Statehouse policy and politics

Challenge to classroom censorship will continue, while fight against the state’s ban on payroll dues collection ends.
‘Tennessee has always been a bellwether state’ for education reform, says Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds
The results suggest that Tennessee’s early investments in summer learning camps and intensive tutoring are paying off.
‘We definitely have noticed that a silencing is happening in our schools,’ said one student.
The ban was inserted by Gov. Lee into his popular plan to gradually increase teacher pay.
But up to 60% of third graders could be at risk of being held back as a stricter reading law kicks in.
Testing do-overs, appeals, summer learning camps come next for struggling readers who want to avoid retention
Former Bush administration official will become the first Hispanic American to hold the post.
Research suggests that implicit biases may contribute to racial disparities in education, but it’s less clear whether training employees makes a difference.
After Senate balks, House agrees to limit expansion to Chattanooga-based Hamilton County Schools.
“They are shrugging their shoulders at us,” said one Nashville mom, “but we are not going to stop.”
GOP lawmakers move quickly to expand Gov. Bill Lee’s education savings account program.
5 questions with an education leader about the law’s rollout as high-stakes testing is set to begin
Justin Pearson says he was fulfilling his duty ‘to elevate the issues when they are being ignored.’
“If more guns in more places made us safer, we’d be the safest state on the planet, and we’re not,” a Nashville dad and gun-control advocate said.
‘We can do something,’ Gov. Lee says: Put armed guards in every public school.
A rally at the Capitol: ‘We don’t need a day to mourn. We need a day of action,’ protester says.
A proposal to take vouchers statewide is also on the table, but unlikely to get a vote this year.
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