle School

The Tennessee Higher Education Commission is requesting new funding in the state’s higher-ed budget to capitalize on the progress made through other state investments geared toward boosting postsecondary enrollment and expanding workforce training.

With the election season finally behind us, I find myself returning to two key themes after some reflection. First, the national electorate, and its preferences, has fundamentally realigned over the last decade. Our country and our state spoke decisively last Tuesday, and we must listen.

Second, as I reflect on the tremendous progress our state has made in public education over the last twenty years, I look to the future. As Tennesseans, we will all play a part in writing this future, and we will need to make choices.

In the coming weeks, leaders of more than a dozen public charter schools will make the case for why their school’s charter should be renewed for another ten-year term. Charter schools are free public schools operated by an independent contract or “charter” with an authorizing agency like a school district or the state.

This year, five authorizing agencies including school board members with Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), Memphis-Shelby County Schools, Hamilton County Schools, Knox County Schools, along with members of the state-run Tennessee Public Charter School Commission will make those decisions for thirteen charter schools.

Despite the fact that the U.S. Department of Education funnels more than $800 million into Tennessee alone, some leading Republican legislators have signaled support for President-Elect Donald Trump’s promise to eliminate the department altogether.

There have been some mixed reactions to Tennessee lawmakers’ efforts to reintroduce school choice legislation for vouchers that allow public tax dollars to be used for private school enrollment.

Black students in schools and universities across Tennessee and the nation have reported a slew of racist text messages evoking slavery in the days following former President Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election this week.

Despite witnessing a decline in first-time freshmen enrollment, overall enrollment has increased across Tennessee’s public colleges and universities, according to recent data from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.

Voters in Colorado, Kentucky, and Nebraska have decisively rejected efforts to implement school voucher programs that would allow families to use tax dollars for private school enrollment.

Testing didn’t receive a lot of headlines during the debate earlier this year over Governor Bill Lee’s plan to let families use taxpayer dollars to send their children to private school, but it played an important role in why the legislation failed. Members of the State House and Senate advanced different versions of the Governor’s Education Freedom Scholarship, sometimes called vouchers, and couldn’t come to a compromise on those differences. One of the biggest involved a provision in the House version of the legislation that would reduce the number of tests students in public school are required to take.

The Governor’s new voucher plan unveiled Wednesday includes no reduction in testing and additionally requires participants in grades 3 through 11 to either take a nationally standardized achievement test or The Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program.

Republicans will retain their same majority control in the State Senate following this week’s Election Day results.  

None of the 16 even numbered seats up for vote Tuesday had a result that was closer than 16,000 votes, leaving Republicans in control of 27 Senate Seats and Democrats holding six.

Going into Tuesday night’s general election, Tennessee Democrats had high hopes of whittling into the Republican supermajority by winning a handful of House seats that are currently held by Republicans.  On the flipside, GOP leaders targeted growing their supermajority by flipping three Middle Tennessee seats currently held by Democrats.

Neither came to fruition, but one came close.

Last year, the Tennessee General Assembly attracted headlines when members held multiple hearings on the possibility of rejecting up to a billion dollars in federal education funding. Lawmakers ultimately didn’t go forward with that idea, but that doesn’t mean it’s dead. Republican House District 27 candidate Michele Reneau said in a recent interview that she’s open to the possibility of rejecting federal education dollars.