Chalkbeat

See how your Tennessee school performed on the 2026 TCAP

2026-08-27T15:21:12+00:00

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How did your student’s school perform on Tennessee’s TCAP tests?

The Tennessee Department of Education this week released school-level performance data on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program English and math assessments students took last school year.

State- and district-level results released earlier this summer showed overall improvement across the board for the 2025-2025 school year. For the first time, a majority of students met or exceeded expectations on the state’s social studies assessments, while about 43% of students in grades 3-8 scored proficient in math.

While nearly 45% of Tennessee third graders met or exceeded expectations on the English language arts test, data showed those literacy gains dropped off as students progressed through middle school. Overall, 40.6% of students in grades K-8 met proficiency standards in English.

Chalkbeat Tennessee compiled state results for all students in grades 3-8 into a database searchable by school. The database lists proficiency rates for math and English language arts, frequently referred to as the state’s reading test.

The desktop version of the database also includes year-over-year changes in the TCAP proficiency rates.

Search your school here:

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Should Tennessee fully fund special education pre-K programs?

2026-08-25T19:48:10+00:00

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A top committee of Tennessee educators wants lawmakers to include special education prekindergarten students in the state’s public school funding formula.

The recommendation follows pleas from school boards and superintendents who say they’ve been saddled with the price tag of an unfunded mandate because federal and state laws require local school districts to serve students with disabilities as young as 3.

“The problem is, they’ve legally compelled us to serve kids for whom they’re not proportionally funding us,” said Bob Nardo, the executive director at the Libertas School, a Memphis charter school, during a TISA Review Committee meeting this month.

Lawmakers established the committee last year. Made up of top education officials and public school leaders from around the state, the committee is tasked with recommending revisions to the state’s overarching K-12 funding formula and will issue its first report later this fall.

A survey completed this summer showed the majority of committee members ranked special education pre-K funding as a top priority, in addition to revising how the state identifies economically disadvantaged students.

“Early childhood education is widely recognized as an important factor in long-term academic success,” committee member Ron McPherson said in the summer survey. McPherson serves as the finance director at Knox County Schools.

Reworking TISA, the state’s funding formula, would require legislative action. The formula currently only funds Tennessee K-12 students.

“Change the rules about who we’re required to serve, or fund us for the kids we’re required to serve,” Nardo said, noting that his school has an “acute population” of special education students with “severe” needs.

It’s not clear how much weight the TISA Review Committee’s recommendations will carry with state lawmakers.

A previous legislative effort to fold these pre-K students into public school funding stalled in 2025, likely over funding concerns. The legislature estimated that fully funding the programs could cost the state more than $159 million annually.

On Thursday, state Board of Education Chairman Bob Eby sent a formal list of TISA recommendations to Gov. Bill Lee.

The pre-K funding recommendation wasn’t included in the official list, but Eby noted it at the end of the letter.

“This topic, being outside the K-12 formula, was omitted from the list, as it is not necessarily authorized by the statute creating this Committee; however, we wanted you to know of this high level of interest from the committee members,” Eby wrote.

West Tennessee school leaders said last year that they’ve encountered “fundamental” misunderstandings of how special education pre-K programs work and are funded, even among state officials responsible for education oversight.

Tennessee has an $18 million grant fund for special education pre-K costs. But district leaders say the grant program is less stable than recurring funding streams, and it’s still not enough to cover the costs of their special education pre-K classrooms.

“Yes, the grant program exists, and I’m very grateful for it,” Nardo said. “But it’s not actually proportional to the need.”

Special education costs for pre-K classes can balloon quickly, school leaders say.

Lakeland School System in Shelby County currently has 29 special education students to whom it is federally required to offer pre-K services, including specialized teachers and therapies.

But these students must also be educated alongside general education peers to meet federal and state class size and inclusivity regulations. Lakeland is serving an additional 30 general education students in those pre-K classrooms as peer models for its 29 special education students.

Lakeland’s 59 students are spread across four classrooms, each with a special education teacher and two special education assistants.

The cost to run those classrooms? More than $621,000, according to data provided by the district. The district is receiving $15,058 in federal funding and another $124,660 from the Tennessee special education preschool grant, which together cover about 22% of Lakeland’s total costs.

That means Lakeland must dip into its TISA funding — calculated and intended for K-12 students — to pay the remaining $481,282.

Other district officials said the existing funding models do not factor in the costs of peer students and the enrollment increases they bring.

“That’s where we’re getting in a bind,” said TISA Review Committee member Eddie Pruett, the director of schools at Gibson County Special School District. “We have to provide this, and don’t have the funding we need to do it with.”

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Where the 2026 Tennessee gubernatorial candidates stand on education issues

2026-08-21T11:00:01+00:00

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Where do Tennessee’s governor candidates stand on education issues?

Tennessee voters this month tapped Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Democratic Memphis City Council member Jerri Green to face off in the November general election.

In a Chalkbeat candidate survey, both candidates outlined their education platforms and positions on policies such as the state’s third grade reading retention law, teacher retention concerns, and the growing school choice landscape.

Departing Gov. Bill Lee will leave office next year after significantly altering education policy in Tennessee. A staunch school choice advocate, Lee championed earlier universal school voucher programs and created the Education Freedom Scholarship program, which now uses public funds to pay for 35,000 students to attend private schools in the state.

The school choice debate is likely to dominate education policy discussions even after Lee leaves office. Blackburn and Green both pointed to it as the biggest education issue Tennessee faces, though they offered sharply different approaches.

For Blackburn, school choice and expanding the EFS program is a top priority in Tennessee’s education system, which she said “is not built to address the unique needs of every student.” She is also considering altering charter school regulations in the state, criticizing “senseless red tape” she says is complicating charter school operation.

“Tennessee should be the best place in the country to start a school, choose a school, and go to school,” Blackburn said. “It’s my hope that my legacy is that no child is trapped in a school that doesn’t meet their needs.”

Public school funding is top of mind for Green, who pledged to defund the voucher program if elected in November. Green said she would direct that funding to Tennessee public schools to raise teacher pay and expand access to support staff such as counselors and nurses.

“As we continue to take money away from our public school system via the voucher scheme, our teachers are finding resources even more limited, students are losing access to supports they need, and the educational gap in Tennessee is widening,” Green said.

Read Blackburn and Green’s full responses to the Chalkbeat Tennessee survey here:

Should Tennessee expand school vouchers?

Blackburn pledged to expand the EFS program to all Tennessee families if elected governor. The program opened last year with 20,000 scholarships before GOP lawmakers expanded it this year to 35,000.

“Parents know best when it comes to their children’s education, and this program ensures a child’s success is not determined by their zip code,” Blackburn said. “As governor, I will fight to expand Education Freedom Scholarships until no parent has to win the lottery to give their child the education that best suits their unique needs.”

Green said continued voucher expansion makes her worry for “our next generation and rural towns.”

“I’ve been on the road and some of these rural, small towns only have one school,” Green said. “When you take money from that school, which is often the community’s biggest employer, you take money from that community’s future. We’re robbing our children of opportunities to give families who can afford private school welfare.”

With her pro-voucher platform, Blackburn bested two other Republican candidates in the August primary: U.S. Rep. John Rose and state lawmaker Monty Fritts. Fritts opposed vouchers, while Rose supported school choice but called for accountability measures to ensure programs work as intended.

School choice accountability

Students receiving vouchers are not required to take the same state assessments as public school students, making it difficult to determine if students are achieving at the same level as their public school peers.

Green called the program an “unaccountable” system that creates a “glaring, unfair double standard.”

“We are forcing our public school teachers and students to meet rigorous, often unrealistic benchmarks while handing over millions of public taxpayer dollars to private institutions with virtually zero oversight or transparency,” Green said. “If a school accepts public funding, they must be held to public standards. Period. Parents and taxpayers have a right to know exactly how their money is being spent and whether students are thriving.”

Blackburn said she is happy with how the system is set up currently, arguing there is “no greater accountability than a parent’s decision” to choose the right fit for their child.

“Data is important because it ensures accountability and transparency, and I support high standards in testing,” Blackburn said. “The private schools receiving EFS funding have to be accredited by our Department of Education or State Board of Education. That being true, the parents can hold private schools accountable, and we as a state can trust parents to hold private schools accountable.”

How should Tennessee strengthen the educator pipeline?

Tennessee districts are struggling to fill classroom positions with fully credentialed and trained teachers. While vacancies have dropped in recent years, the number of emergency credentialed educators has skyrocketed.

Green proposed creating a new fellowship to recruit young teachers into high-demand areas like special education while increasing support for veteran teachers.

“To keep our veteran teachers from burning out, we must immediately raise teacher pay and hire more support staff — like counselors and nurses — to ease their workload,” Green said. “By properly funding our classrooms, we can give educators the respect and resource-rich environments they deserve to stay in the profession long-term.”

Blackburn pledged to reconsider Tennessee’s current teacher licensure requirements to ensure the state doesn’t lose out on potential educators.

“While we need to hold our teaching professionals to the highest standard, we also need to make certain that our licensing processes aren’t causing us to miss out on individuals who would be great teachers,” Blackburn said.

Third grade reading retention law and state testing

Tennessee’s third grade reading law has sparked controversy over the high-stakes consequences tied to students’ performance on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, or TCAP. The law, which requires significant interventions like summer school or even retention for students who underperform on the ELA assessment, has yielded results. Nearly 45% of Tennessee third graders met or exceeded expectations on the state’s reading assessment this year, the highest performance in nearly a decade.

Green, in response to a Chalkbeat question about whether the law is working as intended or needs reform, criticized the policy for forcing “educators to teach strictly to the test.”

“The pressure is so high that in Memphis, students — including my own son’s classmates — had to retake the exam multiple times on their last day of third grade just to meet rigid requirements,” Green said. “We need reform to eliminate single-test retention, trust our teachers’ professional judgment, and invest in early interventions like universal pre-K. True reading proficiency comes from properly funding our public schools.”

Blackburn praised the state’s “great educational progress” and said literacy interventions should be considered for students before third grade.

“The numbers prove it, programs like the third-grade retention reading law work,” Blackburn said. “Early reading and writing proficiency is essential to keep kids learning in schools and on the right track. By creating checkpoints so that no student falls through the cracks, we can make certain that all Tennessee students are receiving the world-class education they deserve. But certainly, ideally intervention would occur earlier than third grade to have the necessary fundamental literacy skills.”

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

What do Memphis schools need to succeed? Join our virtual event to find out.

2026-08-12T18:46:04+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

With a state takeover looming, Memphis-Shelby County Schools is facing increased pressure to boost student outcomes.

Tennessee Republicans say establishing a nine-member oversight board to seize control of key district decisions will solve years of academic underperformance and district management issues. A federal judge temporarily blocked that takeover in June, with a final court decision still pending.

Regardless of that legal outcome, most Memphians agree that something needs to change in a district where over two-thirds of students don’t pass state reading tests, and only 15% pass in math. Agreeing on the district’s most pressing issues and how to address them is more difficult.

RSVP to join our live virtual event on Aug. 31, where I’ll talk with local education experts about what Memphis schools need to succeed.

This year, MSCS leaders say they’re focused on improving math scores by creating a standardized curriculum and increasing teacher training. They’re also working to reduce chronic absenteeism, another metric that triggered the pending state takeover, by assigning dedicated staff to struggling schools.

The state-appointed oversight board could overhaul the structure of day-to-day learning and teaching in Memphis classrooms. But it’s unclear which approaches the board would take to reform the local school system.

Join Chalkbeat for a robust conversation Aug. 31 at 4 p.m. CT featuring four local education experts and MSCS representatives. We’ll discuss resources the district needs and policies that could improve student outcomes.

How can the new state board help Memphis schools succeed? How can local leaders step up to the plate? Find out at our virtual event.

Sign up here to join the conversation and submit your questions for our panelists.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

5 key takeaways from the final Memphis schools audit report

2026-07-09T22:27:48+00:00

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A massive state audit of Memphis schools showed limited instances of potential spending abuse but widespread mismanagement of district documents and records under previous administrations.

The $6 million probe into Tennessee’s largest school district served as a driving force for the Republican-led state takeover of Memphis-Shelby County Schools, which was temporarily blocked by a federal judge last week.

Takeover proponents have said for months that the audit would reveal extensive fraud, waste, and abuse. The final report released Wednesday identified $54 million in spending under that category, around 1% of the district’s budget from 2021 to 2024. The vast majority of those dollars come from a 2022 custodial contract that the district canceled after one year.

MSCS leaders say they’re committed to improving internal recordkeeping and document processes. Superintendent Roderick Richmond kicked off a plan to update district operations in March, days before the state released initial audit results.

Under the district’s accountability policy, Richmond has 45 days to create a corrective action plan in response to the final audit report. In the meantime, here are five findings from the forensic audit:

$65 million violated district policies, but not criminal law

CliftonLarsonAllen, the accounting firm that conducted the forensic review, found that more than $53 million spent by MSCS in the three-year period was evidence of potential abuse.

An additional $1 million was flagged as potential fraud or waste. Altogether, that’s about 1% of the district’s multibillion-dollar budget from 2021 to 2024, predating Richmond’s tenure as superintendent.

CLA also identified $65 million in spending that didn’t rise to the level of potential abuse but did violate district policies. Most of that money went toward contracts that CLA said did not follow MSCS protocol, such as invoices without signatures or travel reimbursements that weren’t filed on time.

State takeover legislation gives the nine-member oversight board final approval over contract purchases exceeding $50,000 — a hurdle that MSCS leaders said in their plea for a now-issued temporary block would hinder early school operations.

Flagged custodian contract sparked FBI investigation

MSCS leaders were the first to investigate the 2022 contract with custodial company ServiceMaster Clean, which became the largest source of potential abuse spending identified in the audit.

In June 2022, the local school board voted to award ServiceMaster Clean a four-year contract to cover the entire district’s custodial needs. MSCS’ custodial director originally recommended using multiple vendors as was customary, but the former chief of business pushed for one.

That business director was placed on paid leave by MSCS and ultimately resigned in January 2023. MSCS cancelled ServiceMaster Clean’s contract that same year after parents and district staff complained about unclean schools.

A year later, the district launched an internal investigation into the $48 million contract after a whistleblower said it included “kickbacks” to a member of MSCS leadership. Without the proper resources to fully investigate, MSCS referred the case to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

CLA said it wasn’t able to verify the whistleblower’s allegations or find evidence from the FBI search. Auditors said they did not receive financial or procurement records related to the case.

This winter, MSCS school board members awarded a yearlong contract to ServiceMaster Clean, among multiple other custodial vendors, that took effect Jan. 1, 2026. ServiceMaster Clean’s contract passed without debate, while a different company raised ethical and performance concerns after 30 schools went uncleaned during the first month of the year.

Memphis school board may have run afoul of state Open Meetings Act

MSCS board members may have violated state public meetings laws during the 2021 to 2024 time period, according to the forensic audit.

CLA found multiple email exchanges among board members and the district’s legal counsel that may have influenced district decisions, including discussions on superintendent searches and contract negotiations.

“While the nature and extent of deliberation varied across the instances, the observed patterns reflect a risk that Board business was discussed, advanced, or shaped outside the public meeting process,” the audit report says.

That could violate the Tennessee Open Meetings Act, according to CLA.

CLA also reported one closed-session meeting that was not included in the board’s meeting minutes. Those incidents “may contribute to the appearance that decisions were being developed outside of public view,” auditors wrote.

Leadership instability weakened district processes, operations

From July 2021 to June 2024, MSCS cycled through three superintendents, which CLA said “eroded institutional knowledge” and led to inefficient operations and increased financial risks.

Auditors said they conducted more than 142 interviews because staff turnover left a “lack of consistent knowledge” across the district. The report also says that MSCS employees pointed to former Superintendent Marie Feagins’ decision to fire more than 1,000 district staff as contributing to that problem.

Now, MSCS is facing another leadership upheaval because of the impending state takeover, championed by the same legislators who pushed for the forensic audit. With less than a month until the first day of classes, it’s unclear whether the district or a state-appointed board will have ultimate authority over district decisions.

The nine-member oversight board is currently blocked by a federal court order, with no hearing date set. But that is just an early step in the ongoing lawsuit filed by MSCS and Shelby County leaders challenging the takeover.

Outdated policies, missing records found throughout MSCS departments

One of the most notable consequences of leadership instability, CLA says, was widespread disorganization across district departments and operations.

“Many critical processes operate without formally documented, current, and standardized procedures,” the final report says. And procedures that do exist are often outdated or unclear, auditors found, many unassigned to a specific MSCS employee for management.

CLA also reported that district records of contracts and employee files were maintained inconsistently and sometimes haphazardly. That led to delays and difficulties in conducting the audit, the firm said. It also leads to operational errors, such as the district paying two vendors for the same job.

The audit report notes that MSCS employees described a substantial change to the district’s contract policies under Feagins. According to CLA, Feagins replaced the fully electronic contract approval system with a manual, color-coded folder system that organized contracts by level of importance until they were approved and uploaded online.

Richmond and other MSCS leaders have acknowledged these internal issues in recent months and launched a live website to share real-time upgrades to district policies and systems. Most of those projects are in progress or haven’t been started, according to the site.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee releases final results of Memphis schools forensic audit

2026-07-08T18:27:52+00:00

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Long-awaited results from the state-ordered forensic audit of Memphis-Shelby County Schools were released Wednesday as the legal battle continues over who will lead the district for the next four years.

The 667-page report on district finances and operations, completed June 30, identified over $54 million in MSCS spending as evidence of potential fraud, waste, or abuse. State Comptroller Jason Mumpower said the audit shows not one-off mistakes but “systemic failures” in district management from 2021 to 2024.

More than $48 million of that spending comes from a single custodial contract granted to ServiceMaster Clean in 2022, despite initial recommendations to hire multiple vendors for custodial services across the district. The contract was canceled a year later after school staff and families complained about unclean schools.

An earlier internal district audit flagged the contract after a whistleblower alleged its cost was inflated to account for “kickbacks.” As the district investigated, the chief of business operations was placed on administrative leave and later resigned. An operations sourcing manager also resigned from the district after internal auditors requested contract paperwork.

According to the state audit, the district referred the matter to the FBI. Auditors from CliftonLarsonAllen, or CLA, the accounting firm that conducted the forensic review, said they could not verify the outcome of that case or verify the allegations made in the initial audit.

CLA also identified more than $65 million in spending that violated district policies but did not rise to the level of waste, fraud, or abuse. And the final report highlights fragmented recordkeeping systems and internal control deficiencies across multiple departments.

Part of that is due to consistent leadership turnover, the audit says, which “impacted the retention of staff, eroded institutional knowledge, [and] created inefficiencies in the organizational stability” of the district. That includes multiple invoices without proper approval and instances of two vendors hired to do the same job.

In a statement posted on X, MSCS emphasized that the audit covers a time period predating current leadership.

“The work to strengthen our organization did not begin with this audit,” the statement says. “Strengthening oversight, enhancing internal controls, and improving operational practices, and increasing accountability have been ongoing priorities for the District.”

CLA also said that MSCS’ local school board and legal counsel had multiple email conversations that potentially violate Tennessee’s Open Meetings Act, including discussions on superintendent searches and contract negotiations.

“The observed patterns reflect a risk that Board business was discussed, advanced, or shaped outside the public meeting process,” the final report says.

Initial findings from the audit released in April spurred the passage of MSCS’ state takeover law. But the nine-member oversight board that Tennessee Republicans say will correct district mismanagement is temporarily unable to assume control over key MSCS decisions. A federal judge issued an order blocking the board’s authority on June 30, the night before its four-year tenure was set to begin.

The ruling was an early win for MSCS and the local government leaders who filed a lawsuit challenging the takeover as unconstitutional last month. The temporary block will remain in place at least until the court holds a full hearing, which has not been scheduled.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton on Wednesday called on Memphis and Shelby County parents to ask the board to withdraw the lawsuit, saying “time is of the essence” to turn the district around.

“They need to withdraw their lawsuit. Otherwise, all they’re doing is delaying the change that is needed in their school system,” Sexton said.

The preliminary audit findings, released when the review was only 25% complete, identified more than $1 million in MSCS spending that auditors considered waste or abuse over a three-year period. That represents less than 1% of the Memphis district’s operating budget.

The findings also pointed to issues with leadership instability and staff retention that auditors said contributed to a lack of institutional knowledge and weaknesses in accountability and recordkeeping. MSCS has had four superintendents in the past five years, a trend Superintendent Roderick Richmond has said has undermined public trust and district management.

Days before the initial results were released, MSCS leaders adopted plans to strengthen internal controls and modernize document systems. Richmond pledged that more than 80% of the district’s employee files and 95% of payroll documentation would be complete by the summer.

According to the district’s live accountability website, most of those goals are in progress or haven’t been started yet. An MSCS representative told Chalkbeat Tuesday there will be an updated report following the final audit release.

Under the district’s accountability plan, Richmond has 45 days to identify the key issues outlined in the final report and present a corrective action plan to the board.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Are major changes coming to Tennessee teacher licensure requirements?

2026-07-08T05:03:22+00:00

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Significant changes could be on the horizon for Tennessee teaching licensure testing requirements.

The Tennessee State Board of Education is considering a policy to create alternate pathways to pass specialty area content assessments like the PRAXIS exam and other content assessments, including the National Evaluation Series.

This change would join a new policy, effective this month, that exempts trainee teachers working in state-approved student teaching placements from the edTPA, a previously required portfolio-based assessment that demonstrates readiness to lead a classroom.

Supporters of the proposed policy, including teacher advocacy organizations in Tennessee, say the change could make it easier for aspiring teachers to enter and stay in the profession.

The change would apply to aspiring teachers as well as current educators looking to advance or reactivate a lapsed license.

High turnover and attrition continue in part to drive Tennessee’s teacher pipeline issues, and fewer aspiring teachers have entered the workforce in recent years. In the past five years, Tennessee has increasingly relied on staffing classrooms with unlicensed teachers working on emergency credentials.

But some critics of the proposed policy change are concerned about relaxing expectations for licensure.

While the speciality area assessments would still be required for licensure for some teacher candidates, those who fail on the first attempt would no longer have to retake the entire exam. Instead, they could pass shorter assessments covering only the material they previously failed to master.

The state board in May advanced the proposed policy for further discussion, but it could introduce more changes before a final reading.

While at least one state board member expressed concern about relaxing licensure requirements, teacher advocates in Tennessee say the new policy could provide flexibility in a state grappling with teacher shortages and educator pipeline challenges.

At a state board meeting earlier this summer, board member Krissi McInturff said she worried the proposal goes “too far” and questioned if it is in the best interest of students to alter the standards.

“I feel like we’re watering down what a teaching certificate would look like if we allow teachers to not be able to pass the content they’re supposed to be teaching and be masters of,” said McInturff, the principal of a Washington County elementary school.

Tennessee teacher advocates appear supportive of the proposed changes.

Tonya Coats, executive director of the Tennessee Education Association, said earlier this summer that the organization appreciates a willingness from state officials to explore different options for aspiring teachers to prove their competency in light of teacher vacancy issues.

“At the same time, any change to licensure requirements must be approached carefully and deliberately,” Coats added. “Tennessee students deserve educators who possess strong content knowledge and are fully prepared for the classroom. Flexibility cannot come at the expense of quality or weaken confidence in the profession.”

Though teacher vacancies have declined since 2023, the state has become increasingly reliant on teachers with emergency credentials, temporary permits that allow unlicensed teachers to work in the classroom.. The number of temporarily credentialed teachers has increased by more than 300% over the last five years.

The Tennessee Department of Education issued more than 6,000 emergency credentials in the last school year alone.

Correction: An earlier version of this story previously stated that the Tennessee State Board of Education was considering a proposed policy to exempt some students from the edTPA. That policy was implemented on July 1.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis schools takeover blocked by judge in temporary order

2026-07-01T17:30:43+00:00

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A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Memphis school takeover board’s authority after school officials said it could delay the start of the school year or even force building closures as the district prepares to welcome students back to class in less than five weeks.

Memphis-Shelby County school board members and local officials asked a federal judge Tuesday to temporarily halt the oversight board or, at minimum, block its power to disrupt contract payments and fire top district officials ahead of the 2026-27 school year, which begins Aug. 3.

Hours later, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. granted the temporary restraining order, ordering the state and MSCS to “maintain the STATUS QUO before” the new takeover law took effect. The temporary order is an early win for the district and Shelby County officials, who sued over the new oversight board last month.

Under the takeover law, the oversight board – which took control July 1 – must approve every purchase over $50,000. Previous district policy allowed the superintendent or a designated deputy to approve contracts under $100,000, while school board approval was needed for larger contracts.

The new oversight board control could significantly hinder MSCS’ ability to respond quickly to start-of-school emergencies, including HVAC failures, creating “immediate operational deadlock” during one of the district’s busiest times of year, the district alleged in Tuesday’s court filing.

“School cannot be conducted in buildings that do not have functioning air conditioning,” the court filing says. “A lapse of up to three weeks while these expenses are submitted to and approved by the Oversight Board will be detrimental to student instruction.”

Oversight Board Chair Billy Orgel told Chalkbeat that the board’s full meeting set for this afternoon is cancelled, delaying votes on an executive director contract and initial steps for the board’s expected assessment of MSCS operations. The takeover’s board work will now be paused indefinitely pending a full federal court hearing, which has not yet been set.

The nine-member oversight board of political appointees has sweeping authority over the state’s largest school district, but the board was formed with no existing infrastructure to support its new work just weeks before a new school year.

The board has yet to meet in Memphis. It held its first meeting in June in a Nashville conference room at the state Capitol and was in the process of hiring staff and legal counsel when the temporary restraining order was issued.

In their Tuesday court filing, MSCS leaders argued the lack of infrastructure leaves the district without a clear process for obtaining timely contract and purchase approvals needed to keep the school year on schedule. With classes beginning in about a month, they wrote, “there has not even been the suggestion of a plan for such a process.”

That leaves the district without a designated point of contact for emergency purchases, according to the court filing. District leaders argued the oversight board could backlog contracts the school board approved Monday night that are essential to district operations, including school bus transportation services and online information systems.

“Based on my experiences in prior years, the School District’s inability to respond efficiently to HVAC outages or other emergencies will likely require school closures or interrupt instruction at the start of the school year,” Tito Langston, the district’s chief academic officer, said in an affidavit filed Tuesday.

The oversight board also has the ability to veto MSCS’ proposed budget, which totals more than $1.7 billion and includes bonuses for veteran teachers and facilities costs. The budget has not yet been approved by the Shelby County Commission, so it’s unclear whether the board could stop it from being adopted.

This story has been updated to include information about a cancelled state board meeting.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

MSCS will pay the state oversight board’s salary. But who will fund its work?

2026-06-26T18:55:35+00:00

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Tennessee is bringing in a state oversight board to control Memphis school decisions. But it’s still unclear how much of the board’s work will be paid for by the state and how much will fall to Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Chalkbeat confirmed that Memphis-Shelby County Schools will use its own nearly $2 billion budget to pay the salaries of the nine state-appointed board members. Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, one of the original bill sponsors, said each member will receive $30,000, the same amount paid to locally elected school board members.

As for funding the oversight board’s operations, there are two potential sources of money. Starting July 1, the oversight board could amend MSCS’ local budget for any expenses it deems necessary, White said. The board will also have access to a designated state reserve fund totaling between $500,000 and $1 million.

The state takeover law passed this spring mandates the Tennessee Department of Education to set aside that money. White said the reserve fund is intended to cover the oversight board’s “startup costs” during its first 90 days in office, such as hiring an executive director.

On Friday, state board members began the process to hire legal counsel. That came on the same day that MSCS added each individual oversight board member to a lawsuit challenging the takeover law as unconstitutional.

Beyond board salaries, White said he couldn’t specify which expenses would be covered by the state reserve fund and which would come from the local district budget. The law establishing the reserve fund appears to place no restrictions on how the money can be spent.

Access to state funding doesn’t end after those first few months. White said the oversight board can continue using the reserve fund for expenses “needed to accelerate the activities of the transformation plan, communications, legal support, and other activities of the board that may need funding outside of general district contracting.”

It’s not yet entirely clear how the board can access the state funds. White, one of the law’s architects, said the board will not have to apply to draw down the funds. But a Tennessee Department of Education spokesperson indicated the board will have to apply for grants to access funds.

Billy Orgel, who chairs the state oversight board, said he’s not afraid to use district money for future oversight board plans. He said it’s normal for MSCS leaders to amend the district budget each year.

“We’re a new state agency,” Orgel said. “So we’re going to have to figure this out. Our state employees and departments will help us.”

The law says any state money not spent by the oversight board this year will carry over to the next. The MSCS oversight board will remain in place for at least the next four years.

Orgel confirmed Thursday that the oversight board is a state body after initial confusion over whether it would be designated as a local body. Supporters of the board have repeatedly said the new body is not a state takeover, despite being appointed by the state’s top elected Republicans.

The oversight board will be subject to Tennessee’s transparency laws for public bodies, including open meetings and public records requirements.

This story has been updated to include information from Friday’s state oversight board meeting and MSCS’ lawsuit.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools sue Tennessee over state takeover

2026-06-19T13:05:57+00:00

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Memphis-Shelby County school leaders are suing top Tennessee Republicans in an effort to stop a new takeover law from diverting power away from the locally elected school board to a new board of political appointees.

The district, alongside the Shelby County Commission and all nine individual MSCS board members, filed a lawsuit in federal court late Thursday night – hours after the Republican-appointed oversight board met for the first time in Nashville.

Gov. Bill Lee, who’s named directly in the lawsuit, signed the takeover legislation into law in late May.

“Every child deserves the opportunity to succeed, and throughout the Lee Administration, we’ve made significant investments to ensure students in Shelby County receive a quality education,” a Lee spokesperson said Friday. “Gov. Lee remains committed to strengthening outcomes and expanding pathways to success for students and families.”

With the law in effect, top Republican lawmakers appointed a nine-member oversight board that will seize control of key district decisions. That intervention “dismantles” local education systems and strips the county government of its authority to approve school budgets, MSCS argues in the lawsuit.

It also violates the Fourteenth Amendment and the Tennessee Constitution, according to the new filing. Local leaders are seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the takeover board from making any decisions once their term starts in less than two weeks.

“Once the Oversight Board is constituted and acts, the consequences cannot be undone,” the lawsuit says. “The democratic right of Shelby County’s voters to elect representatives who actually govern cannot be restored through damages or retrospective relief.”

House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, who chose the other four oversight board members, are also named in the lawsuit, alongside the state education commissioner.

Board members and local residents have criticized the MSCS takeover for usurping power from the local school board elected by Memphis voters. The new oversight board will have final say over superintendent and staff contracts, along with MSCS’ annual budget.

The local board approved a $1.7 billion budget draft in late May, but it’s unclear whether that will be subjected to the oversight board’s intervention. The new oversight board plans to meet again in less than three weeks, and they’re waiting for full results from a billion-dollar forensic audit that may guide their initial decisions in the district.

Not all Memphians are opposed to the state takeover. Intervention advocates cite years of academic underperformance and leadership instability in the district, which some say came to head after the local school board suddenly fired former Superintendent Marie Feagins in January 2025.

MSCS has had four superintendents in the past five years. And while the district has earned the highest score in state measures of student growth for the past four years, over 75% of Memphis students failed to achieve proficiency in reading and math last year.

Some community members told Chalkbeat they are doubtful a lawsuit will succeed in reversing the takeover legislation, a sentiment echoed by GOP lawmakers who sponsored the effort. The Shelby County Commission will front the cost of the lawsuit because of a law passed in late April that prevents the school district from funding a lawsuit against state accountability measures.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Former Memphis-Shelby County school board chair will lead new oversight board

2026-06-18T17:41:40+00:00

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Former Memphis-Shelby County school board chair Billy Orgel will chair the new Memphis schools oversight board as it prepares to take over most major decisions from the locally elected school board.

The oversight board met for the first time at the state Capitol in Nashville on Thursday to elect officers and form standing committees. The board’s work officially begins on July 1, marking a new era in Tennessee public education where political appointees will control budgets, leadership, and broad academic controls in certain underperforming school districts.

Orgel said Thursday the new oversight board can demand change from the school system, which “will have to answer to us.”

“We answer to the students of this community and our responsibility to them,” Orgel, who served on the MSCS board between 2011 and 2022, said.

Memphis, the state’s largest school district, will now operate under two governing bodies, the new oversight board and the existing, elected school board. But the oversight board has the authority to essentially overrule the elected board on most major decisions, in addition to exerting control over the superintendent’s contract and other staffing decisions.

Though the first meeting was largely procedural, Orgel signaled the board may consider accelerating school closures in the district, noting underenrolled schools are limited at what they can offer their students.

Current Superintendent Roderick Richmond has spearheaded an ongoing plan to close 15 schools by 2028.

“That’ll be up to us to decide if that’s quick enough,” Orgel said.

Richmond’s plan is a more conservative approach to underenrollment and languishing facilities issues than some district leaders, including new oversight board member Dorsey Hopson, have recommended. Hopson, who served as superintendent of the district while Orgel was on the school board, recommended the district close almost 30 schools. That plan was never implemented after Hopson left the district.

Two recent state takeovers in Texas, which Tennessee proponents have often said they want to use as models for MSCS, led to early school closures.

The new board will soon have a comprehensive plan to make needed changes in the district, according to Tennessee Comptroller Jason Mumpower. The Tennessee-funded external audit of district finances and governance is nearly finished, Mumpower said Thursday, and he expects the full 700-page audit to be released in the coming weeks.

Mumpower and Republican lawmakers released interim findings this spring from the ongoing audit, in part to accelerate the pending state legislation that established the new oversight board.

The audit, which was only 25% complete when the interim results were released in April, found more than $1.1 million in contract and payroll transactions that auditors say are “consistent with waste or abuse.” Another $1.7 million in transactions violated district policies but did not rise to the level of waste or abuse, according to the comptroller’s office.

That total is less than 1% of the Memphis district’s operating budget over the three-year period the audit covered.

A lingering question for the new oversight board is whether it is considered a state board or a local board, which will affect certain rules around meetings. State officials did not have an answer at Thursday’s meeting, though it mirrored a state board meeting in a Tennessee Capitol conference room.

Supporters of the new board, including Lee and other Republican lawmakers, have argued the new board represents local intervention into the state’s largest school system. All but one of the new board members are longtime Memphis residents, and at least four members have teaching or administrative experience within the school system.

The oversight board members can be removed from the board at any time, for any reason, by the governor and two legislative speakers. The governor and lieutenant governor are both leaving office next year.

The board committed to holding future meetings in Memphis, making them more accessible to MSCS families. It is eyeing July 7 as the next meeting date, though the board has several large administrative tasks to tackle to become fully operational.

The board has the authority to hold its meetings in the MSCS district office building. Nisha Powers, who was named the board secretary, questioned if it was “appropriate” to begin meetings on district property, a nod at potential tensions between the new board and an elected school board that has vowed to sue over the takeover.

Still, the new oversight board was applauded on Thursday by several community groups including parent advocacy organization Memphis Lift .

“Y’all are going to have to get rid of some folks, point blank,” Memphis Lift Executive Director Sarah Carpenter said. “Y’all need to know the community is going to cover y’all.”

The new oversight board members are:

Chair Billy Orgel, a local developer and former Memphis-Shelby County school board member.
Vice-Chair Shanea McKinney of Cigna, who is a member of the University of Tennessee’s board of trustees.
Secretary Nisha Powers, who leads a Memphis civil engineering firm and has served on the Tennessee board of regents.
Dorsey Hopson, a former district superintendent.
Dedrick Brittenum Jr., a Memphis lawyer and former councilman.
Beverly Robertson, a marketing executive and former president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce.
Tyrone Burroughs, a Memphis CEO who sits on the Tennessee Lottery Commission and the Youth Villages board of directors.
David Mansouri, the sole board member who is not a Shelby County resident. Mansouri is the Nashville-based leader of one of Tennessee’s most influential education advocacy organizations.
Karen Vogelsang, a former Memphis teacher and 2014 Tennessee Teacher of the Year who now runs a literacy nonprofit.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Former Teacher of the Year tapped for Memphis schools takeover board ahead of first meeting

2026-06-16T20:15:11+00:00

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Former Tennessee Teacher of the Year Karen Vogelsang was appointed Tuesday to the final seat on the incoming Memphis schools oversight board, which will soon wield sweeping authority over the state’s largest school district for the next four years.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton selected Vogelsang, a former mortgage banker turned educator, two days before the board is scheduled to hold its first meeting Thursday.

Vogelsang received the state’s top teacher honor in 2014, when she was teaching at Keystone Elementary School. She taught in Memphis-Shelby County elementary schools for 15 years, ending her tenure in 2018.

“The first time I had the opportunity to teach it was electrifying; I knew then I had made the right decision to become a teacher,” Vogelsang told Chalkbeat in 2015.

She now works as a self-employed early childhood literacy consultant and served as director of the Memphis tutoring nonprofit ARISE2Read in 2024.

Vogelsang is the third appointee to the board that has direct experience working with Memphis-Shelby County Schools in the classroom or at the administrative level.

The nine-member board, appointed by the state’s top Republican lawmakers, will soon take decision-making power from the locally elected school board on district issues ranging from the superintendent’s contract and overall budget to curriculum decisions.

The oversight board also includes:

Billy Orgel, a local developer and former Memphis-Shelby County school board member.
Dorsey Hopson, a former district superintendent.
Dedrick Brittenum Jr., a Memphis lawyer and former councilman.
Shanea McKinney of Cigna, who is a member of the University of Tennessee’s board of trustees.
Nisha Powers, who leads a Memphis civil engineering firm and has served on the Tennessee board of regents.
Beverly Robertson, a marketing executive and former president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce.
Tyrone Burroughs, a Memphis CEO who sits on the Tennessee Lottery Commission and the Youth Villages board of directors.
David Mansouri, the sole board member who is not a Shelby County resident. Mansouri is the Nashville-based leader of one of Tennessee’s most influential education advocacy organizations.

All but one of the appointees live in Shelby County, as required under the law Tennessee General Assembly Republicans passed this year creating oversight boards for districts with academic performance and administrative issues.

Republican supporters of the plan have argued it is not a state takeover of the local school district because most of the board’s members are local residents. Still, lawmakers have repeatedly pointed to Houston’s state takeover as a model for Memphis.

The Memphis-Shelby County school board earlier this year vowed to sue the state over the effort. Opponents argue the General Assembly has unfairly targeted Memphis by seizing authority from local elected leaders to give to political appointees.

Republican lawmakers say they hope to solve Memphis’ low academic achievement with the takeover. Last year, over 75% of Memphis students failed to achieve proficiency in reading and math, though the district earned high marks in academic growth, a measure of improvement over time.

One of the oversight board’s first responsibilities will be conducting a comprehensive assessment of MSCS staff, students, and buildings to develop a transformation plan. It’s unclear whether the new board will have any control over the 2026-27 budget, which has been approved by the school board but has not been finalized by the Shelby County Commission.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

What’s in store for the Memphis school takeover? Houston’s timeline offers clues.

2026-06-16T11:00:00+00:00

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Two weeks after Texas took over the Houston school district, newly selected Superintendent Mike Miles announced his plans to overhaul 28 of the district’s lowest performing schools.

He dubbed the group the New Education System, promising to raise teacher pay for certain subjects and create a regimented new curriculum. Over 50 additional schools joined the program voluntarily before the 2023-24 school year started.

Every teacher in those schools had to reapply for their positions. Libraries became discipline centers and classrooms for advanced students. And the school hours were extended to help working parents, with teachers on the hook for before- and afterschool care.

In just the first four months after being appointed on June 1, Miles ushered in significant instructional and staffing changes to the tune of a $250 million deficit that first year.

Top Tennessee Republicans have heralded Houston’s intervention as a model they want to replicate in the Memphis-Shelby County district. In the first two years of the takeover, more Houston students achieved proficiency on state reading and math tests, and no school received an “F” rating in the state accountability system. But the Houston teachers union and some education experts say those results don’t reflect the degree of student improvement Tennessee leaders want to see.

On the eve of MSCS’ state takeover, Houston’s timeline might offer a glimpse into the possible changes that Tennessee’s nine-member appointed oversight board could make. The final member still needs to be selected by House Speaker Cameron Sexton before the board can officially meet.

MSCS leaders, and some district charter schools, have already moved to implement some of the Houston-style changes in the past couple of years, including offering teacher bonuses and standardizing curriculum.

Here are five main changes that Miles, backed by Houston’s own state-appointed board, implemented in the local district in the first four months:

All teachers forced to reapply, boosting uncertified rates

Under Miles’ direction, every teacher in the Houston schools targeted for intervention had to reapply for their position in summer 2023. Those who were hired in the New Education System, or NES schools, received a $10,000 bonus.

Nearly half of the employees at the original 28 NES schools didn’t return to their schools in fall 2023. More than two-thirds of the staff changed at some schools.

Miles said the goal of a teacher restructuring was to put the most effective teachers in the lowest performing schools. But uncertified teachers made up a large number of the new placements, an issue that MSCS already struggles with.

The Memphis district succeeded in reducing teacher vacancies this year under Superintendent Roderick Richmond, but still relies heavily on teachers with conditional licenses and online educators.

Richmond proposed a budget this year that includes $1,000 bonuses for teachers who stay in their current schools next year and bumps that stipend to $2,500 for those who stay in the district’s lowest performing schools. The county commission still has to approve the budget.

Central office position cuts fall flat

Miles promised to pay for significant boosts in teacher salaries by eliminating unnecessary central office positions.

In July 2023, he said his team had fired nearly 700 people in a reorganization of the central office, and planned to close 1,675 more vacant roles. But data showed that only 225 central office positions were eliminated by early August.

And most of those came from lower paying departments, while Miles added nearly 100 more employees who were making more than $150,000.

Former MSCS Superintendent Marie Feagins, whose sudden firing in 2025 heightened calls for a state intervention, made drastic cuts to the district’s central office during her tenure. She eliminated over 1,000 positions, a significant amount of them administrative, during her first few months.

That move garnered praise from some Memphis parents. But current leaders say it also contributed to a loss of institutional knowledge in MSCS and a breakdown of internal audit systems. Those were two key early findings in the forensic audit ordered by Tennessee lawmakers, including those leading state takeover pushes.

Strict classroom curriculum redesigned by district officials

Students at the 85 Houston NES schools returned for the 2023-2024 school year to an entirely new classroom structure and new required reading and math curriculums designed by Miles’ academics team.

Ticking timers dictated the class pace. Teachers were required to incorporate student response exercises every four minutes. And each class period ended with a short quiz.

That’s a similar classroom model reported by MSCS charter schools where student math achievement has skyrocketed post-pandemic. Tennessee education nonprofit SCORE, whose CEO will serve on the Memphis oversight board, argued in a recent report that the model is replicable district-wide.

In Houston, students who misbehaved in class were sent to libraries that had been transformed into “cool-down” spaces and also served as extra classrooms for advanced students to complete more challenging work. Those changes often bled into schools that weren’t targeted for intervention.

Houston students shared mixed reactions to the new policies, saying teachers inconsistently implemented the changes depending on who was observing the classroom. They also described stricter cellphone and tardiness policies. Some criticized the new student engagement requirements as ineffective and cited increased busywork in class.

Some teachers scheduled for significant raises

One month after taking office, Miles unveiled a Vision 2035 plan that completely rewrote the city’s teacher compensation system.

Starting in fall 2025, teachers began receiving raises based on performance instead of experience. That plan translated to roughly $65,000 salaries for unsatisfactory teachers and up to $104,000 for exemplary teachers. In years past, salaries ranged from $61,500 to around $80,000. On average, MSCS teachers earn just over $65,000 per year. The district’s starting salary is just over $50,000.

Base salaries for teachers at the designated NES schools also depend on the subject and grade level taught, with reading and math educators making thousands of dollars more than those who teach social studies or elective courses.

By fall 2026, all Houston teachers will be placed on a pay-for-performance model that determines base salaries, not just raises, by a teacher’s effectiveness level.

A different approach to school wraparound services

In his early months, Miles rolled out seven Sunrise Centers designed to serve Houston’s struggling students and families.

At the new resource hubs, community nonprofits ran food pantries and extracurricular programs like gardening and offered mental health services. The district paid some students to tutor their peers.

Miles budgeted around $12 million for the centers. But by the end of his first school year as superintendent, Houston public schools faced a $450 million budget deficit, which led to Miles cutting over 100 wraparound specialists in school buildings who focused on addressing issues like hunger and homelessness.

More than three-quarters of Houston students are economically disadvantaged compared to around 60% of MSCS students. Both districts predominantly serve families of color, with 60% of Houston’s student population being Hispanic and 74% of MSCS’ students being Black. Hispanic enrollment in Memphis schools is rising and will be 20% of the student population this year.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Federal lawsuit over Tennessee religious charter school ban will move forward

2026-06-11T19:33:07+00:00

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A Tennessee lawsuit challenging the Knox County Board of Education over the state’s religious charter school ban is heading to trial after a federal judge denied the board’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

The Wilberforce Academy of Knoxville sued the school board last year after the local district asked it to affirm it planned to open a non-religious school, per state law.

In federal court filings, the school board argued Wilberforce never actually submitted a charter school application, nor has it targeted state officials in its lawsuit, despite the school board following state law enforced by the Tennessee Department of Education. The board had asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit entirely.

But U.S. District Judge Charles E. Atchley, Jr. in late May ruled Wilberforce didn’t have to submit an actual application to challenge an “allegedly unconstitutional barrier” to applying.

Neither party has commented on the lawsuit.

Tennessee officials have left the Knox County board on its own to defend the state law, which Atchley noted in his May opinion.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti declined to intervene in the lawsuit earlier this year, months after he published a legal opinion that argued there was “no compelling interest” in excluding religious charter schools from participating in a “public benefit.”

Skrmetti’s office is also currently paying Wilberforce’s main attorney $400 per hour in a separate case to help Tennessee defend its criminal abortion ban against ongoing legal challenges.

The legal fight over religious charter schools in Tennessee – and the lack thereof from state officials – signal major changes may be on the horizon for the state’s charter landscape.

This spring, lawmakers signed off on a new state law that now allows religious colleges and universities to operate public charter schools. Though the new law currently blocks those institutions from providing religious curriculum in their charter schools, it opens the door to a new class of charter operators in the state that could quickly stand up religious charters if the state’s religious charter ban law were to fall.

And now public dollars are flowing to private religious schools through Tennessee’s voucher program, which is paying millions in private school tuition.

In its lawsuit, Wilberforce focuses in part on this program, arguing the public education funds now funding private religious tuition support the case that religious charters should be included in public funding.

“This enshrined hostility to religious charter schools stands in marked contrast to Tennessee’s recent support of religious schools through its Education Freedom Scholarship Program,” a Wilberforce attorney argued in court documents last year.

A full trial on the lawsuit is scheduled for January 2027, and a group of Tennessee parents and non-religious charter school officials have also intervened in the lawsuit to oppose Wilberforce’s claims.

They have argued opening the door to religious charter schools will result in charter schools being “classified and treated as private schools,” which could effect on things like Tennessee’s public school funding formula and disability protections.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Former Memphis school board member, local lawyer tapped for new schools oversight board

2026-05-26T16:36:27+00:00

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Former Memphis-Shelby County school board member and local businessman Billy Orgel has been appointed to the nine-person oversight board that will seize control of Memphis-Shelby County Schools in a state-led takeover.

On Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally appointed Orgel and Memphis attorney Dedrick Brittenum, Jr. to the board, joining five appointments Gov. Bill Lee made last week. Their official appointment letters state their terms on the board begin immediately.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton will make the two remaining appointments.

Orgel, the president and CEO of Tower Ventures, began serving on the newly merged Memphis-Shelby County school board in 2011, at one time chairing it. He held the East Memphis District 8 seat for more than a decade before deciding not to seek reelection in 2022.

Orgel’s time on the board overlapped with the tenure of then-Superintendent Dorsey Hopson. The governor appointed Hopson, who served as Memphis superintendent from 2013 to early 2019, last week to serve on the board. Hopson is a partner at the City Fund, an organization founded in 2018 to promote the portfolio model of running schools that promotes school choice and charter school expansion.

Brittenum has been a Memphis business and property lawyer for decades and opened his private practice in 2012. He served as the District 4 representative on the Memphis City Council from 2005-2007 and led the Memphis Light, Gas and Water board of commissioners in 2012. He was also the chair of Memphis’ Civil Service Commission.

The governor’s other four appointees are Shanea McKinney of Cigna, who is a member of the University of Tennessee’s board of trustees; Nisha Powers, who leads a Memphis civil engineering firm and has served on the Tennessee board of regents; Beverly Robertson, a marketing executive and former president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce; and Tyrone Burroughs, a Memphis CEO who sits on the Tennessee Lottery Commission and the Youth Villages board of directors.

Those oversight board members will control key district decisions until June 2030, when their terms are set to expire. Under the state takeover bill signed into law last week by Gov. Bill Lee, the GOP-appointed board will have final say over MSCS’ budget and contracts over $50,000, as well as the hiring and firing of the superintendent.

The school board has signaled it may sue over the politically appointed takeover board. But Rep. Mark White, a Republican from Memphis who sponsored the takeover bill, said he’s confident that legal action will fail.

One of the first responsibilities of the oversight board will be to conduct a comprehensive assessment of MSCS staff, students, and buildings to make a “transformation plan.” It’s unclear whether the new board will have any control over the 2026-27 budget, which is set for a final vote from the board on Tuesday night.

The oversight board can direct or prohibit the superintendent to take any action and can fire the school leader with cause if they refuse. It can require the same of local board members and act on behalf of the MSCS board if they refuse to follow instructions.

The state-appointed board can also fire any MSCS employee with or without cause, including tenured teachers and principals, without giving them proper due process.

The oversight board appointments come as Memphis voters are in the middle of a local board election, with incumbents Michelle McKissack and Joyce Dorse-Coleman winning their seats in a May 5 primary. The Democratic nominees for Districts 6 and 8, T.L. Harris and Tanya Frey respectively, will face an independent challenger in an Aug. 6 general election. Their terms begin Sept. 1.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Gov. Bill Lee taps former superintendent, UT trustee for Memphis schools takeover board

2026-05-22T18:14:33+00:00

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Gov. Bill Lee announced his five appointees for a new Memphis schools oversight board that will have sweeping authority over Tennessee’s largest school district for the next four years.

The choices came on Friday just after Lee signed the oversight board legislation into law, which authorizes the governor and the top two Republicans in the General Assembly to appoint the nine-person board.

The governor’s appointees include at least one member with intimate knowledge of the district’s inner workings: Dorsey Hopson, who served as Memphis superintendent from 2013 to early 2019. Hopson is now a partner at the City Fund, an organization founded in 2018 to promote the portfolio model of running schools that promotes school choice and charter school expansion.

The other four appointees are Shanea McKinney of Cigna, who is a member of the University of Tennessee’s board of trustees; Nisha Powers, who leads a Memphis civil engineering firm and has served on the Tennessee board of regents; Beverly Robertson, a marketing executive and former president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce; and Tyrone Burroughs, a Memphis CEO who sits on the Tennessee Lottery Commission and the Youth Villages board of directors.

The board will have nearly unlimited power to dive into district records, from teacher evaluations to curriculum reviews. It also will control the district’s largest financial decisions, the operating budget, and superintendent’s contract. Its power even extends to the Shelby County Commission, which will be blocked from approving the MSCS annual budget until the oversight board gives its approval.

The oversight board must begin its work by July 1, per the new law. Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and House Speaker Cameron Sexton, both Republicans, get two picks each in addition to Lee’s appointments.

A spokesperson for McNally said he planned to make his appointments in “the very near future.”

Eight of the nine oversight board members must be Shelby County residents under the law. However, Sexton negotiated an arrangement that the House speaker can appoint one oversight board member who does not reside in Shelby County, as long as they live in the state. Political leaders can remove and rename board members at any time, for any reason.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee governor signs Memphis schools takeover into law

2026-05-22T15:58:09+00:00

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Gov. Bill Lee has signed legislation that will give political appointees sweeping authority over Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

The new law is an unprecedented effort to seize local control of Tennessee’s largest public school district through a nine-person oversight board appointed by the state’s top three Republicans, including the governor.

Lee announced his appointments shortly after signing the legislation, tapping five Shelby County residents, many of whom already sit on Tennessee governing boards.

The governor’s appointees include at least one member with intimate knowledge of the district’s inner workings: Dorsey Hopson, who served as Memphis superintendent from 2013 to early 2019.

The takeover effort now goes into effect just weeks after Memphis voters cast their ballots in the 2026 school board primary, an election for four contested board seats that now have significantly less power. And expected legal challenges to the takeover will also collide with another Republican supermajority effort to seize Tennessee’s last Democratic congressional district through a controversial redistricting measure that now significantly dilutes Memphians’ voting power.

The takeover oversight board has been tasked with conducting a comprehensive review of the district’s academic challenges. Republican supporters of the takeover have argued that progress is unacceptably stagnant after years of academic underperformance in the district that serves more than 100,000 students.

Last year, more than 75% of Memphis students failed to achieve proficiency in reading and math based on state standardized tests. However, Memphis schools earned the highest possible score in academic growth, or student improvement on state tests, for the fourth year in a row.

Opponents of the takeover have pointed to systemic socioeconomic issues in Shelby County as an inextricable factor in MSCS academic performance. Democrats have also argued the district has been harmed by the whiplash of state-imposed policies over the years, such as the failed Achievement School District, a previous state takeover of Memphis’ lowest performing schools.

The new oversight board will have nearly unlimited power to dive into district records, from teacher evaluations to curriculum reviews. It also will control the district’s largest financial decisions, the operating budget, and superintendent’s contract. Its power even extends to the Shelby County Commission, which will be blocked from approving the MSCS annual budget until the oversight board gives its approval.

The effective takeover of the district comes amid increasing tensions between Tennessee Republicans, a majority-white party with supermajority power in the state, and local leaders in Memphis, a longtime Democratic stronghold with a majority-Black population. Last year, Republicans imposed a state and federal law enforcement surge because of immigration and crime concerns, and GOP lawmakers in May rushed to split the county’s congressional district to better favor Republican candidates.

A Memphis school board member in April called the oversight law “racist” as Tennessee Republicans, all of whom are white, will seize control from the locally elected school board, the majority of whom are Black. Memphis parents have expressed concern about funding and support for a predominantly Black school district.

The school board is considering its legal options to challenge the takeover and a companion law that effectively blocks them from using district funds to pay for legal action.

Not all Memphians are opposed to an oversight board after years of academic underperformance and leadership instability, which some say came to head after the local school board suddenly fired former Superintendent Marie Feagins in January 2025. There have been four MSCS superintendents in the last five years.

The school board last month finalized a permanent contract for then-interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond, potentially saddling the district with a nearly half-million dollar payout if he is fired without cause, often a first step in district takeovers.

But the oversight board law may provide the new board a loophole to avoid a payout. The oversight board can fire MSCS’ superintendent and appoint a new one with up to a four-year contract if they find any example of him contributing to “deficiencies in the management, accounting, or internal controls” of the district.

Per the new law, the oversight board must begin its work by July 1. The governor will appoint five board members, the majority of the board. Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and House Speaker Cameron Sexton, both Republicans, will get two picks each.

A spokesperson for McNally said he planned to make his appointments in “the very near future.”

Under the law, political leaders can remove and rename board members at any time, for any reason.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Majority of new Tennessee vouchers awarded to higher-income families

2026-05-12T13:39:26+00:00

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The majority of Tennessee’s new vouchers for the upcoming school year were awarded to higher-income families, despite new income rankings meant to prioritize lower-income families.

In February, the Tennessee Department of Education said nearly 17,500 new families applied for income-based Education Freedom Scholarship vouchers for private schools for the upcoming school year. New data shows that only 3,970 vouchers — just one-quarter of newly available vouchers — were awarded to those in the lowest income category, indicating that relatively few lower-income families applied or were eligible to participate in the program.

Republican Gov. Bill Lee quietly signed the expansion of the Education Freedom Scholarship into law on May 7, adding 15,000 seats to the program that started with 20,000 students this school year.

New income categories kicked in for the 2026-27 school year when applications opened up earlier this year. Lawmakers said the new categories would prioritize families with the highest financial needs.

But the latest data on new voucher recipients could fuel ongoing debates about the extent to which vouchers should help relatively well-off families, including those who’ve already sent their children to private schools without vouchers. The General Assembly this spring passed a law requiring the Tennessee Department of Education to provide lawmakers with more data about families in the program in the coming months.

Using 2024 federal data to determine student eligibility for free and reduced-price lunch, the state said that families of four earning less than $57,720 could apply for the vouchers under the lower-income category.

The new categories from highest to lowest priority for 2026-27 EFS vouchers were:

Priority 1 - Renewal applicants.
Priority 2 - Students whose family income does not exceed 100% of the free or reduced-price lunch income level, and students eligible for Tennessee’s other small voucher programs.
Priority 3 - Students whose family income does not exceed 300% of the free or reduced-price lunch income level.
Priority 4 - Current Tennessee public school students or incoming kindergarteners.
Priority 5 - All other eligible students.

The majority of the new vouchers – 9,360 – went to students in the Priority 3 category, where a family of four could earn up to $173,160 and still qualify to receive a voucher, which is valued at more than $7,500 for the upcoming school year.

Tennessee awarded the final 3,117 vouchers to Priority 4 applicants, which means at least 18% of newly available vouchers will be going to either first-time kindergartners or students leaving public schools.

Education officials announced 18,553 vouchers for the 2026-2027 school year will go to returning EFS students.

Previous school enrollment has been a major question mark in the universal voucher program’s first year. Education officials did not explicitly ask first-year applicants if they were switching from public to private schools or had previously attended a private school.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle previously criticized the lack of transparency in the program about students’ previous enrollment. They said it left taxpayers in the dark about whether the program significantly expanded private school access for public school students, or sent millions to students already enrolled in private schools.

But due to changes state lawmakers made to the program this year, the education department is now required to annually report the number of applications received from each county, the number of eligible applicants who were enrolled in public school, and details about applicants’ annual household income.

The department is required to submit its first annual Education Freedom Scholarships report by June 1 including student data from the 2025-26 school year. It will submit another report on Oct. 1 with data for the 2026-2027 school year. It’s not yet clear if the department, which denied multiple media requests last year for 2025-26 school year data on EFS students’ previous school enrollment, will now produce that data to state lawmakers.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

As Memphis schools takeover looms, city faces further voting power struggle

2026-05-08T21:52:33+00:00

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The Tennessee supermajority’s redrawing of its Congressional districts to siphon Memphis Democrats into Republican seats came days before the Memphis-Shelby County school system takeover is expected to be signed into law. It’s an unprecedented confluence that could dilute the voting power of Tennessee’s largest majority-Black city.

This week, Memphis Democrats decried an onslaught of Republican measures they say are aimed at Black Memphians, who will see their locally elected school board neutered by GOP political appointees just as they lose a Memphis-centered Congressional district aimed at protecting minority voting power.

Senate Democratic Caucus Chair London Lamar, a Memphis Democrat, called the sweeping effort “an absolute power grab.”

“You didn’t like our school board, you took that over,” Lamar said Thursday prior to the redistricting vote. “You didn’t like our airport authority. You took that over. And now, you don’t like the way Memphis votes. You’re going to take that away from us, too. You cannot claim local control while stripping Memphis voters from meaningful representation. You cannot claim to respect democracy while changing the rules.”

Now, one of the main architects of the Memphis-Shelby County schools takeover wants to capitalize on the redistricting effort.

Sen. Brent Taylor, the Memphis Republican who sponsored the Senate version of the takeover, announced Thursday he would run in the redrawn 9th Congressional District just minutes after the redistricting effort was signed into law. Taylor and other Republicans have denied the effort was tied to Memphis’ racial makeup but say they’re now able to further consolidate Republican power in Tennessee due to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

“This is about allowing Tennessee to maximize its partisan advantage,” said Sen. John Stevens, a Republican from Huntingdon, in a Senate debate this week.

Taylor’s partner in the schools takeover, Memphis Republican Rep. Mark White, was one of the few Republicans who did not support the redistricting effort. White opted to not cast a vote in favor or against the measure alongside a handful of other Republicans who serve in more competitive districts in Shelby and Knox counties.

The state takeover legislation awaits Gov. Bill Lee’s signature to become law.

The law would shift control of the state’s largest public school district to a nine-person oversight board appointed by Tennessee’s top three Republicans, including the governor. The new board will diminish the authority of the local school board, which is in the middle of an election cycle that drew the largest voter turnout in over two decades for county-wide May 5 primary elections.

Takeover advocates argue years of academic underperformance and district management drama necessitated the intervention, which accelerated after the school board in 2025 quickly fired a new superintendent.

It also follows years of rising tensions between Tennessee Republicans, a majority-white party with supermajority power, and local leaders in Memphis, a longtime Democratic stronghold with a majority-Black population. Last year, Republicans imposed a state and federal law enforcement surge because of immigration and crime concerns.

The Republican supermajority has given the oversight board nearly unlimited power to dive into district records, from teacher evaluations to curriculum reviews, and control the district’s largest financial decisions.

It will also have final say over the district’s operating budget and superintendent contract. Its power even extends in part to the Shelby County Commission, the county’s local governing body, which will be blocked from signing off on the MSCS annual budget until the oversight board gives its approval.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Can the GOP Memphis schools takeover be stopped? Local leaders weigh the district’s options.

2026-04-28T20:10:59+00:00

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Memphis mom Shelby Pearson said she knew the state takeover of Memphis-Shelby County Schools was inevitable once the school board voted to fire former Superintendent Marie Feagins in January 2025.

Now Pearson, who has a 5-year-old son at Idlewild Elementary, said she’s worried about giving control of a majority-Black school district to an all-white group of Republican lawmakers, who will soon handpick a new oversight board with sweeping authority over the state’s largest school district.

The new board could nullify MSCS contracts with Black-owned businesses, she said, or cut funding for local after-school programs.

“How will our kids be protected?” Pearson said. “How will our kids still have the funding that they need?”

Despite public rallies and protests held last year over the issue, community pushback was noticeably muted this spring as Tennessee Republicans officially passed a bill to take over Memphis-Shelby County Schools. The nine oversight board members will be appointed by top Republican leaders, likely in the next couple of weeks after Gov. Bill Lee officially signs the measure into law.

The new board will have the authority to fire newly appointed Superintendent Roderick Richmond. It will also have final say over the district’s budget and school closure decisions.

State Republicans, including takeover bill sponsors Sen. Brent Taylor and Rep. Mark White, say the intervention is necessary to combat fiscal mismanagement in MSCS and improve academic underperformance. District leaders have criticized the takeover, and they are advocating for a more-collaborative approach to fixing local education issues.

Joseph Kyles leads the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Memphis, one of the local nonprofits heavily involved in last year’s takeover protests. He said the community is reacting differently this time, including by increasing early voting.

Four local school board seats are up for election this year. As of Saturday, almost 29,000 people had voted in the May 5 primary, up by 8,000 votes from the same point in 2018. But residents may be casting votes for a new school board that will hold significantly less power than in years past.

“[Memphians] understand that the state has made up their mind,” Kyles said. “And it’s not a time for making arguments at this point, it’s a legal question about whether or not you can have taxation without representation.”

But Pearson said she doesn’t think there’s anything the district can do now to challenge state intervention.

The Republican-appointed oversight board is “going to strip the funding, send the funding to the suburbs, and then our kids will be the ones that are left with nothing,” she said.

“Now, we’re going to have children that are already failing in school and don’t have adequate funding,” Pearson said. “They’re going to suffer even more.”

The Memphis school board voted last week to hire a lawyer to challenge the impending state takeover. But the district’s hands might be tied because of a Republican-backed law signed by Lee hours before that vote that blocks the district from using public funds to pay for the lawsuit.

Kyles said that law is blatantly unconstitutional and should be challenged. But if it is upheld by courts, he said, “then the resources are going to come from the people.”

“And I believe that is quietly being organized,” Kyles said.

Two Shelby County Commissioners attempted to put a $200,000 investment in MSCS legal action on the local government’s agenda Monday, the Daily Memphian reported. But the commissioners narrowly voted down that measure.

Justin Bailey, MSCS’ general counsel, said the district is waiting for Lee to sign the takeover bill into law before advancing any legal action. But Luke Cymbal, vice president of the Shelby County Republicans, said he’s confident a lawsuit against the state takeover will fail in court anyway.

Cymbal says the oversight board needs to have all-encompassing authority over the district in order to “turn around the school system.” He says Tennessee leaders are modeling their aggressive approach after the 2023 takeover of Houston’s public school district, where Mike Miles is the state-appointed superintendent.

“When I met in Nashville with the superintendent of the Houston school district, he said, ‘You have got to be strong on the legislation,’” Cymbal said. “‘If you do not give it teeth, if you do not give authority to the board of managers, then nothing will change.’”

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee rolls back testing requirements in early voucher program

2026-04-23T18:09:24+00:00

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Tennessee Republicans have rolled back testing accountability measures in the state’s initial voucher program but backed down on a House plan to significantly expand the program to thousands of new students.

House Bill 1881, which passed both the Senate and House on Thursday, allows private schools receiving Education Savings Accounts funds to offer students the nationally normed reference test of their choosing instead of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program.

Private schools can still offer the TCAP if they wish, though state testing requirements have for years been resisted by many private schools considering participating in Tennessee’s growing voucher programs.

Now, ESA accountability measures are aligned with the Education Freedom Scholarships program. While private schools will be required to submit some anonymized testing results, it will be difficult to determine an apples-to-apples comparison of student educational outcomes for the more than 40,000 Tennessee students using public funds to attend private schools.

Republicans pushing the legislation argue schools should be allowed to choose a test that aligns with their curriculum, which can vary widely by schools. Rep. William Slater, a Republican from Gallatin, said Thursday some ESA students are being tested twice to meet both the school’s and state’s requirements and deserve to have a streamlined process.

Slater acknowledged the state “can’t compare apples to oranges,” and public testing won’t be able to be compared to private testing. But Slater said private school student achievement can be measured against a cohort of students taking the same test in the state.

“This is not a public versus private, not a TCAP versus a nationally normed reference test. This is not rich versus poor,” Slater said. “This is simply fairness for these students whose parents have applied for the ESA and sent their children to these chosen schools.”

Democrats sharply criticized the measure. House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Ray Clemmons of Nashville said Thursday that lawmakers promised comparable accountability when the ESA program was pushed to lawmakers years ago.

A Tennessee Comptroller report from last winter that found ESA recipients continue to trail their public school peers in academic achievement, with exceptions in Memphis-Shelby County schools. Some Democrats have suggested Republicans are trying to sidestep similar reports in the future.

“You’re scared. You’re scared that this experiment is failing,” Rep. Sam McKenzie, a Knoxville Democrat, said. “Experiments are great. You get your hypothesis, and you perform your experiments. That’s a good thing, that’s the scientific way. But sometimes the measurement does not align with your hypothesis.”

Republicans tabled a last-minute amendment to use the bill to drastically expand the ESA program that appeared this week in an attempt to relieve the waitlist for students in the Education Freedom Scholarships program. The ESA program has been historically underutilized, in part because fewer private schools participate due to the testing requirements.

The amendment, which would have dropped all enrollment caps and expanded to Knox County, appeared to spook some in the GOP caucus as it circulated the Capitol. The Senate bill failed to pass on Wednesday as news spread of the expansion effort.

The legislation moved forward on Thursday after both the Senate and House sponsors repeatedly assured their colleagues that the bill would not expand the ESA program in any way.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee Republicans vote to take over Memphis-Shelby County schools

2026-04-23T00:13:59+00:00

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Tennessee Republicans have passed an unprecedented intervention of the Memphis-Shelby County school system that gives political appointees sweeping authority over the locally elected school board and the state’s largest school district.

The appointed oversight board will have four years to address what Republicans argue is untenable academic underperformance and administrative instability in the district, which serves more than 100,000 students.

The new law gives the oversight board, which could be appointed at any time and must convene for the first time before July, broad latitude to set performance metrics for the district. It could also control everything from firing and hiring a superintendent to textbooks and classroom curriculum. The new body would have final say over the district’s $1.7 billion budget and major decisions like school closures and zoning.

Tennessee Senate and House Republicans voted on the measure Wednesday. Gov. Bill Lee must sign the legislation into law before oversight board members can be appointed.

A Memphis school board member on Tuesday called the law “racist” because Tennessee Republicans, all of whom are white, will seize control from the locally elected school board in a majority Black and Democratic county.

The school board is considering its legal options, though Memphis Republicans pushed a new law to block school districts from funding lawsuits against accountability measures.

Takeover advocates argue intervention is needed to move the needle on Memphis test scores. Last year, more than 75% of Memphis students failed to achieve proficiency in reading and math. But the district earned the highest possible score in academic growth, or student improvement on state tests, for the fourth year in a row.

Democrats argue academic underperformance is affected by systemic socioeconomic realities of MSCS students and the whiplash of district changes over the years, like the failed Achievement School District enforced by the state.

Though Memphis takeover advocates say the new law is aimed squarely at MSCS, it could affect other Tennessee school districts down the line. The law will apply to any schools that meet four of six criteria: academic underperformance, chronic absenteeism, D or F school grades, and priority school status, financial mismanagement as determined by the Tennessee education commissioner, and leadership instability.

Officials from the Tennessee Department of Education this week testified 80% of Tennessee schools already meet two of the academic underperformance standards, with less than 50% of students scoring proficient or higher on state English and math tests.

In addition to MSCS, six other school districts meet three out of the six criteria, including two school districts operated by the state.

“This bill is not about any one district, any one city or county,” Memphis Republican Rep. Mark White, the bill sponsor, said. “It’s an important component in our statewide accountability framework that applies uniformly to every local education agency in the state of Tennessee.”

For now, only MSCS meets the leadership instability and financial mismanagement criteria, in large part due to an ongoing state-funded audit that hasn’t yet been completed.

A legal challenge of the bill will likely hinge in part on these provisions. House Democrats on Wednesday argued the targeted legislation violates the Tennessee Constitution.

“While this bill is written like it applies broadly, in fact it narrows and narrows until it lands on Memphis-Shelby County schools. It is targeted application,” Memphis Democratic Rep. Antonio Parkinson said.

Parkinson proposed a pared-back advisory board that would maintain local governance while providing an accountability structure, though it was voted down by Republicans. Parkinson called the politically appointed oversight board “complete unchecked power.”

Before the vote Wednesday night, MSCS General Counsel Justin Bailey said the district was waiting for a final bill decision to move forward with a lawsuit.

Bailey said the law that prevents the district from using its own funds to legally challenge state-imposed accountability measures doesn’t clearly define “accountability” — so the parameters it applies to are unclear.

Bri Hatch contributed to this report. Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Will Memphis schools sue over the pending state takeover legislation?

2026-04-22T01:08:02+00:00

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The Memphis-Shelby County school board voted unanimously Tuesday night to hire a lawyer to challenge the state takeover legislation Tennessee Republicans advanced on Monday.

Hours before the Memphis board met, Gov. Bill Lee signed into law new legislation that will block the district from using public funds to pay for the lawyer. It’s unclear what that will mean for a lawsuit from MSCS moving forward.

The Memphis board meeting came one day after state lawmakers approved bill language that would give a new state-appointed oversight board control over the district’s budget and staffing decisions. That includes hiring and firing the superintendent with or without cause.

The takeover bill still needs to pass in the House and Senate, with the first round of voting expected on Wednesday. In Monday’s conference committee meeting, some Democrats raised concerns about the legality of the bill, which they said targets MSCS in its criteria for intervention.

Board members met in executive session before voting on the resolution, which was sponsored by board chair Natalie McKinney. Keith Williams was not present for the vote.

Board member Stephanie Love, who represents the Frayser area, said Tuesday that the district is still trying to “undo the unjust harm” caused by state intervention through the failed Achievement School District.

“We have a lot of work to do, but we are up for the task,” Love said. “And this law is racist. We are the largest public school system, the Blackest public school system, in the state of Tennessee.”

The new takeover bill could target other Tennessee school districts. But only MSCS meets all six of the academic underperformance and management instability criteria that triggers state intervention. For one, Memphis is the only district in the state with an ongoing state-funded forensic audit managed by the Tennessee Comptroller.

Other criteria include school districts where:

fewer than 50% of students earn proficient scores on state standardized math tests.
fewer than 50% of students earn proficient scores on state standardized English language arts tests.
25% or more of schools in the district earn a D or F letter grade from the Tennessee Department of Education.
and a 25% or higher chronic absenteeism rate.

McKinney told Chalkbeat before Tuesday’s meeting that she supported suing the state after multiple failed attempts to collaborate with lawmakers for an alternate path forward. She also said the takeover bill doesn’t help students.

“There is nothing in that piece of legislation that talks about academics,” she said. “It talks about our buildings and our budget.”

The oversight board would work on a mandated four-year term, during which it has veto power over proposed budgets and vendor contracts. It also has broad power to fire the superintendent and can cite the district leader’s refusal to follow board directives as cause for termination.

The current MSCS board unanimously approved a three-year contract for Superintendent Roderick Richmond on March 31. But Tennessee Republicans frequently point to the 2023 state takeover of Houston public schools as a model for MSCS’ intervention, where state education leaders immediately fired and appointed a new superintendent.

This story has been updated to include details from Tuesday night’s special meeting.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

5 key takeaways from the Memphis schools takeover bill

2026-04-21T22:54:37+00:00

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The Memphis-Shelby County Schools takeover legislation is expected to get its final sign off from Tennessee Republican leaders on Wednesday, ushering in a state-appointed oversight board to control the district.

After two years of deliberation, state lawmakers advanced a unified plan Monday to create an MSCS board of managers that would control local budget and staffing decisions. Memphis school board members voted unanimously Tuesday to hire a lawyer to challenge that legislation.

But it’s unclear whether their effort will be stumped by a pending bill that would prevent districts from using public funds to sue over state accountability measures.

The takeover bill could ensnare other Tennessee school districts in state interventions. But right now, MSCS is the only local district that meets all six of the bill’s criteria focused on academic underperformance and management issues.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Senate leader Randy McNally need to approve the drafted legislation before it can go to the governor’s desk for signing.

In the meantime, here’s what you need to know about the takeover bill:

Oversight board would have sweeping power over district

The politically appointed oversight board would have sweeping authority over practically every aspect of Tennessee’s largest school district, from school building to textbook and curriculum issues.

It also could access student disciplinary records, annual teacher evaluations, and employment contracts.

The board could close or consolidate schools and would have final say over charter school decisions.

Lawmakers want the board to conduct a “comprehensive needs assessment” that would include evaluating district textbooks, curriculum and other teaching materials. This assessment would be used to set performance goals, which the legislation does not explicitly set for the board.

The oversight board would also have veto power over the district budget and the ability to craft its own budget for the district under certain circumstance.

Board members could shift with political winds

The legislation currently allows Tennessee’s top three elected Republicans to choose the entire board. Gov. Bill Lee would appoint five members of the board, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally would appoint two members, and House Speaker Cameron Sexton would appoint two members.

But those appointments are tied to the political offices, not the politicians themselves. Lee and McNally are both in their final months of office, with McNally retiring and term-limited Lee leaving office.

A new governor and lieutenant governor could decide to make their own appointments. The legislation allows board members to be replaced at any time for any reason.

New board could be appointed immediately

The oversight board could be appointed almost immediately.

In 2023, lawmakers vacated the Tennessee State University board of trustees over financial mismanagement concerns. Within hours of signing the legislation into law, Gov. Bill Lee appointed a new board.

A similar timeline could play out in Memphis, which could muddy ongoing school board races as voters determine who will hold exactly what power over Memphis-Shelby County schools. Early voting is ongoing in four school board district primaries ahead of the May 5 election day.

Lawmakers this week indicated they already have a list of board members in mind.

While lawmakers initially required all oversight board members to reside in Shelby County, that is no longer the case.

House sponsor Rep. Mark White requested that Sexton get an exception for one of his picks. While eight members of the board must be residents of Shelby County, Sexton would get to appoint one member from anywhere in the state of Tennessee.

White argued Sexton needed the flexibility to appoint outside of Shelby County in case there was an expertise gap to fill.

Superintendent Richmond’s contract could be on the line

The takeover bill gives the oversight members the power to fire MSCS’ superintendent with or without cause and appoint a new one with up to a four-year contract. That was the first step taken by state education leaders in Houston, a 2023 school takeover that Tennessee Republicans have frequently cited as a model.

Superintendent Roderick Richmond earned a three-year contract from the current school board on March 31. If he is fired without cause, MSCS would be forced to pay him nearly half a million dollars.

But the takeover legislation would make it easier for the oversight board to fire Richmond with cause, nullifying any required payout. The board could cite as cause for termination any refusal to follow their directives, or any example of him contributing to “deficiencies in the management, accounting, or internal controls of the LEA.”

State control could last up to six years

According to the takeover legislation, the state-appointed oversight board would be established by July 1.

Republican Governor Bill Lee would appoint five of the nine members, with the House and Senate speakers choosing two members each. An amendment added during the conference committee Monday allows one of those members to be a non-Shelby County resident, contradicting previous claims from takeover advocates that the oversight board would be made up of only district residents.

Those nine members will hold district authority for four years. But the takeover bill says that if MSCS continues to meet four or more of the criteria for intervention, lawmakers will choose a new set of nine representatives to lead MSCS for two more years.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee Republicans push for significant last-minute ESA voucher expansion

2026-04-21T17:07:57+00:00

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Tennessee Republicans want to drop all enrollment caps and expand eligibility to the state’s initial voucher program, effectively merging Tennessee’s two voucher programs as Gov. Bill Lee pushes lawmakers to provide state dollars to all families who applied to the Education Freedom Scholarships program this year.

A last-minute amendment tacked on to House Bill 1881 would substantially alter the Education Savings Account program, the state’s initial voucher program that is currently available to 12,500 income-capped families in Davidson, Shelby, and Hamilton counties.

House lawmakers are expected to consider the new amendment on Tuesday. If a majority approves the new language, it will mark the second time in two weeks that the Republican majority has made major last-minute changes to Tennessee’s voucher programs.

The House floor amendments have allowed voucher-friendly Republicans to push forward significant changes in tight votes while bypassing a thornier committee process, where amendments are debated at length and require multiple voting rounds to advance.

If finalized, the ESA bill changes would usher in a monumental shift to Tennessee’s school choice policies. Last year, lawmakers were assured the state’s universal EFS program was tightly controlled from expansion, limited to just 5,000 new students a year.

Now, voucher proponents in the Republican supermajority have blown past that cap to expand the EFS program to 35,000 students and are attempting to drop all enrollment caps to the ESA program in Tennessee’s most populous counties.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Ray Clemmons criticized the last-minute amendment Tuesday morning.

“At the eleventh hour, Gov. Bill Lee and Republicans are attempting to put the final dagger in our public schools and blow up our state budget by eliminating all caps on the voucher scams and removing any accountability whatsoever,” Clemmons said.

The new amendment would include Knox County in the ESA program, opening it up to as many eligible students in the four counties as possible. The bill would also significantly roll back accountability measures and testing requirements on the ESA program.

Republicans also look to expand eligibility by increasing the income eligibility cap from 200% of the federal free and reduced price lunch threshold to 400%. This would be about $171,600 for a family of four, under the federal guidelines for the upcoming school year, well above Tennessee’s median family income.

The ESA program provides up to $9,787 per student this school year, nearly $2,000 more than the EFS voucher.

The ESA program has been historically underused, in part due to its testing requirements that require participating private schools to administer Tennessee state tests to ESA students.The testing requirement was a crucial reason the program passed the legislature by a single vote in 2018, as many lawmakers argued an apples-to-apples comparison was needed to determine student academic progress. But many private schools do not want to offer the state tests.

Now, some Republicans want to drop those testing requirements, which would likely encourage more private schools to participate in the ESA. Participating schools could either offer a “nationally norm-referenced” test, which can vary widely in their content, or offer the state standardized tests.

The new amendment also aims to stop requiring annual audits of the ESA program and drops the requirement that the state measure academic growth in the program with the same TVAAS scoring metrics public schools are held to.

Republicans backing the measure say ESA testing requirements need to be aligned with the EFS, and that private schools should have the flexibility to choose a test that aligns with their curriculum.

But the effort follows a Tennessee Comptroller report from last winter that found ESA recipients continue to trail their public school peers in academic achievement, with some exceptions in Memphis-Shelby County schools.

With the testing changes, it will not be possible to accurately compare and contrast academic progress among Tennessee students, Democrats opposed to the measure argue.

The House is expected to vote on the amendment on Tuesday, April 21, though schedules are shifting quickly as the General Assembly looks to wrap up its session this week. The Senate could take up its version at any time.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis schools takeover push could target other Tennessee districts

2026-04-20T19:11:13+00:00

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Tennessee Republicans took one step closer to seizing major controls from the Memphis-Shelby County school district on Monday in a takeover effort that could eventually affect other school systems across the state.

The legislation would install a politically appointed oversight board in any Tennessee school district that meets four of six criteria of academic underperformance and management instability.

Republicans on Monday approved a conference committee bill, which will now move to full House and Senate votes this week.

The nine-person oversight board would be empowered to fire any district employee, including the superintendent, with or without cause. It would also have veto power over the district budget.

The bill would become law immediately if passed, meaning Tennessee Republicans could appoint an oversight board amid ongoing school board elections in Memphis.

Memphis takeover advocates have argued intervention is needed due to consistent academic underperformance in the state’s largest school district. But Tennessee Department of Education officials testified on Monday that a majority of school districts meet the same academic underperformance criteria, and seven school districts meet three of four performance standards.

Those districts include Campbell, Cocke, Madison, Lewis, and Shelby counties, in addition to the state-run Achievement School District and the Tennessee Public Charter School district.

Under draft legislation proposed by a conference committee this week, the state could install an oversight board in school districts where:

fewer than 50% of students earn proficient scores on state standardized math tests.
fewer than 50% of students earn proficient scores on state standardized English language arts tests.
25% or more of schools in the district earn a D or F letter grade from the Tennessee Department of Education.
and a 25% or higher chronic absenteeism rate.

Rep. Mark White, a Memphis Republican who is co-sponsoring the effort to intervene in Memphis schools, noted MSCS is the only state district that meets all of those criteria.

The final two designations include the commissioner of education, a political appointee, determining whether an audit shows deficiencies in district management, and whether the local board of education has employed more than two superintendents or directors of schools in the last four years.

Memphis is the only district in the state with an ongoing state-funded forensic audit managed by the Tennessee’s Comptroller audit, though school districts are routinely examined in lower-profile audits.

“It highlights that this legislation was written very surgically to apply only to Memphis and Shelby County schools,” said Sen. Raumesh Akbari, a Memphis Democrat who called the intervention effort “heavy-handed.”

Takeover or intervention?

Memphis Republicans pushing for intervention argue the effort is not a state takeover of Tennessee’s largest district, as lawmakers or the Department of Education would not directly control decisions within the district. The majority of the oversight board members must be residents of Shelby County.

However, the new legislation gives elected Republicans in Tennessee broad authority to craft or even trigger an oversight board, given the commissioner of education authority included in the legislation. The governor would appoint five oversight board members, and the House and Senate speakers would get two appointees each.

The oversight board would seize major financial controls from the Memphis-Shelby County school board, whose primary authority is to set the district’s operating budget and manage the district’s superintendent.

Under the draft legislation, the school board would have to submit its proposed budget to the oversight body for approval. The oversight body could veto any or all line items in the budget.

The oversight board could even rewrite the entire district’s budget under certain circumstances, if the school board doesn’t meet the oversight board’s timeline for revising the budget.

The draft legislation also inserts some control over the local legislative body, which in Memphis’ case would be the Shelby County Board of Commissioners. It would block the local body from signing off on the district’s budget without the oversight board’s approval.

Tennessee Republicans frequently point to the 2023 state takeover of Houston public schools as a model for MSCS’ intervention, where state education leaders immediately fired and appointed a new superintendent.

The current MSCS board unanimously approved a three-year permanent contract for Superintendent Roderick Richmond on March 31. That contract puts the district on the hook for a nearly half-million dollar payout if the new state board decides to fire Richmond without cause.

But the new bill would make it easier for the oversight board to fire Richmond with cause. The board could cite as cause for termination any refusal of the superintendent to follow their directives, or contributing to “deficiencies in the management, accounting, or internal controls of the LEA.”

The legislation calls for the oversight board to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment that would essentially audit teacher staffing levels, including reviewing results of annual teacher evaluations. The board would be authorized to review any and all records from the district, including teacher evaluation records and student disciplinary reports.

The oversight board would then be tasked with developing a “transformation plan that identifies performance and operational goals” in the district.

The board could hire a contractor to draw up those assessments and plans.

The oversight board would be subject to Tennessee’s open meetings and public records law. No other criteria are outlined in the draft legislation. Oversight board members could be removed by the governor and legislative leaders at any time, for any reason.

Oversight board members must be compensated at the same rate as school board members under the legislation. They can hire up to three staff members total, in addition to reassigning a staff member from the district office. The district must pay for those salaries, but they can petition the Department of Education for some funding.

“It would almost be like you’re paying for two school boards,” Akbari said.

Costs rise for audit, intervention model

Intervention advocates, led by Memphis Republicans and party leaders like House Speaker Cameron Sexton, have funneled even more state dollars into the audit effort. Gov. Bill Lee is directing another $1.7 million to complete the audit in next year’s budget, which grows the total price tag of the audit to $8.7 million.

And it’s possible lawmakers could direct another $1 million to help fund a new oversight board.

The nearly $10 million in state funds far outpaces the potential fraud and waste findings revealed by the audit thus far. The ongoing financial audit, which covers a three-year period, revealed around $1.1 million in funds that auditors said could be potential waste and abuse. Another $1.7 million was flagged as spending misaligned with district policies that didn’t rise to waste and abuse thresholds.

That amounts to less than 1% of the district’s operating budget over the three-year period being audited.

Tennessee Republican leaders suggested the early findings were among the worst audit findings they had ever seen, pointing to mismanagement of employee paperwork and alleged cooperation issues with district officials.

Democrats on Monday pushed back on these assertions. Akbari, the Memphis Democrat, pointed to previous school audits in Maury and Polk counties, which found millions in mismanaged funds and major control failures. Neither of those audits triggered a state-funded forensic audit or state intervention.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee to expand voucher program to 35,000 students in second year

2026-04-16T16:59:02+00:00

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Tennessee will expand its universal voucher program to 35,000 students next school year despite bipartisan opposition to the program over its growing price tag and changes to the funding assurances made to public school districts last year.

A slim majority of Tennessee Senate Republicans signed off on the legislation on Thursday. The bill will go to Gov. Bill Lee to be signed into law.

While the Senate initially sought to expand the program to 40,000 seats, the chamber agreed to move forward with a House version for 35,000 students.

Last year, Lee pushed lawmakers to pass his signature voucher program, and lawmakers included an annual growth cap of 5,000 seats and a “hold harmless” clause that would maintain public school funding if local districts lose students. That clause was pivotal in passing the Education Freedom Scholarships program in 2025 because it reassured lawmakers concerned about their local school districts.

Now, both of those provisions have been significantly altered.

Republican lawmakers eager to begin tracking immigrant students in Tennessee public schools also added a last-minute amendment that would require public schools to collect student Social Security numbers to maintain their hold harmless funding over the next several years.

Schools cannot legally require students to provide their Social Security numbers, and some lawmakers argued the measure is an effort to phase out the hold harmless funding more quickly.

“The term for that is bait and switch. And we’re in the switch part,” Sen. Jeff Yarbro, a Nashville Democrat, said Thursday. “We need to do what’s right for our districts. We need to be responsible. We should not be doing this to create administrative burdens, divert resources, and expand a program that on its best day helps about 1% of families. Families, frankly, that need less help.”

Senators voted 18-14 on Thursday to pass the program, a smaller majority than what supported the original EFS passage in 2025.

“The people depend on us doing what we say we’re going to do,” said Sen. Joey Hensley, a Hohenwald Republican who voted for the program last year but voted against the expansion.

Majority Leader Jack Johnson, a Republican from Franklin sponsoring the legislation, pointed to interest in the Education Freedom Scholarships program as the reason to expand it. More than 54,000 students have applied for the 2026-27 voucher, which will be worth more than $7,500 for private school tuition and other educational expenses.

Sen. Adam Lowe, a Republican from Calhoun, said spending on the program is a “small fraction” of overall public funding going towards education in Tennessee. Around $7.9 billion is earmarked in next year’s budget for overall funding for public schools, which serves around 1 million students.

“At the back end of it are real families looking for alternatives that, despite the investments we provided for public education, we’ve yet to be able to provide for them,” Lowe said. “It’s unreasonable for us to continue to expect public education to be everything to everybody.”

Sen. Richard Briggs, a Republican from Knoxville, argued against the program on Thursday. Briggs indicated the arguments for the program have shifted over time, from initial pushes that emphasized failing public schools and children in the poorest neighborhoods.

Now, Briggs said, two-thirds of the money in the program has gone to the six wealthiest counties in the state.

Briggs also criticized Lee’s administration for the lack of transparency around the program, particularly regarding data on how many children have exited failing public schools or any public schools to attend private schools.

“I don’t know what the numbers are because, quite frankly, the numbers have not been available. If anything, they have been concealed by the administration,” Briggs said.

Briggs said he was concerned Tennessee may “have a day of reckoning” with the state budget eventually that might cause the state to retract the program in future years.

Tennessee education officials will be required to be more transparent about the program in future years, including collecting more household income data on families and tracking how many new vouchers go to public school students. Some House lawmakers pushed to include more data reporting requirements after the Tennessee Department of Education and governor’s office balked at tracking certain student data, such as how many initial vouchers benefits public schools students and students already enrolled in private schools.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee House passes voucher expansion plan in tight vote

2026-04-14T00:59:34+00:00

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The Tennessee House passed legislation to expand the state’s voucher program to 35,000 seats next fall despite rare bipartisan opposition from Democrats and a significant group of Republicans.

House Bill 2532 passed on a 52-43 vote on Monday night, barely clearing the majority vote needed to pass.

The House version now alters the funding floor provision of the Education Freedom Scholarships program passed last year, a “hold harmless” clause promised last year to maintain current levels of public school funding even if local districts saw enrollment decreases.

House leadership also quietly slipped in a new amendment that could help state officials track the immigration or citizenship status of public school students. High-ranking Republicans have for two years attempted to count the number of undocumented students in Tennessee public schools, but the effort has run aground in various bills amid bipartisan pushback.

EFS supporters last year passed the universal voucher program, pushed by Gov. Bill Lee, with clear parameters like a 5,000-seat growth cap and funding promises to local public school districts.

A year later, those parameters have been swept aside, which opponents from both sides of the political aisle criticized in a lengthy House floor debate on Monday.

The new House bill will track students withdrawing from public schools to participate in the EFS program. Starting in 2028, public schools would still receive “hold harmless” funding for those students, but not for students withdrawing for other reasons. The original voucher program maintained funding for all disenrollment, regardless of the reason a student is leaving the school.

“We’re not telling the truth. That’s what we told everybody we were doing last year,” said Republican Rep. Jody Barrett, a longtime voucher opponent who criticized the funding floor changes. “That’s what got us the 53 votes to get this thing passed, and now 15 months later we’re completely renegotiating the deal.”

A majority of Republicans shot down proposed amendments from Barrett and Republican Rep. Charlie Baum, who tried to reset the funding floor provision.

“It wouldn’t be fair to change that level of financial support at this time,” Baum said.

Under the new House version, public schools could only qualify for hold harmless funding for the 2026 and 2027 school years if they can prove a student with a Social Security number disenrolled from their school to take an EFS scholarship. Schools would have to collect Social Security numbers of all students enrolling in public schools to achieve this.

Tying the hold harmless funding to Social Security numbers appeared to be a last-minute maneuver by House leadership to begin tracking the immigration status of public school students. House Republicans have argued an unknown number of undocumented children may be draining financial resources from local school districts, even though all immigrants fund Tennessee schools through local sales tax purchases.

Some Republicans have sought to challenge a longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent that guarantees the right to a public education to all children in the country, regardless of immigration status.

Social Security numbers are provided to U.S. citizens and some documented immigrants, but not all immigrants with current visas are issued Social Security numbers, nor are they required to register for schools or receive certain benefits like school lunch programs.

Jenny Mills McFerron, director of Policy and Research at EdTrust-Tennessee, criticized the voucher expansion on Monday night for “diverting even more public funds to private schools that lack accountability and transparency that we require of public institutions.”

“Equally troubling is the amendment requiring Social Security number tracking, a backdoor attempt to track students’ immigration status,” Mills McFerron said. “Lawmakers have repeatedly invoked accountability and transparency as core values, but have chosen to wield it selectively to protect the wealthy and target the most vulnerable students in our state.”

The House and Senate are now at odds on significant details of the program, most notably the size of the program next year. The Senate version, which is up for a final vote on Wednesday, calls for 40,000 total seats in the program next year.

If the two chambers can’t agree on a version, lawmakers would have to go to a conference committee and hash out a compromise bill, which could be an uphill battle to pass in the House after such a close initial vote.

The Senate could avoid a conference committee by aligning with the House version on Wednesday, which would position the bill to be signed into law by the governor.

Lee and Republican leadership have for months called for the program to be at least doubled in size next year, pointing solely to the number of applications Tennessee have received for the program.

More than 56,000 students applied for next year’s EFS program, including nearly 19,000 renewals from this year.

Lee has already earmarked more than $303 million in public dollars next fiscal year to help send 40,000 students to private schools across the state. It’s one of his largest new spending priorities in his final year as governor. Each student will receive more than $7,500 for next school year.

Supporters of the program argue these funds enable families to make educational decisions for their children regardless of costs.

“Parents, not the government, know what’s best for their child’s needs,” said Rep. Aron Maberry, a Republican who also sits on the Clarksville-Montgomery County school board. “These scholarships are about empowering families with real choice.”

Some lawmakers who voted against the expansion this year have argued there is not yet evidence that program is improving student outcomes, nor is it clear who exactly is benefiting from the program.

The new House version of the bill does impart new transparency requirements on the Tennessee Department of Education, including how many students already enrolled in private schools benefit from the program.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

What’s next for the Memphis schools takeover plan?

2026-04-09T23:53:35+00:00

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The clock is ticking for Tennessee lawmakers to agree on an intervention plan for Memphis-Shelby County schools as the General Assembly looks to finish its session before April 30.

Republican lawmakers released interim Memphis schools financial audit results last week. These results were expected to inform the supermajority’s plan to effectively take over major controls of the state’s largest school district, though the intervention plan did not advance this week.

Early voting in the Memphis-Shelby County school board elections begins on April 15, before Memphis voters have a clear understanding of who will actually have authority over the school district by next fall.

So, what’s next for the Memphis schools takeover plan?

The Tennessee House and Senate have each passed separate versions of the legislation, which means leaders of both chambers will have to call a conference committee before the end of session. Both lawmakers have indicated they plan to do so, and that could happen as early as April 13.

The conference committee, which is expected to include Memphis lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, can hash out a compromise on the bill. This committee can make significant changes to the legislation very quickly, and legislation often rapidly advances toward the end of the session.

Memphis Republicans Mark White and Brent Taylor, who are sponsoring the legislation, have both said in recent months that they want to align with White’s original bill.

White’s plan would install a board of managers, handpicked by elected state Republicans, that would have significant authority over the Memphis-Shelby County school district. Appointment powers would be given to the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker, all Republicans who are not from Memphis.

It’s not clear how quickly an oversight board would be appointed if Tennessee Republicans finalize the plan. However, a similar situation played out in 2024 between Republicans and Tennessee State University, the state’s only HBCU, after a financial audit and mismanagement concerns. Gov. Bill Lee appointed a new board of trustees within hours of legislation passing, so state leaders could be poised to appoint a Memphis schools oversight board immediately if a compromise is agreed upon.

The plan would allow the oversight board to seize control of major financial decisions from the elected school board, including hiring and firing superintendents.

In March, the Memphis school board officially hired interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond. His new contract means the district could be on the hook for a nearly half-million dollar payout if a new state board decides to fire Richmond.

Lawmakers have repeatedly pointed to the 2023 Houston school takeover, where the superintendent was quickly replaced, as a model for MSCS intervention.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Crossville Republican who has been among the more vocal critics of Memphis schools this year, said Thursday he doesn’t want to be “the one to hire and fire directors of schools.”

“That’s not what we want to do. This is not a state takeover,” Sexton said, arguing the board of managers would be made up of local Memphians. “The board of managers needs to have the capability to make that decision for themselves based on internal reviews, the different processes that are going to be laid out in the bill.”

District officials in recent days have also argued that years of leadership turnover have led to issues within the district. A new website launched this week in response to the state audit said MSCS has made significant progress in the past year to correct missteps made during the tenures of four superintendents in the past five years.

Tennessee Republicans, meanwhile, have argued fraught management at the board level has led to leadership turnover, as well as years of academic underperformance.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Will TN voucher program expand by 15,000 or 20,000 seats? House and Senate are at odds on details.

2026-04-07T23:51:48+00:00

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The Tennessee General Assembly could vote on a proposal to expand the state’s school voucher program within days, though Republican lawmakers in the Senate and House are at odds on how large the program’s second-year expansion should be.

The legislation cleared its final House committee on Tuesday. Committee members voted to simplify the House bill just days after Republicans inserted a controversial student immigration tracking requirement into the bill.

The House version no longer includes any reference to immigration status tracking.

The Senate proposal, which could be scheduled for a Senate floor vote at any time, would expand the Education Freedom Scholarships program by 15,000 seats. With an existing 5,000-seat expansion already baked into the program for next school year, the Senate bill would increase it to 40,000 seats for the 2026-2027 school year.

In the House, where the legislation has moved more slowly, the bill would cap next year’s expansion at 10,000 seats plus the 5,000-seat expansion, for a total of 35,000 seats.

Republican leadership in the House and Senate have just a few weeks to align on the details if they want to significantly expand Gov. Bill Lee’s school choice program in its second school year. Lee has already carved out more than $303 million in public dollars next fiscal year to help send 40,000 students to private schools across the state. It’s one of his largest new spending priorities in his final year as governor.

Pulling back on Lee’s proposal would leave lawmakers more money to fund other legislation.

The House version also tweaks the “hold harmless” provision of the original EFS bill, which was created to provide stable funding to public schools if they experience disenrollment. Previously, public schools were able to maintain their funding floor for any disenrollment.

The new House bill would track students withdrawing from public schools to participate in the EFS program. Public schools would still receive hold harmless funding for those students, but not for students withdrawing for other reasons.

The House version also includes a transparency provision that the Senate bill does not have. Under the House bill, the Tennessee Department of Education would have to publish an annual report on the number of applications received from each county, the number of applicants enrolled in a public school, and data on applicants’ household income.

The Tennessee Department of Education last year faced criticism from voucher opponents and some lawmakers for its lack of timely data on who exactly is benefiting from the public program. The department has said the law establishing the program did not require them to track or report certain information, such as how many public school students were benefiting from it.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee elementary schools might limit classroom digital device use under pending law

2026-04-03T18:00:43+00:00

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Tennessee elementary schools could limit classroom digital devices under new legislation aimed at minimizing screen time for young students, even on educational electronic devices.

The General Assembly this week finalized legislation that will require schools serving kindergarten through fifth grade to develop a policy to limit the use of electronic devices and block any students from accessing social media during school hours.

Senate Bill 2310 was significantly dialed back from its original form, which sought to totally ban digital educational devices like Chromebooks for young students except in special circumstances, such as in individualized education programs for students with disabilities.

Some lawmakers and educators raised concerns about instructional tools already deeply integrated into the classroom, such as digital whiteboards. The legislation that passed would allow schools to set their own policies while prioritizing “in-person, teacher-led” instruction.

The Tennessee legislation, which still has to be signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee, gives local districts broad discretion to continue using devices as long as they believe the device serves an “instructional purposes for which such use provides a clear educational benefit.”

The pending law is part of a growing national backlash to educational technology that comes after an earlier push to ban recreational screen time for students. Last year, Tennessee required schools to enforce smart phone bans, though many school systems already had restriction policies in place.

Concerns about the effects of screen time for children have also coincided with a national decline in reading and math achievement in recent years, sparking a flurry of public debate about the use of educational technology inside the classroom.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

5 key takeaways from the Memphis schools forensic audit

2026-04-02T11:00:01+00:00

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Preliminary findings from the state audit of Memphis-Shelby County Schools show over $1 million in spending considered waste or abuse, as well as ineffective document and policy systems.

The over 300-page report released Wednesday morning only represents 25% of the full investigation, which the report says is expected to conclude by June 30. The audit firm CliftonLarsonAllen, or CLA, said in the report that it is facing significant delays due to issues obtaining documents from MSCS in a timely manner.

“The forensic audit identified significant and recurring internal control, documentation, and records‑management deficiencies that materially impaired the District’s ability to demonstrate compliance, accountability, and effective stewardship of public funds,” the audit says. “Several areas of the forensic audit remain in progress.”

Some state leaders, including vocal advocates for the state takeover of MSCS, say these preliminary results are some of the worst they’ve ever seen. Tennessee Republicans said Wednesday that they will immediately move forward with plans to establish a state-appointed MSCS board to lead district decisions, rather than wait for the results from the full audit.

MSCS leaders, including the newly-appointed permanent Superintendent Roderick Richmond, say they’re committed to addressing issues raised by the audit. And some Memphis leaders say the dollar amount identified as waste and abuse spending over three years represents a fraction of MSCS’ $2 billion annual budget. In total, the violations constitute less than 1% of the budget.

Leaders have already adopted plans to upgrade internal document systems. And the school board passed a resolution Tuesday night fast-tracking corrective action plans from Richmond in the next two months.

The forensic audit is reviewing MSCS practices from July 2021 through June 2024, when former interim superintendents Joris Ray and Toni Williams were leading the district.

MSCS leaders will be presenting a full response report on Monday, April 6. In the meantime, here are five key takeaways from the initial audit findings:

$1.1 million in MSCS contracts “classified as waste or abuse” on leadership coaching, consulting

CLA found that around $1.1 million of spending on contracts over the past three years are consistent with definitions of waste and abuse. Most of that spending comes from paying for leadership coaching and consulting services that CLA says duplicate existing programs, or lack evidence of being completed.

A $45,000 payment to the Council of the Great City Schools, for example, seems to pay for training that is already included in district membership fees. And a $674,000 contract with the YMCA of Memphis was issued and paid for without following proper renewal procedures.

The group also identified $33,000 in payroll waste, including paying one employee for four months after they left the district.

And just over $1.7 million of spending in the 2021-2024 time period didn’t rise to the level of waste or abuse, but did run afoul of district policies. The contracts and payroll violations in question include incomplete travel expense reports and missing invoice signatures.

The spending labeled “waste or abuse” is a tiny fraction of overall district spending

The total amount of early waste and abuse findings measures up to less than 1% of MSCS’ multi-billion-dollar budget over the three years reviewed by CLA.

In an emailed statement Wednesday, Board Chair Natalie McKinney said that doesn’t discount the district’s responsibility to address discrepancies.

“While no level of waste or potential violation is acceptable, it is important to provide context,” she said. The small fraction of money “underscores that the primary issue is control effectiveness, not systemic financial collapse,” she added.

CLA didn’t identify any evidence of fraud, waste, or abuse in other spending categories, including federal grants and charter school funding.

Plus, Richmond last month presented a plan to MSCS board members to strengthen internal controls and modernize document systems in anticipation of audit findings. That includes making sure over 80% of the district’s employee files are complete in the next 90 days and reducing paper-based work.

Too many leadership transitions mean no institutional knowledge and inefficiencies

CLA’s preliminary report notes “multiple leadership transitions” during the audit period that resulted in a lack of institutional knowledge and inefficiencies across accountability and document systems.

“The turnover impacted the retention of staff, eroded institutional knowledge, created inefficiencies in the organizational stability of the core functions at MSCS, and increased internal control weaknesses and financial risks,” the audit says.

Richmond has also cited district leader turnover as a major barrier to management and trust in previous interviews. CLA found that the district has no formal, documented plans for leadership transitions — which has fragmented records-keeping practices and district policies.

In one notable example of district disorganization, CLA notes that MSCS failed to locate and provide I-9 forms that verify employees’ identities and employment authorization for 40% of requested records. The report says that the district office where these forms are kept is in “disarray with significant disorganization.”

CLA did say in its report that MSCS board members “generally demonstrated adherence to key governance and ethics requirements during the forensic audit period.” Dissatisfaction with the local school board, especially after its sudden firing of former superintendent Marie Feagins, has long been tied to pushes for the forensic audit and a state takeover of the district.

MSCS lacks proper internal audit systems and policies

The preliminary audit states that MSCS “lacks any comprehensive audit methodology” to internally evaluate its own procedures and actions.

“Many critical processes operate without formally documented, current, and standardized procedures,” the audit says. Where policies do exist, CLA says they are “frequently outdated” and “lack clearly assigned ownership.”

Quality assurance reviews across multiple departments, including HR and payroll, are “either absent or inconsistently documented,” the report says. Almost half of the district’s policies listed in its online platform BoardDocs haven’t been revised in the past ten years, CLA found.

That figure includes the district’s conflict of interest policies, the preliminary report notes. None of the reviewed vendor contracts include a conflict of interest clause. And the district didn’t request disclosures from board members or key employees in the three year period studied by the audit.

MSCS had incomplete and delayed responses to audit’s requests

Throughout the preliminary report, CLA stressed that its work has been held-up by MSCS’ “delayed and incomplete production of requested records,” especially in evidence related to vendor contracts and procurement.

“Despite extensive and ongoing efforts by CLA, including repeated document requests, weekly status calls, interviews, monthly onsite visits, and multiple follow‑up communications, the District did not provide significant categories of requested procurement and contract documentation,” the audit says.

In February, Richmond said that district employees were balancing their day-to-day responsibilities with diligently turning over documents to CLA. Some of the over 450 records requests were hundreds of pages long, he added.

CLA said it was incapable of reporting any early findings about contract negotiation and selection due to continuous delays in access to records. Overall disorganization increased these issues, CLA said, with documents scattered across multiple departments instead of being centrally located.

MSCS also lagged in responding to requests for internal emails, the audit said, and district staff still haven’t submitted a list of contract documentation that CLA requested on Feb. 13.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

House Republicans tie immigrant student tracking to Tennessee voucher expansion bill

2026-04-01T18:49:25+00:00

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Tennessee House Republicans have inserted a student immigration tracking requirement into a pending voucher program expansion bill, linking two of the most controversial policies affecting state public schools in recent years.

House Bill 2532, which passed a key House subcommittee on Wednesday with a new amendment that took many by surprise, would add public school administrative requirements while also funneling more public dollars for 35,000 students attending private schools.

The new version of the bill ties student immigration status to the voucher program’s hold harmless clause, which maintains current levels of public school funding even if there is disenrollment when students switch to private schools.

The clause essentially established a funding floor for Tennessee public schools, a key point that helped pass Gov. Bill Lee’s initial Education Freedom Scholarships program last year.

Under the newly amended House bill, public schools would only maintain their funding floor for disenrolled students they could prove held legal citizenship or immigration status.

“To comply with it, districts would have to collect immigration status on all students. That creates a really troubling challenge for districts from an administrative perspective. More importantly, it will have a chilling effect on immigrant students,” said Jenny Mills McFerron, an assistant director at EdTrust Tennessee.

“This bill will modify the floor and create transparency as it relates to those currently being funded in our TISA school systems,” said Chairman Ryan Williams, who sponsored the amendment.

Republicans’ goal this session of forcing schools to collect data on all public school students has otherwise failed or hit serious roadblocks with other pieces of legislation.

The immigrant student tracking issue has drawn heated pushback from education and immigrant advocates, as well as hesitancy from some Republicans wary of drawing children into an increasingly politicized debate over immigration issues.

Republicans in favor of tracking student status argue the data is needed to better understand how many undocumented students are attending state public schools, framing it as a resource scarcity issue. However, Tennessee schools are largely funded through local sales taxes, meaning any resident of a community is paying into the school system when buying groceries or gas.

“It is interesting that at the same time we’re passing this massive expansion of public funding for private schools, and continuing to invest even more dollars in that program beyond what was originally projected last year, we’re now tying it to this issue that has been focused on resource scarcity,” Mills McFerron said.

Another legislative effort underway for more than a year sought to challenge Plyler v. Doe, the longstanding U.S. Supreme Court decision guaranteeing a right to a public education to all children in the country. That effort may have permanently stalled, though, over disagreements between Senate and House Republicans about the best path forward.

Tying the documentation mechanism to the voucher expansion bill could also further complicate the governor’s plan to double the voucher program in its second year from 20,000 seats to 40,000.

The new House version passed on Wednesday dials back Lee’s plan slightly, offering up a total of 35,000 seats for next year’s expansion.

With the new House amendment, the lower chamber’s voucher expansion plan differs significantly from the Senate version, which is slated for a full floor vote any day.

The new version also includes a new reporting clause requiring the Tennessee Department of Education to collect data on students applying for the program, including whether they were previously enrolled in a public or private school. The department has said it didn’t collect this data in the first year because it wasn’t explicitly required to.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa atmbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Early Memphis schools audit findings ‘consistent with waste or abuse’

2026-04-01T16:03:07+00:00

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An ongoing financial audit of Memphis-Shelby County Schools revealed “clear evidence of management failures,” Tennessee Comptroller Jason Mumpower said Wednesday after releasing interim results.

Tennessee Republicans pushed to release the incomplete audit report on the state’s largest school district as leadership plans to advance a state takeover effort in the coming weeks.

The audit, which is only 25% complete, revealed more than $1.1 million in contract and payroll transactions that auditors say are “consistent with waste or abuse.” Another $1.7 million in transactions was found to violate district policies, though it did not rise to the level of waste or abuse, according to the comptroller’s office.

That total is less than 1% of the Memphis district’s operating budget over the three-year period the audit covers.

Mumpower cited an “absolute culture of apathy and carelessness” within district leadership, though there has been notable turnover in the district since the time period audited.

Citing the audit, Memphis Republicans say they will move forward immediately to finalize legislation that would significantly intervene in Memphis district governance rather than wait for final results.

“It’s such a failure that at some point, do you need more information to understand what needs to happen,” House Speaker Cameron Sexton said, though he noted he supported a state takeover before the interim audit results.

Though details could change quickly in the coming weeks, Rep. Mark White’s initial plan would install an oversight board of managers.

This board, which would be appointed by Republican leaders, would seize significant authority from the elected school board through major financial decisions like the superintendent’s contract.

The early audit results revealed significant record-keeping breakdowns. The district couldn’t provide employment verification records for 100 of 250 employees requested for review, and auditors found employee records poorly maintained and secured.

“With the high level of leadership and staff turnover — coupled with the lack of documented policies and procedures, and the erosion of institutional knowledge — resulted in a systemic challenge with record keeping and documentation, a challenge that we faced throughout this engagement,” said Folashade Abiola-Banjac, an attorney with the CliftonLarsonAllen auditing firm that is conducting the external audit.

Mumpower on Wednesday accused district officials of being uncooperative with auditors. He said the audit raises “serious questions about whether the current leadership structure is capable of ensuring accountability.” It’s not yet clear when the audit will be complete, though the audit firm’s contract runs through early 2027.

In an emailed statement, Superintendent Roderick Richmond said district leaders are still working through the preliminary findings and will present a report responding to each claim on Monday.

“We are grateful for the preliminary audit and recognize the importance of fiscal and operational responsibility,” he said. “We also recognize that when systems or processes fail, whether past or present, trust is damaged. It is now our responsibility to repair that trust.”

Richmond said he’s requested a meeting with Rep. White and Sen. Brent Taylor, the other sponsor of state takeover pushes, to discuss a plan moving forward. Board chair Natalie McKinney praised the superintendent’s compliance with auditors’ requests over the past eight months.

She also said in the same emailed statement that while the preliminary findings are meaningful, they represent “less than one-tenth of one percent of the district’s approximate $2 billion annual budget over three years.”

“This context does not diminish the need for corrective action; rather, it underscores that the primary issue is control effectiveness, not systemic financial collapse,” she said.

Richmond last month presented a plan to MSCS board members to strengthen internal controls and modernize document systems in anticipation of audit findings. That includes making sure over 80% of the district’s employee files are complete in the next 90 days and reducing paper-based work.

“We will be looking at some of these systems to see if we should try to improve upon them or if we should look at doing something totally new,” Richmond said. “As the [forensic audit] starts to come out, we’d like to already be moving forward in addressing some of those things that may be in that report.”

Board member Amber-Huett Garcia said she was “surprised” to hear about systems that the district doesn’t have already in place, such as a checklist for human resources documents. Richmond chalked up a lot of those gaps to high turnover in district leadership positions and the merging of the city and county school systems that happened over 10 years ago.

He said CLA, the audit firm, has also cited turnover as a barrier in recent meetings with district leaders.

“We’ve really tried to be responsive to things that they’ve asked for,” Richmond said about CLA. “But we’ve also partnered with them in relation to having discussions about some of our systems.”

Richmond said these changes, including his proposal to hire a district inspector general and an outside firm to help address audit findings, could cost around $2 million.

Note: This story has been updated to include a response from district leaders.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org. Bri Hatch contributed to this story.

Will Tennessee’s effort to track undocumented students die in the legislature?

2026-03-27T21:58:01+00:00

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After more than a year of back-and-forth on a controversial Republican proposal to track the immigration status of Tennessee students, two dueling versions of the bill have stalled in the General Assembly.

Lawmakers have just a few weeks to hash out their differences or the legislation will die with the end of session. But its Senate and House sponsors, both high-ranking Republicans, don’t want to yield on their separate versions.

Sen. Bo Watson, a Hixson Republican sponsoring Senate Bill 836, has for two weeks considered whether to adopt a watered-down House version that would require schools to report anonymized data on student immigration status, or stick with a more hardline Senate bill that would allow public schools to charge undocumented students tuition.

On Thursday, Watson deferred that decision by sending the measure back to a calendar committee, a procedural move that puts the legislation in a holding pattern.

When asked Thursday if he thinks either version will pass this session, Watson said “I wouldn’t say that.”

“This is a team sport, and I’m trying to figure out what the best path forward is for the Senate,” Watson said. “But again, the Senate passed a bill, so obviously the Senate likes its bill. The Senate should jealously guard the decisions we make, as should the House.”

Watson eked out a 19-13 vote on the Senate bill last year, with some Republicans crossing the aisle to oppose the measure with Democrats. He has also faced growing pushback from educators and leaders from his district.

“Children should not carry the weight of adult policy decisions when they walk through our doors,” said Dr. Jill Levine, principal of the Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts principal and vice president of the Hamilton County Principal’s Association. “Our job is to protect them, teach them, and support them, without conditions that could create fear or uncertainty in their daily school experience.

Watson and the House sponsor, Majority Leader William Lamberth, rolled out a press release in 2025 to announce the legislation, which originally would have allowed schools to block undocumented students from enrolling altogether.

They were explicit about their intent of the bill: challenging the longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent guaranteeing a right to free public education to all children in the country.

But after months of heated debate and hundreds of protestors rallying against the measure, they’ve softened that language.

“My intent is, as it has always been, to allow local governments to look at their financial situation and make a decision about tuition for students who are undocumented or not here legally,” Watson said Thursday. “That’s been the reason for the bill from the very, very beginning.”

The House sponsor, Majority Leader William Lamberth, amended HB 793 last year after a fiscal review found it might endanger more than $1 billion in federal education money. There were also questions if the House Republican caucus had the votes to pass a more extreme version of the bill after the Senate bill squeaked by.

It’s also not clear if the House version of the bill, which asks schools to collect immigration or citizenship documents but doesn’t have an enforcement mechanism, would rise to a Plyler constitutional challenge at this point.

“I want to take some time to talk to my members about whether they think it’s worth moving forward, if the juice is worth the squeeze on that bill,” Watson said earlier this month.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Ahead of Memphis schools takeover, Republicans move to block district’s legal pushback

2026-03-26T21:26:21+00:00

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If Tennessee Republicans move forward to impose a state-backed takeover of Memphis-Shelby County schools, the district’s hands may be tied from challenging the state intervention’s legitimacy in court.

Tennessee school districts would be blocked from using their budgets to pay for lawsuits challenging any state-imposed accountability measures under a new bill making its way through the General Assembly. Districts could still sue the state if other organizations like legal defense funds foot the legal bills.

Senate Republicans passed Sen. Brent Taylor’s SB 712 on Thursday, though the House version awaits a pivotal House Education Committee vote. Though the legislation is written broadly to block districts from funding lawsuits to challenge accountability measures, it comes just days before lawmakers are expected to unveil a renewed effort to seize major controls from the locally elected Memphis school board.

Taylor said Thursday he believes the measure would apply to state intervention efforts.

The legislation is backed by the takeover’s sponsors, Taylor and fellow Memphis Republican Rep. Mark White.

Two MSCS officials declined to comment on the passing of Taylor’s bill. But Memphis Board Chair Natalie McKinney has previously said she’s in favor of challenging state takeover legislation in court.

Taylor and White have said they’re modeling their takeover of MSCS after a 2023 state intervention in Houston public schools. Houston’s local board delayed that action for three years by filing a 2019 lawsuit against the state education department. The case went all the way to the Texas Supreme Court, where it was ultimately overruled.

As the General Assembly enters what is expected to be the final month of session, the clock is ticking on the takeover effort Taylor and White say will be coming this year.

The two lawmakers, backed by Republican leadership, have argued that Memphis students have been badly served by years of district drama at the board level, and that years of languishing test scores require external intervention.

White has proposed an oversight committee structure that would take control of the district’s major financial decisions, including the superintendent’s contract. The committee would be made up of Shelby County residents, which Republicans argue would amount to local intervention rather than a state takeover. But the committee would be handpicked by state Republican leaders at a time of increased tensions between state and locally elected Memphis officials.

Takeover effort details are still unclear with just weeks left in the General Assembly session. White and Taylor say they need the results of an external financial audit to inform intervention plans, though both want an oversight committee that takes significant controls away from the local board.

That audit was completed in mid-March, according to the Tennessee Comptroller’s office, and lawmakers have received private briefings on its details. But the office still has not set a date for its public release. Multiple legislators this week said they expect the audit to be released publicly next week.

Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, an Oak Ridge Republican, last year favored an intervention effort with more input from local elected officials. But in recent weeks he has said the audit briefings revealed significant mismanagement and proved that oversight is necessary.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa atmbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Proposal to relax voucher program’s testing mandate advances in Tennessee House

2026-03-24T23:19:41+00:00

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Tennessee may soon relax state testing requirements for its Education Savings Account voucher program under new legislation that advanced in the House on Tuesday.

Private schools accepting public dollars under the ESA program have been required to administer the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, or TCAP, since the voucher program began in 2022.

Now, some Republicans want to drop that requirement through House Bill 1881, which would allow participating private schools the choice to give the TCAP or a “nationally standardized achievement test.” The move would align the ESA voucher program with the state’s broader Education Freedom Scholarships program, which lawmakers are currently trying to expand.

The bill passed out of the House Education Committee’s K-12 subcommittee on Tuesday on a party line vote. It now heads to the full committee. The legislation has already passed the Senate.

The legislation follows a Tennessee Comptroller report from last winter that found ESA recipients continue to trail their public school peers in academic achievement, with some exceptions in Memphis-Shelby County schools.

Republicans backing the bill argue the change is needed to align a school’s standardized test with its curriculum and textbook choices, which can vary widely in private school settings.

House Education Committee Chairman Mark White, a Republican from Memphis who is also on the K-12 subcommittee, said Tuesday he fought to mandate the state test for the ESA program when it began, and that he “can see both sides of the argument very clearly.” But White ultimately voted on Tuesday to advance the bill relaxing testing requirements.

White said the ESA program has some non-testing accountability measures baked in by only allowing Tier 1, 2, or 3 schools to participate in the program. These schools meet certain accreditation requirements approved by the state.

Democrats in the General Assembly, who lack the legislative power to stop the bill, have sharply criticized relaxing testing requirements.

Rep. Sam McKenzie, a Knoxville Democrat, noted the current ESA requirement is the one data point that provides a “side-by-side comparison” of student achievement for kids receiving a publicly funded education.

“We talk about kids needing a choice, we talk ad nauseum about parents needing a choice. Ok, you’ve been given a choice. Now, let’s test you. Let’s train you up in the private school environment and let’s test you,” Mckenzie said, arguing “being able to read on grade level is not different from a public school to private school.”

However, Rep. William Slater, a Republican from Gallatin who is sponsoring the House legislation, said lawmakers and state officials worked “very hard” to align the TCAP with public school standards and textbooks.

“When students are in a different school, a different system, the standards can be different,” Slater said. “The textbooks can be different. That’s what it means to be in a private school.”

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee state board committee recommends ‘corrective action’ for underperforming Memphis schools

2026-03-24T22:58:49+00:00

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Memphis-Shelby County schools that have received D or F school letter grades for at least two years are heavily reliant on unlicensed teachers, district officials testified Tuesday at a state accountability hearing.

More than half of the teachers at 14 schools that have received either a D or F in Tennessee’s school grading system are working on emergency or temporary permits, mirroring an ongoing state trend showing a rapid rise in non-credentialed teachers.

Memphis officials testified before a three-person committee of the Tennessee State Board of Education, which is holding a week of accountability hearings for 18 districts with schools that have received failing letter grades for at least two years in a row.

The committee recommended a “corrective action plan” for Memphis schools, a plan that could include state monitoring, needs assessments made by external third parties, and set performance targets. Details on the plan won’t be finalized for months as the accountability process plays out.

The district is already implementing “scripted” lesson plans and curriculum guides, in addition to deploying regional superintendents for curriculum “fidelity” checks in an effort to address student learning gaps at underperforming schools.

“The scripted lessons are particularly vital for supporting our influx of permit teachers, which are notably higher in these schools,” the district said in a strategic planning document submitted to the state board.

The hearing committee praised Memphis officials for their preparation and school-level data informing issues like chronic absenteeism and academic underperformance.

“Of all the districts we’ve interviewed so far, this district has presented its root causes better than any other we’ve heard,” State Board of Education chair Bob Eby said. “I think you understand what your challenges are.”

The MSCS schools facing a corrective plan include:

A.B. Hill Elementary, dropped from a D to an F
Carver College and Career Academy, two years of F grades
Douglass K-8, two years of F grades
Geeter School, dropped from a D to an F
Grandview Heights Middle, dropped from a D to an F
Hickory Ridge Middle, dropped from a D to an F
Kate Bond Middle, dropped from a D to an F
Kingsbury Middle, two years of F grades
Mt. Pisgah Middle, two years of F grades
Raleigh Egypt Middle, dropped from a D to an F
Robert R. Church Elementary, dropped from a D to an F
Sherwood Elementary, dropped from a D to an F
Treadwell Elementary, two years of F grades

Though Chickasaw Middle School was also on the list, board members voted earlier this year to close the school amid a long-term facilities restructuring in the district.

If the full Tennessee State Board of Education signs off on corrective action recommendations in May, local districts will work with the Tennessee Department of Education to design and implement corrective plans.

School districts will face more severe consequences, including audits and investigations, if they are called for subsequent accountability hearings.

“These conversations are not meant to be punitive in nature, not a ‘gotcha’ conversation,” said vice-chair Darrell Cobbins. “It’s more of a conversation about how do we get these schools off the list that they’re on and on an upward trajectory ensuring the students are successful and served well.”

Cobbins on Tuesday told Memphis officials the accountability committee had one of two options, either take no action or recommend a corrective plan. He appeared satisfied with the strategies Memphis officials shared and hoped the corrective plan would guarantee they were “codified” into district plans.

“Today’s hearing was a productive and important step forward,” MSCS board chair Natalie McKinney said in a Tuesday statement. “We appreciate the State Board’s thoughtful questions, their focus on students, and their willingness to work alongside Memphis-Shelby County Schools. Our Board is committed to strong accountability, strategic investment, and ensuring that every decision we make is centered on improving outcomes for our students. We are aligned on the urgency of this work, and now, the real work continues.”

It’s the first year schools have been subject to the hearings under a 2022 law establishing a state board-level accountability mechanism tied to its student funding formula and a 2016 state law that established the school grading system, which is tied to student performance on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program.

The grading system was initially plagued by pandemic delays and systemic testing issues before it was completely revamped in 2023. In a controversial decision, state education officials chose to emphasize academic achievement, or proficiency, over academic growth.

Accountability hearings will continue through the week for Metro Nashville Public Schools, Hardeman County Schools, Fayette County Public Schools, Jackson-Madison County School System, Haywood County Schools, Robertson County Schools, Cocke County School District, Carter County Schools, Hamilton County Schools, Polk County Schools, Monroe County Schools, Knox County Schools, Sevier County School System, and Union County Public Schools.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee Republicans advance bill to relax voucher testing rules

2026-03-19T00:07:19+00:00

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Tennessee Senate Republicans advanced legislation to relax testing requirements for the state’s older of its two voucher programs on Wednesday.

Under Senate Bill 1585, schools that participate in the Education Scholarships Accounts program could choose to give students in the program a “nationally standardized achievement test” instead of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, or TCAP. Private schools that accept program funding have been required to administer TCAP to participating students since the program’s implementation in 2022.

The looser academic accountability measures for the program included in the bill come after state testing results showed ESA participants underperformed their peers from traditional public schools.

The effort to relax accountability for private schools accepting public money also comes amid a broader Republican push to expand access to vouchers in the state. Tennessee private schools have for years resisted uniform testing requirements, a position that has stirred controversy as state lawmakers have created more avenues to use public dollars for private school tuition.

Tennessee voucher opponents have argued inconsistent testing metrics will complicate efforts to study the effectiveness of school choice initiatives without an apples-to-apples comparison to measure student success.

Majority Leader Jack Johnson, a Republican senator from Franklin, said the legislation is necessary to prevent confusion among families by aligning the ESA program requirements with the Education Freedom Scholarships program, the state’s newer universal voucher program.

Johnson’s bill comes just months after a state audit of the ESA program found that while overall testing outcomes are improving, most students receiving ESA money performed worse on the state’s standardized tests than students in public schools. ESA students did outperform their peers in Memphis-Shelby County schools — the state’s largest district — last year.

The state audit also found that Tennessee public school students who use the ESA program aren’t leaving low-performing public schools, despite voucher supporters initially arguing that families needed such school choice measures to choose higher-performing schools.

The push to relax ESA accountability measures also comes as Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s administration has increased the stakes for public schools when it comes to testing. The administration implemented a new school grading system with higher emphasis on academic outcomes on state tests than on student academic growth over time.

Now, poor testing outcomes can lead to significant consequences for under-performing public schools. Next week, the Tennessee Board of Education will hold accountability hearings for public schools with repeated D and F grades.

Though private schools participating in the ESA program are currently required to take the TCAP, they are not held to the same school grading system.

And even with the TCAP test requirement, the state audit found the Tennessee Department of Education had few plans in place for measuring private school performance or removing private schools with years of low academic performance.

The Senate Education Committee on Wednesday advanced Johnson’s legislation with limited debate. Its House companion bill has languished in subcommittee for weeks, with another hearing planned for March 24.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

With audit looming, Memphis board delays superintendent contract

2026-03-18T20:25:33+00:00

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The Memphis-Shelby County school board delayed finalizing interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond’s permanent contract on Wednesday in an emergency meeting days before state lawmakers expect to receive the results of a forensic audit of the district.

The board in early February voted unanimously to tap Richmond for the permanent job pending the approval of a full-time contract.

But board members voted 7-2 on Wednesday to instead maintain the interim contract, which runs through July, amid a larger debate about whether findings from the impending audit should be baked into a permanent superintendent contract.

The audit is expected to drive Tennessee legislative decisions in the coming weeks on whether to effectively seize major district controls from the elected school board.

“Our decisions should be about stability, not about what the state may or may not be doing,” board chair Natalie McKinney said Wednesday.

Maintaining the interim contract means the district would not be on the hook for a pricey payout if the superintendent is fired because of the state takeover. That has often happened in similar takeovers across the country.

Richmond would be owed $487,500 — 18 months of salary — if he were fired without cause in his first year, according to a draft of the permanent contract. The payout would drop to a 12-month salary lump sum if he were fired in the second year.

“There is a lot of queasiness, quite honestly, in the community regarding a lot that is about to be revealed,” board member Michelle McKissack said. “People are still making commentary regarding some large payouts the district had to make.”

Though takeover legislation has remained dormant so far in the legislative session, the effort could rapidly accelerate in the final weeks of session in March and April.

Republican lawmakers argue that years of fraught board governance and languishing academic outcomes necessitate state intervention. An oversight committee would be made up by Shelby County residents, but those residents would be handpicked by Republican leaders at a time of increased tensions between the state and locally elected officials.

Republican leadership have said the audit will uphold the need for a takeover, though there has been significant leadership turnover in Memphis since the time period being audited. The auditors’ contract runs through January 2027, but legislators pushed for an interim report earlier than expected to coincide with the 2026 legislative session.

“In the last 15 years, this is only the second time our office has contracted for a forensic audit,” Comptroller communications John Dunn said in response to Chalkbeat Tennessee questions about the timing.

“Therefore, there aren’t many precedents for something like this. The legislature asked for an interim report to be produced so that they could evaluate the school system while they are still in session. Since the general assembly appropriated $6 million for this audit, that is certainly their prerogative.”

The Tennessee Comptroller’s office received the audit last week, but it has not yet been released to lawmakers pending final review, according to multiple sources.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

GOP push to expand Tennessee voucher program to 40K students clears first hurdle

2026-03-10T20:12:10+00:00

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A GOP push to double the number of students in Tennessee’s voucher program cleared its first hurdle in the General Assembly on Tuesday.

Gov. Bill Lee and Republican leadership want lawmakers to sign off on a voucher expansion plan that would grow the program — which is in its first year — to 40,000 students. If Republican lawmakers are successful, the change could direct $303 million in public dollars to private schools in the state next school year.

The K-12 education subcommittee voted Tuesday morning 5-3 to advance House Bill 2352, the first official vote on the expansion leaders have been calling for since last fall. Subcommittee chair Kirk Haston, a Republican from Lobelville, joined two Democrats in voting against the bill.

Another vote is expected Wednesday in the Senate Education Committee.

The push to double the program’s size comes just a year after lawmakers passed the initial Education Freedom Scholarship — or EFS — legislation that included an annual cap on growth of 5,000 new seats, which voucher supporters at the time argued would prevent the program from growing too rapidly.

“This is the first year we’ve had this program, and we’re already doubling it because people applied for it,” said Rep. Sam McKenzie, a Knoxville Democrat who voted against the expansion on Tuesday. “This is not the time to expand a voucher program that’s not proven. We don’t have the data on it.”

In current law, Tennessee can legally expand the program from 20,000 students to 25,000 students for next school year, due to the number of applications it received for the program.

The Tennessee Department of Education last month reported 58,000 students applied for the program next year, including 18,644 students currently enrolled in the program who have applied for a renewal.

Last year, 10,000 vouchers were reserved for first-come, first-served applicants. The other half were limited to families who earned 300% or less of the federal income threshold for students to be eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

“The vast majority of these went to hard-working Tennesseans that are struggling to just pay their bills,” House Majority Leader William Lamberth, a Portland Republican sponsoring the bill, said when answering questions about which Tennesseans are benefiting from the program.

The department has not released household income-related data about voucher recipients.

“They feel like — and I trust these parents to be able to make the best decisions for their child’s education — that their child should be able to take advantage of one of these scholarships,” Lamberth said.

Renewal applications for next school year were prioritized and accepted by the state, but families that applied for the program for the first time this year are now stuck in limbo. Their applications are pending but unable to move forward until lawmakers decide on expansion proposals and determine exactly how many vouchers will be available.

Lee has continually pointed to the high level of demand for the program as the sole reason to expand it. There is no data yet indicating the program leads to better outcomes for Tennessee students.

“As you know, we’ve only had those scholarships available for one year, so there’s no data yet that would be of any value,” Lee said last month.

The program requires participants to take a nationally standardized achievement test or the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program. Private schools accepting vouchers must report the test results in June to the Office of Research and Education Accountability, or OREA, in the Tennessee Comptroller’s office. Lawmakers are also set to be notified about test results annually.

While there are a few bipartisan efforts to enforce some accountability measures on the program, they have been knocked back by the Republican supermajority so far in the 2026 legislative session.

In February, Republicans voted down a proposal from McKenzie that would have required the OREA prepare a public report on student demographics in the EFS program and study how many vouchers went to students already enrolled in private schools.

The state education department has denied requests from the media and state lawmakers for data related to previous school enrollment, arguing it was not required to track students’ previous enrollment and therefore cannot report those numbers.

Lawmakers like Rep. Caleb Hemmer, a Nashville Democrat, have locked heads with the department over the issue. Hemmer is now pushing for a larger data transparency bill that could open the department up to more requests from elected officials.

Meanwhile, a Republican-backed bill would require the department to produce an annual report on the program including information on previous school enrollment, annual household incomes, and third-party contract administrative costs.

That legislation, House Bill 1544, could receive its first hearing this week. It is sponsored by Rep. Jody Barrett, a Dickson Republican who has publicly opposed voucher programs in the state.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis board proposes ‘accountability’ plan amid looming state takeover threat

2026-03-06T19:38:07+00:00

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Memphis school board members on Friday announced plans to develop a local accountability oversight council in an effort to stave off a looming state takeover threat that could quickly progress in the coming weeks.

Under the new proposal, a new group made up of some board members, community stakeholders, and elected officials would focus on governance, academic outcomes, long-term facilities planning, and district stability and financial transparency.

The effort was offered as an alternative to a state takeover plan currently being considered by Tennessee Republican lawmakers and spearheaded by two Memphis’ lawmakers unhappy with years of fraught board governance and academic outcomes in the district.

“Our district has faced real challenges, but over the past year, we have begun to see stability, accountability, and forward movement under local leadership,” MSCS board chair Natalie McKinney said at a Friday press conference announcing the plan. “That progress belongs to this community.”

MSCS’ full board would still have to adopt the proposed plan. McKinney and other board members were joined by Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, and other elected officials.

Memphis Superintendent Roderick Richmond was not present at the Friday announcement.

Though a state takeover effort stalled last year, Sen. Brent Taylor and Rep. Mark White have repeatedly said over the last year they will move forward with the plan, which would install an oversight committee of political appointees that would wrest almost all financial controls from the locally elected school board. Supporters of the plan have argued the oversight board, whose appointees would be Shelby County residents, would not amount to a state-run takeover.

The board’s proposal on Friday comes just weeks before a preliminary report is expected in an ongoing Memphis schools financial audit. GOP lawmakers last month received an early, confidential briefing of the audit, which they said reiterated the need for takeover legislation.

After the confidential briefing, the Tennessee Comptroller’s office said auditors would release an early report sometime in March. The Comptroller’s still did not have a firm publication date when asked this week.

Neither Taylor nor White have responded to a Chalkbeat request for comment, though Taylor told the Commercial-Appeal on Friday he would not withdraw his legislation in favor of the board’s proposed accountability plan.

McKinney said she hoped the board will adopt their own accountability plan even if the state takeover moves forward.

Republicans point to Memphis’ low proficiency rates and board drama in recent years as their main concerns with the district. Last year, over 75% of Memphis students failed to achieve proficiency in reading and math.

However, the district earned the highest possible score in academic growth, or student improvement, on state tests for the fourth year in a row.

McKinney on Friday also pointed to significant progress the district has made in its Ready Graduate rate and in school test grades.

“These actions show that progress is already underway,” McKinney said. “That progress deserves full and fair consideration by policy makers and the public.”

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee GOP effort to track K-12 student immigration status advances

2026-03-04T22:52:20+00:00

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Tennessee Republicans continue to advance legislation that would require public schools track and report the immigration status of their students despite heated pushback from local educators.

House Bill 793 would require schools to start tracking and reporting anonymized data on students’ immigration status as early as next school year.

But an amendment filed Wednesday indicates a controversial 2025 effort to either block undocumented students from enrolling in K-12 schools or charge their families tuition is dead for the year.

Bill sponsors previously wanted to use the legislation as a vehicle to challenge the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Plyler v. Doe that protects access to public education for undocumented students.

Senate Republicans passed Senate Bill 836, the bill to charge tuition, last spring (Tennessee has two-year legislative sessions). But its House companion bill stalled amid bipartisan concerns that it could have jeopardized more than $1 billion in federal education funding.

House Majority Leader William Lamberth, a Republican from Portland who sponsors the HB 793, has repeatedly said he was in discussions with the U.S. Department of Education for further guidance on the bill, including a guarantee it wouldn’t jeopardize Tennessee’s federal funding.

That guidance has not materialized, even after Republican leadership said it had worked closely with the Trump White House to develop a hardline immigration package this year.

Lamberth has instead dialed back the bill to a documentation bill at odds with the Senate version.

“We’ve sent several questions to them to try to get answers to a very straightforward question: Would the bill in the previous form endanger $1.1 billion? We have not been given a guarantee that it would not,” Lamberth said.

HB 793 passed out of a House finance subcommittee on Wednesday and is now headed for a hearing in the full committee next week.

The new House bill requires Tennessee public schools to collect documentation on either a student’s citizenship or immigration status. Schools would then be required to report that anonymized data to the Tennessee Department of Education, legislative leaders, and the Tennessee Immigration Enforcement office. That sparked concerns from some immigration advocates about data privacy.

It’s not yet clear if Senate Republicans would agree to changes to the bill. But even dialing back the legislation to a documentation effort could lead to a legal challenge to Plyer.

In 2012, a federal appeals court ruled a similar Alabama law requiring schools to check students’ immigration status when they enrolled was unconstitutional.

Tennessee educators have criticized the legislation, decrying it as both unfair to children and an impractical logistical burden to place on schools whose resources are already stretched thin.

The bipartisan Knox County Board of Education late last year voted to formally oppose immigration documentation requirements. On Wednesday, Knox County Board Member Katherine Bike testified against the legislation in a committee room packed with protesters.

Bike cited a report released this week by the Immigration Research Initiative that estimated requiring Tennessee schools to verify and track the status of 963,000 students could cost the state up to $55 million and require hundreds of new school employees. The legislature’s fiscal analysis has not determined an estimated cost to local districts.

However, the state’s documentation requirements for its recently implemented voucher program, which does not accept undocumented immigrants, show verifying special immigration status such as specialized visa documentation can be complex.

“Where are we going to come up with this money? Is that our special education services that are going to be cut ? Is that our Student Support department, our security budget?” Bike asked. “Where is it going to come from? We always make do but don’t make us do this. I urge you to vote no on this harmful bill.”

Meanwhile, a separate bill that could also require student tracking is progressing through the General Assembly. House Bill 1711 is set up as a trigger bill, meaning it would not be enforced unless the Supreme Court’s Plyler v. Doe ruling is overturned.

A Wednesday committee vote on HB 1711 was delayed until next week.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee would be required to use federal funding to feed low-income students under new bill

2026-03-04T21:23:37+00:00

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A bipartisan group of lawmakers want to require Tennessee to use available federal funding to provide summer grocery funds to low-income students, bucking Gov. Bill Lee’s repeated insistence that the state doesn’t need the federal dollars to help feed 700,000 children during school breaks.

Last summer, the majority of low-income students across Tennessee did not receive supplemental grocery funds for the first time in five years after Lee declined to enroll the state into the 2025 federal program, known as summer EBT or SUN Bucks.

Lee effectively rejected an estimated $75 million in federal funds by doing so, despite entreaties from Democrats, local county mayors, and children’s advocates who argued the funds helped bridge the summer months when students don’t have access to school meals.

Now, a Republican-backed effort to require Tennessee to participate is advancing through the General Assembly and would sidestep a decision from the executive branch not to participate.

Senate Bill 1911 passed committees in both the Senate and the House on Wednesday. The legislation would require the state to apply for the SUN Bucks program any year it is offered.

Sen. Paul Bailey, a Republican from Sparta who is sponsoring the bill, pointed out that all of Tennessee’s neighboring states are already participating in the program. If passed, the bill would become law immediately, though it’s not clear if Tennessee could opt in for 2026 summer benefits months after the December deadline.

Lee’s administration first declined to enroll in the 2025 summer program in late 2024, citing administrative costs the state would have to bear to continue distributing the federal funds. Critics argued the state’s cost, around $5 million, still netted Tennessee a very high return on investment on the $75 million in federal funds.

After questions from lawmakers, the governor’s office quickly stood up a similar but much smaller state-run program, spending $3 million to distribute benefits in 15 counties to about 25,000 children. The program only saved Tennessee about $2 million and benefited far fewer students. Tennessee’s largest counties, including Shelby and Davidson, were excluded from the program.

Lee has again proposed $3 million to fund the smaller program this year.

A legislative analysis estimated Bailey’s bill would cost the state about $7.9 million to draw down more than $95 million in federal funds.

Sen. Bo Watson, a Hixson Republican who chairs the powerful Senate Finance Committee, warned the bill could become a “math problem” as lawmakers advance legislation not currently funded in the governor’s budget.

If Bailey’s bill were to pass, lawmakers could remove Lee’s proposed $3 million program to help fund SUN Bucks.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee teachers face new licensure test requirement under proposed bill

2026-03-03T22:38:25+00:00

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Could you pass a 100-question U.S. citizenship test?

Aspiring Tennessee teachers may soon have to do that to earn their state licensure under new legislation currently being considered in the General Assembly.

The Tennessee Civics Education Act would require aspiring Tennessee teachers to score 70% or higher on a 100-question U.S. civics test to earn their practitioner teaching license, adding a new testing prerequisite on top of existing licensure requirements like the PRAXIS exam.

The bill would require the Tennessee Department of Education to craft the test using 100 questions from the standard U.S. citizenship test, which requires applicants to answer 12 out of 20 questions correctly drawn from a 128-question pool.

Lawmakers have not settled on which Tennessee teachers the proposed law would apply to, though. While the Senate version of the bill would apply to all aspiring teachers, House lawmakers on Tuesday applied an amendment that would limit the test to teachers seeking licensure in grade 6 -12 in social studies, history, government, or civics subjects.

Tennessee would enforce the new testing requirement as early as January 2027, if the measure ultimately passes into law.

Tennessee Republicans have largely backed the bill, advancing it through its first committee hurdles last month and giving it another favorable vote in the House Education Committee on Tuesday.

Sen. Brent Taylor, a Memphis Republican who is sponsoring the Senate version of the bill, said any K-12 teacher in the state should have a “functioning understanding of what it means to be an American and how our system of government works.”

“I don’t think it’s too much to ask somebody who’s going to spend eight hours a day with our students, teaching them, that they understand American civics,” Taylor said.

Democrats have largely opposed the measure due to concerns with additional licensing burdens for Tennessee teachers.

“Teachers already have a lot of steps they have to take for licensure,” said Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari, a Democrat from Memphis.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee private school teachers without a degree could get emergency teaching permits under new bill

2026-02-20T05:45:10+00:00

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Some Tennessee private school teachers without a college degree would be eligible to teach in public schools under a new bill advanced by the Senate Education Committee this week.

Senate Bill 2019 would allow private school teachers without a college degree to obtain a temporary public school teaching waiver, a move one national teacher quality organization said could lead to unprepared teachers.

The bill received a unanimous vote from the education committee with bipartisan support after Sen. Dawn White amended the bill to include more stringent experience requirements.

To qualify for the temporary waiver, private school candidates would need 10 years of experience teaching in a category I, II, or III private school in Tennessee.

Sen. Dawn White, a Republican from Murfreesboro, said she sponsored the legislation after speaking with a constituent who had taught for more than two decades at a private school and had a college degree. The teacher had lost the documentation for the degree, and their university had closed years ago. Without that documentation, they aren’t able to get a temporary teaching permit under Tennessee’s current emergency waiver rules.

White’s bill would only allow the temporary waivers for private school teachers if the public school cannot find a qualified teacher with a valid license.

“Rutherford County could not find someone to fill this position,” White said. “We want to put safeguards in this. We don’t want to diminish (public teaching) licenses or the profession of education whatsoever.”

The waiver would require teachers be paired with a colleague mentor and the waiver would only be valid for three years, though it could be renewed by the state Board of Education.

Teachers with the waiver could not teach special education classes or classes with end-of-course exams.

Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, said the legislation is taking “shortcuts” that will cost students.

“Experience alone at a private school doesn’t tell you whether teachers have learned the knowledge and skills they need to be successful in the classroom,” Peske said. “That’s why licensure is so important.”

“Would I want my own children taught by teachers who haven’t completed a college program, who don’t have a bachelor’s degree? The answer to that is no. I don’t think those people have the content knowledge to be successful at teaching my children.”

Peske said there doesn’t appear to be precedent elsewhere for letting private school teachers without college degrees into public classrooms. Florida will grant temporary permits to military veterans without a bachelor’s degree as long as they have 60 college credit hours and can pass a state subject area exam.

Other states have various emergency waiver policies for public school teachers amid stubbornly high rates of teacher vacancies across the country.

But some states have begun to pull back on emergency waivers and temporary teaching licenses. Texas lawmakers last year passed a law restricting what subjects uncertified teachers could teach and will help uncertified teachers pay for some costs of getting credentialed.

Tennessee schools have struggled with high vacancy rates in part caused by high turnover and attrition. Rates of new graduates from Tennessee teacher training programs have also declined in recent years.

Data released by the Tennessee Department of Education in November indicated total teacher vacancies, defined as a position left unfilled for 20 or more days, declined from 1,434 in fall 2023 to 817 in fall 2024, a 43% reduction.

However, the number of vacancies filled by emergency hires increased by more than 300% in the last five years.

Last school year alone, 6,579 emergency credentials were issued. A portion of those emergency credentials include emergency endorsements, which is when an otherwise credentialed educator is granted permission to teach outside of their area of expertise.

Most emergency credentials are temporary permits for unlicensed teachers. Tennessee currently requires them to have a bachelor’s degree.

SB 2109 will now go before the Senate Finance Committee. Its House companion bill has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Immigration trigger bill would require Tennessee schools to track, report student status

2026-02-17T23:30:09+00:00

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A controversial proposed law that would require public schools to track and report the immigration status of their students advanced in the Tennessee House on Tuesday despite pushback from educators and immigrant advocates.

House Bill 1711 is the second piece of legislation currently in the Tennessee General Assembly that could require educators to report the legal status of public school students in the state.

It is not yet clear how the bills could be implemented without running afoul of federal education policy and endangering the more than $1 billion in federal education funding Tennessee currently relies on to help fund its public schools.

A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case, Plyler v. Doe, established a longstanding legal precedent that it is unconstitutional to deny children access to a public education based on their immigration status.

Last year, Tennessee Senate Republicans passed Senate Bill 836, which was aimed at overturning the Plyler precedent, despite objections from Democrats and some Republicans who criticized the effort to draw children into a political debate over immigration issues.

The House companion bill stalled in committee over concerns it would jeopardize Tennessee’s federal education funding. The House sponsor, Majority Leader William Lamberth, requested further guidance from the U.S. Department of Education.

That guidance is forthcoming, Lamberth said earlier this year, and Republican leaders want to push forward with the bill this year.

The U.S. Department of Education has not returned a Chalkbeat Tennessee request for comment, though, nor has it taken a public position on the legislation over the past year as lawmakers have discussed the issue.

House Bill 1711 is written as a trigger law, which means Tennessee public schools would not be required to track and report the immigration status of students until the Plyler precedent has been overturned. Tennessee Republicans have passed similar trigger laws on other issues in the past, such as the state’s abortion ban that was inactive until the fall of Roe v. Wade.

Rep. Elaine Davis, a Republican from Knoxville, is sponsoring the legislation. Davis on Tuesday argued that local officials need to know the immigration status of people accessing public benefits, such as public education, social services, and public medical benefits for financial accountability.

“We are a nation of laws,” Davis said. “We have a social contract with each other. Part of that duty and responsibility is to make sure we’re not ripping each other off. If people are here taking advantage of services and dollars we have specifically set aside for our citizens and our communities, that to me is a violation of our laws.”

Tennessee public schools are largely funded through sales taxes, which are paid by all consumers in a community regardless of immigration status.

A Tennessee teacher testified against the bill on Tuesday, arguing the bill would “introduce fear and distrust in our schools.”

“Do you want schools to focus on positive student academic outcomes, or do you want schools to be an instrument of immigration enforcement?” said Betsy Hobkirk, who has been an elementary school teacher in Knox County for 15 years. “How would immigrant status data be collected in an educational system that is already overtaxed? It would divert resources away from our mission of educating children.”

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee House passes bill allowing Ten Commandments displays in schools

2026-02-12T22:12:45+00:00

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Tennessee House Republicans on Thursday approved a bill allowing, though not requiring, public schools to display the Ten Commandments.

Supporters of the bill have argued the language from the Christian Bible is a foundational historical document relevant to K-12 education across the state. House Democrats pushed back on Thursday, arguing the measure raises constitutional concerns and infringes on the rights of students who may not practice Christianity.

“If you want to have religion in schools, there are private schools that kids can go to,” Rep. Justin Pearson, a Democrat from Memphis, said Thursday. “In fact, this body passed vouchers to allow for kids to go to private religious schools, using public money to do so.”

Supporters of Tennessee’s proposed law say it can withstand constitutional questions because public schools can choose whether or not to display the language from the Christian Bible. The law also treats the Ten Commandments as a historical document, aligning it with the U.S. or Tennessee Constitution.

“We’re not forcing anybody to do anything,” sponsor Rep. Michael Hale, a Smithville Republican, said Thursday.

Despite the House passage of the bill, the legislation still has a way to go in the upper chamber. Senate Bill 303, the companion bill, has not yet been scheduled for a committee hearing.

The effort is part of a larger legal U.S. fight over Ten Commandments displays in schools.

Laws requiring school displays have been struck down over constitutional concerns, but a potential U.S. Supreme Court fight is brewing over the issue.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is currently considering constitutional challenges to two Texas and Louisiana laws. Opponents of the laws argue they violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause prohibiting the government from endorsing or promoting a specific religion.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis leaders criticize ‘premature’ audit comments from GOP lawmakers

2026-02-11T16:01:30+00:00

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Memphis-Shelby County Schools interim leader Roderick Richmond says state lawmakers’ comments about the forensic audit of the district are “premature,” given no findings have been officially reported.

Last week, the Tennessee Comptroller and audit company CliftonLarsonAllen held a meeting with select Tennessee lawmakers in Nashville to present updates on the $6 million forensic investigation of MSCS that’s been happening since August. Legislators called the update “concerning,” but refused to give details about what they learned.

In an interview Tuesday, Richmond called out GOP lawmakers for speaking on the audit before any conclusions or findings have been reached.

“I think there’s a certain level of embellishment in regards to saying it’s extremely troubling,” he said. “The ethical thing to do is for people to not interfere with any type of forensic investigation prematurely, because interfering could impact the outcome of the investigation.”

Rep. Mark White and Sen. Brent Taylor, both Republicans representing the Memphis area, are using that Feb. 4 update from the audit company CLA to bolster calls for an aggressive state takeover of MSCS. Other GOP lawmakers want to spend more time and money to expand the audit.

But Richmond says the audit is already draining district time and resources. During a board meeting Tuesday, he shared that MSCS has provided over 450 documents, some of which are hundreds of pages long, to CLA in the past six months.

“I just don’t think people can truly understand the gravity of what my team and I, along with the support of our board, have navigated,” Richmond said. MSCS staff “are doing these things in real time, while also managing our day-to-day work,” he added.

Richmond says CLA is required by contract to immediately share any evidence of fraud or illegal acts with the comptroller. But he hasn’t heard anything indicating that has happened.

“As I’ve always said, we welcome the audit,” Richmond added. “It’s not a reflection on me and my leadership.”

The forensic investigation is focused on MSCS operations from July 2021 through June 2024, long before Richmond was appointed as interim superintendent – and predating more than half of the current school board. CLA is also conducting a “digital assessment,” which Richmond said includes reviewing emails, through this year.

“This audit is extremely comprehensive,” he said. “You’re talking about a $2 billion organization, and so I didn’t know, really, if the audit would take 12 months, 24 months, 36 months.”

That’s why Richmond says he never expected the audit to be complete before this legislative session is over, despite what state takeover advocates originally wanted. Neither CLA nor the comptroller have provided a specific timeline for the investigation.

Board Chair Natalie McKinney said during Tuesday’s meeting that she welcomes feedback on the district’s “legacy systems and antiquated records.”

“We view this as an opportunity to work with the state to strengthen our system,” she said. “Please understand that we welcome oversight, reject speculation, and remain committed to facts, integrity, and responsible governance.”

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Will Memphis hold a formal search for its next superintendent?

2026-02-10T22:18:09+00:00

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Memphis school board members are expected to vote Wednesday on whether they will conduct a full search for the next superintendent amid state takeover pushes that could render their decision irrelevant.

Interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond’s contract expires at the end of July. The Memphis-Shelby County school board appointed Richmond, who’s worked in the district for over 30 years, almost immediately after firing former superintendent Marie Feagins last January.

Board members could sidestep a drawn-out superintendent search and instead extend Richmond’s contract with a simple majority vote, which some expressed support for at a Jan. 20 board meeting. The last formal superintendent search took over a year and caused board member infighting and controversies.

MSCS board members have three options when considering a new superintendent contract:

Extend Richmond’s contract by up to four years with a simple majority board vote.
Declare a vacancy in the superintendent position and appoint a new leader with a 2/3 majority board vote.
Conduct a full national or local search, including developing and collecting applications and hosting public interviews. The final candidate would be chosen by a 2/3 board vote.

District policy says the board must give Richmond at least 15 days notice before extending his contract or removing him from office, which they could do at any time.

The process to choose MSCS’ next leader comes as Tennessee Republicans continue to push for a state takeover of the district. Rep. Mark White and Sen. Brent Taylor, both Republicans from the Memphis area, say they’re confident they’ll pass bills to create a state-appointed board of managers that would usurp the powers of the local MSCS board, including the hiring and firing of superintendents.

“At this point, the school board and the superintendent can make whatever decisions they want,” Taylor said in a Friday appearance on WKNO. “It’s immaterial to what we’re going to do in the legislature. And at this point, they’re as irrelevant as a nutrition chart on a bag of ice.”

Taylor said the board of managers could fire the next superintendent even if the MSCS board issues a contract before the takeover law passes. And both lawmakers point to the 2023 takeover of Houston’s public school district as a model. The state immediately fired the local superintendent.

At this point, they’re as irrelevant as a nutrition chart on a bag of ice.
Sen. Brent Taylor, talking about MSCS board & superintendent

Richmond says he wants the permanent leadership role to continue to provide stability to a district that’s seen five superintendents in the past 10 years.

“We can’t continue to have high turnover at the top,” Richmond told Chalkbeat in a Jan. 29 interview. “You build trust through relationships.”

Richmond received mixed reviews from MSCS teachers on an informal survey presented by the board Jan. 20. But principals and current board members gave the interim leader high marks on areas like student achievement and strategic vision.

The interim leader declined to speculate on what would happen to his role if the state takeover prevails.

“I think anybody who’s in a position of leadership has to be open to change, and they have to be adaptable,” Richmond said. “But as of today, that’s not the current state of our district, so my team and I would just stay focused on what’s within our control.”

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

GOP says Memphis schools audit is ‘concerning’ and more money is needed to complete it

2026-02-05T21:36:54+00:00

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Top Tennessee Republicans say they are concerned about potential financial records mismanagement in Memphis-Shelby County Schools after they received a confidential briefing this week on the ongoing financial audit into the state’s biggest school district.

Republican lawmakers on Thursday did not provide details of what they learned from auditors on Wednesday, citing confidentiality concerns until the audit, which so far has cost $6 million, is complete. But some legislators said the audit reiterated the need to pass aggressive Memphis district takeover legislation the House Republicans are pushing.

“I won’t speak to the details of what they reported, because their report is not complete, but there are certainly indications there that there’s really poor records management, at a minimum, and the potential for waste, fraud and abuse is extensive,” said Sen. Bo Watson, a Hixson Republican who chairs the Senate Finance Committee.

In an emailed statement, MSCS leaders said they meet with the audit firm weekly and have not been informed of any “potential or suspected findings related to fraud, waste or abuse.”

“We understand the gravity of these concerns, and we take them seriously,” the statement says. “MSCS has strong internal controls in place and will continue working closely with the audit team to address any findings promptly and responsibly.”

Watson said Thursday more money is needed to get the audit across the finish line, though neither he nor House leadership would speak to how much additional funding is needed. Watson said the audit firm told lawmakers the search will take longer than it anticipated due to “the level of disorganization” and “extensive” lack of information from the district.

“Much of the record is in a paper format with poor cross references, lack of invoices, a computer system that is designed to allow for certain records to disappear after a certain time period,” Watson said. “There’s a lot of forensic investigation that’s having to occur.”

Lawmakers didn’t reference any allegations of fraud. And district leaders said they are aware their systems are outdated, but they are in line with state and federal regulations.

“Importantly, instead of directing additional taxpayer dollars toward expanded audits alone, we would welcome targeted financial support from the State to help modernize outdated systems,” MSCS said in its emailed statement.

Lawmakers funded the audit after the controversial 2025 firing of then-Superintendent Marie Feagins, which also prompted Republicans to float legislation last year to seize some control of MSCS functions.

Memphis Republican Sen. Brent Taylor and Rep. Mark White, who are sponsoring Memphis takeover bills, both declined to get into specifics about what they learned at the audit update. But White said he heard some “very concerning” details, and Taylor said the update reiterated his goal to pass the more aggressive House takeover bill.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Crossville Republican, said the concerns raised by the ongoing audit support the need for state-led oversight of the Memphis district.

“It further tells us that the House version is correct, which is a total takeover of the Memphis-Shelby County school system. I can’t go in more detail than that, but we’re having those conversations. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to take them over, because it’s a nightmare,” Sexton said.

The Tennessee Comptroller held the closed-door meeting on Wednesday with auditors and lawmakers. It’s not clear who was invited to the meeting or if the district was informed lawmakers would be briefed.

MSCS board member Michelle McKissack said she thinks auditors should share what it’s found publicly before the state invests more money.

“We have not heard or received anything at all from the state, and so it’s starting to feel like a fishing expedition,” McKissack said. “I don’t know what exactly they are looking for and how far back they’re going.”

McKissack said she initially supported the audit as a way to collaborate with the state to improve district functions.

“I believe that with a school district of this size, how large it is, that there could be some discrepancies,” she added. “But all the audits that we’ve had previously have been conducted with an outside party and came back clean.”

The Comptroller’s office declined to provide details on the meeting to Chalkbeat Tennessee. A spokesperson said the update was not based on any final findings but confidential working papers, which are shielded from Tennessee public records law.

Last year, Tennessee lawmakers approved $6 million for the financial audit, and accounting firm CliftonLarsonAllen, LLP signed a contract with the Tennessee Comptroller in July. The contract is set to expire in January 2027.

Per state law, the district already submits annual financial and compliance audits performed by an external firm, which have on occasion revealed things such as payroll lapses and contract overpayment.

Though takeover legislation stalled last year over disagreements between the two chambers, it could move forward quickly if leadership can strike a compromise this spring.

House Republicans favor a more aggressive approach that would install an oversight board, handpicked by the governor and legislative leaders, to assume control of all major district decisions. The more muted Senate approach would install a similar oversight board that had less power and more input from local elected officials.

Taylor, the Senate sponsor, is now on board with the House plan. He said Wednesday the audit update only solidified his decision to pursue a more aggressive takeover.

Democrats have opposed takeover efforts, though they have little legislative power to stop it if Senate and House Republicans can agree on a path forward.

In the emailed statement Thursday, MSCS leaders said they always welcome opportunities for improvement, including the state audit.

“The discussion should reflect not only challenges but also the significant progress the district has made in recent years to strengthen financial management,” the statement said. “We look forward to continuing our partnership with the State, addressing any findings that emerge, and working collaboratively to strengthen the fiscal operations that support our students, families, and community.”

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee Republicans advance bill to allow Ten Commandments displays in schools

2026-02-03T21:33:46+00:00

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Tennessee Republicans this week advanced legislation to allow public schools to display the Ten Commandments.

The House Education Committee passed House Bill 47 on Tuesday over the objections of some Democrats who argued constitutional concerns would open up individual schools to lengthy lawsuits.

The bill would allow — though not require — local Tennessee schools to display the Ten Commandments as a “historically significant” document alongside documents like the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

The effort is part of a larger legal fight over Ten Commandments displays in schools.

Historically, laws requiring school displays have been struck down over constitutional concerns. But the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is currently considering constitutional challenges to two Texas and Louisiana laws, whose opponents argue violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause prohibiting the government from endorsing or promoting a specific religion. The eventual ruling could lead to a larger U.S. Supreme Court fight over the issue.

Tennessee lawmakers on Tuesday were advised by committee legal counsel that legal precedent has previously allowed education on Biblical history when it is taught for a secular purpose. Supporters of the bill argued allowing the religious text alongside displays with American or Tennessee historical documents would fit within that precedent.

With the House Education Committee vote on Tuesday, the bill has cleared its final significant committee hurdle in the lower chamber. Its companion bill has not yet been scheduled for a committee hearing.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis school takeover opponents are gearing up for a public fight

2026-02-03T19:21:12+00:00

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Last March, a group of Memphis faith and nonprofit leaders rallied outside the school district’s headquarters holding signs with “S.O.S.” printed in bright red letters.

It was a public show of community solidarity with Memphis-Shelby County Schools, which was facing threats of a state takeover from Tennessee lawmakers. The grassroots Save Our Students coalition called the proposal to establish a state-appointed oversight board “an attack on democracy.”

The group hosted a series of town halls and community meetings through May, shortly after the state legislature failed to pass a cohesive takeover bill. But since last summer, public pushback has been notably muted, even as Memphis Republicans signaled through the summer and fall they were working on a compromise to push the takeover bill forward in early 2026.

Community response seems to be “radio silent,” Liz Marable, president of the United Education Association chapter in Memphis, said. But former Save Our Students members say they’re taking a more behind-the-scenes advocacy approach, at least until they better understand what they’re up against.

“The organizing never stopped,” said Joseph Kyles, president of Rainbow PUSH Coalition Memphis. “But at this point, it’s all in terms of strategy. You need to know what you are fighting against, and the bill is not clear. The relationship between the Senate and the House is not clear.”

Kyles said he thinks rallies will kick up again after lawmakers learn early results of the district’s financial audit, which are expected Wednesday, and a final version of the takeover bill is developed.

White and Taylor could fast-track their bill through the legislative session if GOP leadership were on board with the compromise plan. While the House wants to push forward with a more aggressive state takeover, some Senate Republican leadership are hesitant about installing an oversight board with no input from local Memphis leaders.

Interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond said he’s met with a number of lawmakers about the state takeover pushes over the last year and regularly communicates with White and Taylor. As the “chief advocate for the district,” Richmond said he’s primarily been spreading word of MSCS’ growth.

“Just because people aren’t screaming and yelling doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t have people who are being supportive via other channels,” he added. “I would like to think that there are more people advocating for us than against us.”

Some Memphis community leaders say the recent immigration crackdown led by the Memphis Safe Task Force, a deployment of federal and state agencies against the wishes of local leadership, has drained energy and resources.

“People are gearing up for immigration fights and the harms that are being caused to people in our community,” said Cardell Orrin, executive director of Stand for Children Tennessee. “Most of the organizations here are not education-specific. So there’s still interest, but there’s an organizing gap.”

Memphis takeover opponents argue that they want state support instead of overreach. Marable, leader of the local teachers’ group, said the state should invest more money into the school system for wraparound student services and strengthen affordable housing.

“We’re not asking the state to walk away; we’re asking them to be a real partner,” Marable said. “If Tennessee is really about student success, I think it has to invest and not control, because they don’t have the power to run schools. They’ve proven that over and over.”

In 2012, Tennessee lawmakers took control of around 30 Memphis schools under what they called the Achievement School District. That experiment, meant to boost school performance, is largely considered a failure. Most state takeovers over the past three decades haven’t successfully improved student achievement.

But proponents for the MSCS takeover want to use Houston’s takeover in 2023 as a model. Luke Cymbal, vice president of the Shelby County Republican Party, says he’s met with Houston’s new state-appointed superintendent alongside White and Taylor.

“I think the result there speaks for itself,” Cymbal said.

Student reading and math proficiency scores have improved in Houston since 2023. But some researchers and the Houston teachers union have raised concerns about the validity of the A-F school rating system, which was overhauled the same year that the state takeover began.

“The data just does not support takeover,” Richmond said. “What the data supports is more of a partnership approach, a co-management approach, where all of us want the same thing.”

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Gov. Bill Lee wants $155 million to fund 20,000 new vouchers

2026-02-03T00:05:16+00:00

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Gov. Bill Lee wants Tennessee lawmakers to invest more than $155 million into the state’s voucher program, which would double the Education Freedom Scholarships pool from 20,000 to 40,000 private school vouchers.

Lee’s proposed budget also would more than double the costs of the program and blow past the expansion cap lawmakers voted on last year, growing the program beyond its original limits despite little data to indicate the program is impacting student achievement.

If Lee achieves his goal, Tennessee would spend more than $303 million in public dollars next fiscal year to help send 40,000 students to private schools across the state.

“Last year, we gave families school choice with the Education Freedom Scholarship program, because parents know best,” Lee said Monday night at his final State of the State address. “Clearly, Tennesseans like freedom. Last year, we received more than 40,000 applications, and this year, 54,000 applications so far for 20,000 spots. That means, right now, 34,000 students are still waiting for a shot at Education Freedom. We owe it to them.”

The proposed EFS program costs would be a fraction of the overall $7.9 billion proposed for the K-12 education budget. But the voucher expansion would account for one-third of the state’s total year-over-year increase in education funding.

In his budget proposal released on Monday, Lee called for nearly $380 million of new funds for K-12 education in the state. Though the total K-12 budget has grown, it is the lowest proposed new spending infusion for education in the last five years.

Lee on Monday indicated voucher expansion will be a major legislative goal in his final year in office. He introduced special guest Milton Nettles, who is the principal of Lighthouse Christian Academy in Antioch.

“Once a public school teacher himself, he believes parents know best, and he’s seen hundreds of students find their fit at Lighthouse and parents who have a choice, at last,” Lee said, noting 77% of Lighthouse’s students are using EFS vouchers. “Still, he says, it isn’t enough, and I agree. Growing the program would open the doors of opportunity for thousands more children statewide.”

Despite the governor’s push to solidify his voucher legacy before leaving office, it may be an uphill battle in the legislature to achieve his aggressive goal, even among school choice-friendly Republicans.

The General Assembly will have little wiggle room in the upcoming budget and fewer dollars to spend on new initiatives. Lee’s proposed overall state budget is nearly 10% smaller than the current fiscal year’s, which finance officials said is largely due to expiring federal funds but is also occurring amid a slowing Tennessee economy.

Lawmakers would also have to alter their original plans for the program. Republicans last year approved the program with an expansion cap that only allowed the state to add 5,000 vouchers this year if there was enough demand in applications.

Lee wants those 5,000 new vouchers plus an additional 15,000, which will require new legislation to enact.

House Republican Caucus Chair Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, said in January he thinks there’s support for the expected 5,000 new vouchers but was skeptical about a more aggressive expansion.

“There will be some spirited debate about growing it from that,” Faison, who is not seeking reelection this year, said. “I would say that it’ll just be a debate. I don’t necessarily see that taking place other than just following the groundwork that we laid last year.”

Lee’s budget proposal will bump up Tennessee teacher pay, increasing the minimum annual teacher salary from $47,000 to $50,000. This would achieve a 2023 pledge to increase their base pay.

Other K-12 budget increases include a $170 million infusion to the public education funding formula, $40 million for the charter school facilities fund, and a $2.6 million increase to reimburse local districts for paid parental leave.

Lee’s budget is also rolling forward $80 million for the public education funding formula from this fiscal year, which finance officials said was left over after public school enrollment was lower than expected this year.

Sen. Jeff Yarbro, a Democrat from Nashville, said he was concerned the increases to the public education funding formula isn’t keeping up with inflation increases in recent years.

“It’s deeply troubling to me that we’re talking about doubling the size of a program that is brand new, and we’re not even keeping public school funding up to par with inflation,” Yarbro said during a Tuesday budget presentation.

Lee also wants $5 million to fund summer learning camps. In November, Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds asked the governor for $30 million for the program, pointing to measurable academic gains for the 90,000 students enrolled last year.

School-based summer learning camps are one of several promotion pathways rising fourth graders can use to move on from third grade if they don’t hit the benchmarks required by the state’s third grade reading law.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee Republicans want a Houston-style takeover of Memphis schools. What does that mean?

2026-01-22T13:00:00+00:00

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Tennessee Republicans are pushing forward their plans to take over Memphis-Shelby County Schools, and they’re using the recent overhaul of Houston’s public school district as a model.

In 2023, Texas’ top education leader removed the Houston Independent School District superintendent and elected board members and replaced them with his own picks. Now, some Tennessee lawmakers want a similar intervention in Memphis. They’re inching closer to establishing a state-appointed board of managers that would have control over the district’s budget and leadership hires.

While takeover advocates applaud higher school ratings in Houston as a sign of the takeover’s success, those ratings don’t measure achievement in the way that Tennessee Republicans say they want to see Memphis schools improve.

Bill sponsors point to Memphis’ low proficiency rate as the main problem they’re hoping to solve with a takeover. Last year, over 75% of Memphis students failed to achieve proficiency in reading and math. But the district earned the highest possible score in academic growth, or student improvement on state tests, for the fourth year in a row.

That academic growth isn’t enough according to Republican lawmakers pushing for a takeover, such as House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Memphis Republican Rep. Mark White, the sponsor of the legislation. White and Sen. Brent Taylor, sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, say Memphis students should be testing on par with the state average, where around 40% of students test as proficient.

“You can have a little bit of growth because the children are so far behind in the classroom, but if you don’t get them up to proficiency, we’re still not there,” White said in a Jan. 20 interview with Chalkbeat.

What counts as student and school improvement?

Research shows that most state takeovers happening in the past three decades haven’t successfully improved student achievement, especially for Black students. Houston is touted by supporters as a notable exception.

Over the past two years, HISD students have improved their reading and math scores. On average, just over half of HISD students in grades 3-8 achieved reading proficiency in 2025, and over 42% did the same in math. That’s around a seven percentage point increase from 2023 for both metrics. And most grades — third, fifth, sixth, and seventh — outperformed the state average.

Overall school rating scores also improved, with Houston leaders announcing that no schools received an F rating on the state report card last year. But some researchers and the Houston teachers union have raised concerns about the validity of the A-F rating system, which was overhauled the same year that the state takeover began.

In 2023, the Texas Education Agency altered its accountability system to place more value on growth, or how much students improve, than on raw test scores.

Cardell Orrin, director of the nonprofit Stand for Children Tennessee, said Memphis students are also seeing significant growth in reading and math proficiency. But they aren’t being rewarded under Tennessee’s achievement-focused grading system.

“We all know there are ways to game accountability systems,” Orrin said. “If your goal is to get schools to perform better … then we should be really clear about the how and what of it.”

It’s not clear what changes the state-appointed board would make for Memphis-Shelby County Schools. The takeover legislation could change significantly before lawmakers pass it.

White said the board would first conduct a 90-day in-depth analysis of the district and have the power to enact any changes it deems necessary. A newly installed board would have final say over the district’s budget, the superintendent’s contract, and charter schools, essentially seizing all major decisions from the elected school board.

Though GOP lawmakers say they are primarily dissatisfied with the district’s academic achievement, the MSCS takeover has also been spurred by years of school board dysfunction. The board’s firing of then-Superintendent Marie Feagins just months into her tenure led to White and Taylor filing takeover legislation last year.

“It’s not just the failing schools that need to be fixed,” Taylor said. “It’s the systems and the central office that needs to be corrected. They spend more time on personnel and real estate than they do on policies to better educate and improve educational outcomes for our kids.”

Would Memphis scrap district leadership and overhaul classroom curriculum?

In Houston, the new state-appointed superintendent, Mike Miles, implemented a controversial teacher pay model based on test score performance. He also cut 1,500 central office positions and reduced the number of support staff helping students experiencing homelessness and hunger.

Miles requires over 130 Houston schools to use a standardized curriculum he created under a program called the New Education System. He says the move is designed to help teachers, but some opponents — including students — say the lessons feel restrictive and militaristic. Libraries now serve as disciplinary centers or are gone from schools entirely.

Texas’ takeover also spurred a massive student and teacher exodus in Houston, which are already critical issues plaguing MSCS schools.

Domingo Morel, a professor at New York University who studies state takeovers of local schools, said most local residents wind up unhappy with the methods used by state interventionists and the results.

“Because what state takeovers ultimately do is they force the community to absorb certain policies that they just don’t want,” Morel said. “People don’t want to lose arts programs. They don’t want the libraries to close. They don’t want their teachers to be fired.”

Houston’s takeover largely centered on the underperformance of one school. After years of lawsuits and protests, Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath appointed a new district superintendent on June 1, 2023. He also selected a nine-member school board made up of Houston residents, most from the same wealthy neighborhood in the city.

Tennessee Republicans are promising to put local residents on their state-appointed board as well. But Morel says including local residents doesn’t necessarily better represent local concerns.

“It ultimately creates tensions when the community has a particular vision for what they want to see, but the state has a conflicting vision,” he said. “Those appointed board members, who are they going to listen to? They have to be accountable to the state.”

White didn’t rule out any of the changes enacted in Houston for the Memphis takeover, including whether the new board would immediately fire the district superintendent.

“The main thing I’m interested in is making sure we address the challenges and the weaknesses in the Memphis-Shelby County school system,” he said. Houston is a model, he said, “but that doesn’t mean our model will be exactly the same.”

Morath announced in June that Houston’s takeover will continue through 2027. The current language in White’s takeover bill, which Taylor has thrown his support behind, would include a three-year limit for the takeover board with an option to extend.

Despite their agreement, there isn’t full support for the bill yet among legislative Republicans. The most notable holdout is Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, a Republican from Oak Ridge who is hesitant to install a handpicked board without input from local elected officials.

Next steps for the takeover effort are expected to become more clear in late January, after lawmakers are briefed on an ongoing audit into Memphis finances.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee GOP wants to track K-12 student immigration status

2026-01-15T19:49:00+00:00

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Tennessee Republicans want all students to verify their citizenship, residency, or immigration status as part of an aggressive immigration package they say was developed with the Trump White House.

But there were no details on how exactly the policy that top GOP leaders rolled out on Thursday would play out inside Tennessee schools.

No new legislation has been filed, though it’s possible lawmakers could use a 2025 bill to advance the issue.

Democrats and immigration advocates sharply criticized the proposed policies.

“Teachers don’t need to be worried about where their students are from or how they got here,” said Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of TIRRC Votes, an immigration advocacy group.

Republican leadership did not say whether local schools or the Tennessee Department of Education would be responsible for verifying immigration status or where such data would be held.

Nor would they say whether the state would require that the immigration status of a student and potentially their family members be reported to federal or state law enforcement.

Republicans want to require local governments to report unverified immigration status of people seeking public benefits to ICE and Tennessee immigration enforcement.

Lawmakers also were unsure whether requiring this verification would jeopardize federal education funding, a concern that stalled a similar bill in 2025.

“I think we’re still waiting for the Department of Education at the federal level to send us some guidance from them on what it looks like on funding,” House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican from Crossville, said. “That’s the biggest question remaining. We’re still working through the issues of what that would look like as far as collecting the data.”

Last year, the GOP supermajority sparked major protests when top Republicans pushed legislation targeting undocumented students in Tennessee schools.

Bill sponsors Sen. Bo Watson, a Republican from Hixson, and House Minority Leader William Lamberth, a Republican from Portland, said at the time they hoped to challenge longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent that protects public education access for undocumented children.

Initial versions of the bill would have allowed schools to block undocumented students from enrolling and later charge them tuition.

The sponsors argued that undocumented students could be draining school resources if more English language learners need specialized instruction, for example. Opponents countered that Tennessee schools are significantly funded through sales taxes, which undocumented immigrants pay.

The Senate passed SB 836, but it stalled in the House amid opposition from some Republicans and concerns it would jeopardize federal education funding. HB 793 is still technically live, though, and could move forward in the House at any time in 2026.

Last year, Lamberth said he requested clarification from the U.S. Department of Education about the bill and federal funding questions. Nine months later, it does not appear the state has received any clarification.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa atmbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee legislature revives Memphis schools takeover bill

2026-01-14T15:47:24+00:00

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A proposed takeover of Memphis-Shelby County Schools is inching forward in the Tennessee General Assembly, though it’s still unclear how much control a proposed oversight board might have over the state’s largest school district.

The House and Senate sponsors of the legislation, both Republicans from Memphis, want the same thing: a state-appointed oversight board of Shelby County residents authorized to make the final call on all major MSCS governing decisions, including its budget and its superintendent’s contract.

House leadership is also on board, while top Senate Republicans appear more hesitant to install an oversight board without local political leaders’ input.

Democrats have resisted the measure altogether, pointing to the failure of previous state interventions.

A state takeover would hit Shelby County amid an already tense period in local-state relations and significant upheaval at MSCS, after the abrupt firing of its superintendent a year ago. All nine school board seats are up for election this year, and the interim superintendent’s contract expires this summer.

Some Republicans divided over scope of oversight board’s powers

The House on Wednesday chose not to accept a 2025 Senate proposal on the issue. The Senate is expected to do the same to the 2025 House proposal, setting up an opportunity for lawmakers to hash out a compromise bill in a conference committee.

Republicans last year failed to find a compromise on their versions of the takeover legislation, in part after Senate Republicans balked at installing an interventionist board without input from local political leaders like the Shelby County mayor.

But Senate sponsor Brent Taylor said Tuesday he “no longer trusts” the mayor’s judgment, nor that of the Shelby County Commission, after months of local-state tensions over Tennessee’s deployment of the National Guard in Memphis and a federal law enforcement surge. The Shelby County mayor and other elected officials have sued Gov. Bill Lee over the issue.

“That’s why I think we need the House version, where the speakers and the governor appoint local people, people from Memphis and Shelby County that will go in and actually run the school system, turn it around and then hand it back to the elected board,” Taylor said.

Though the bill sponsors agree on a path forward, there isn’t full support for the bill yet among legislative Republicans.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton has voiced full support for Rep. Mark White’s House plan, but Taylor acknowledged that discussions with Lt. Gov. Randy McNally are “still a work in progress.” McNally last year pushed for more local input.

“While Lt. Gov. McNally still prefers to have some level of local involvement, he remains in active discussions with sponsors and other stakeholders on the best way to encourage a turnaround in outcomes in the Memphis-Shelby County school system,” McNally spokesperson Adam Kleinheider said.

Democrats cite state’s track record with takeovers

Democrats have resisted the effort, pointing to previous state intervention efforts like the Achievement School District, which tried and failed to turn around low-performing Memphis schools.

“What I don’t think they do is take into account every single thing that the state has done to our district, and then wonder why we’re not performing to the level that they want us to perform,” said House Minority Leader Karen Camper last week.

Both Taylor and White maintain their proposal would not be a state takeover like the ASD, because local leaders would be appointed to the oversight board rather than having the state explicitly run the schools.

However, the Republican-dominated state government would still have the power to appoint the board, effectively giving the GOP broad governing authority over local schools in a majority Democratic county.

Memphis schools have made some improvements in recent years. This year, MSCS students outpaced the state average for academic growth in reading and math. More Memphis schools also earned top marks in Tennessee’s report card system for the 2024-25 school year.

Yet the district continues to lag significantly in academic achievement, with less than 25% of MSCS students meeting grade-level benchmarks on state reading and math tests.

After the House action on Wednesday, the Senate can now accept or reject the 2025 House bill. The Senate is widely expected to reject it, which would then allow McNally and Sexton to appoint members of a conference committee.

Lawmakers on the conference committee could make substantial changes to proposed legislation relatively quickly.

And while any changes would require a full vote from the House and Senate, the legislation would not have to return to committees for votes, meaning it could pass into law quickly once it exits the conference.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee’s 2026 legislative session is here. Stay informed with Chalkbeat’s text messages.

2026-01-08T15:27:41+00:00

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The 2026 legislative session is about to begin in Tennessee, where lawmakers will likely focus closely on proposals to expand the state’s voucher programs and consider a state takeover of its largest school district.

Education has played a major role in Tennessee politics in the last several years, and we don’t expect 2026 to be any different.

Chalkbeat Tennessee has a new way to keep you updated on these issues and more amid the often chaotic General Assembly session.

We’ve launched a texting service that helps you stay up to date on education bills, political maneuvering, and other major issues that will impact Tennessee schools.

This service also gives you a direct line to me, the Chalkbeat Tennessee bureau chief, as I’m on the ground in committee rooms and the state Capitol. You can text me with your questions about bills, issues, or even the general legislative process.

I’d also love to hear from you about what issues you’re tracking closely or what bills you think deserve more attention.

Some of you have already signed up after reading Chalkbeat Tennessee’s reporting on legislative issues in the last month. We’ve broken several stories in the weeks leading up to the 2026 session, including GOP plans to drop income limits on the state’s Education Savings Accounts program.

Sign up by submitting your phone number in the form below to get texts about once per week from Chalkbeat with updates on key legislation affecting schools and students.

You can also text the word SESSION to (901) 676-6536 to sign up.

We also offer text updates from Memphis-Shelby County school board meetings. You can sign up for those here.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Most Tennessee students don’t use ESA vouchers to exit low-performing public schools: comptroller

2026-01-05T18:43:56+00:00

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Most Tennessee public school students who use Education Savings Account vouchers aren’t leaving low-performing public schools, while ESA students overall are underperforming their public school peers in both academic achievement and growth.

Tennessee Comptroller Jason E. Mumpower’s office released these findings Monday in the first comprehensive review of the program.

The comptroller’s report also found that the Tennessee Department of Education has not yet established parameters for removing private schools with repeated low academic performance, nor could it provide documentation “used to measure schools’ performance or counsel schools that have multiple years of low academic performance.”

Republican lawmakers passed the Education Savings Account program in 2019, though legal challenges delayed implementation until 2022. The program was the precursor to the 2025 universal voucher program, which GOP lawmakers are already looking to expand this year after 20,000 students were enrolled last fall.

The ESA program could be limited to 12,500 enrollees under state law this school year, with a cap of 15,000 set to kick in next year. But the program has never been fully utilized, with just 3,693 students enrolled in the current school year.

The ESA program was designed to benefit public school students: First-time ESA applicants in 2022 had to be moving from a public school, entering kindergarten, or transferring into Tennessee from another state.

In 2022, 66% of ESA students came from a public school, and 33% were entering public school.

By the next school year, lawmakers had made a change to “grandfather” some students into the program who had attended public school at least one year since 2019, the year the law was passed. Those students accounted for 31% of ESA students. Overall, 15% of 2023 ESA students were entering kindergarten, 38% were coming from public schools, and 14% had reenrolled in the program.

In 2024, nearly half of all ESA students had reenrolled in the program, 28% came from public schools and 14% were entering kindergarten.

The program was a signature issue for Gov. Bill Lee, who has supported additional school choice policies as a way for parents to choose higher-achieving schools.

The comptroller’s report indicates this is not necessarily happening. The program was targeted at districts with a relatively high number of Priority schools, a federal designation for schools that underperform in certain categories. In practice, that meant the ESA program could only be implemented in Shelby, Davidson, and Hamilton counties, large districts that often have as many high-ranking, or reward, schools as priority schools.

“Most schools that students are leaving to participate in the ESA program are neither reward nor priority schools, which would indicate their performance is neither among the highest or lowest of public schools in the state,” the comptroller’s report states. “When considering schools that have received state and federal designations, more ESA students are leaving reward schools than priority schools.”

This varies significantly by county, though. In Davidson County, 80% of ESA students who previously attended public schools attended schools with A, B, or C letter grades, and 18% of students came from schools that received a D or F letter grade. In Memphis, 58% of students previously attended A, B or C-graded schools.

In Hamilton County, 50% of ESA students previously attended public schools with D or F grades.

The comptroller’s report also found the state education department did not do enough to advertise the ESA program to low-income students, a requirement in state law.

Overall, students receiving ESA money performed worse on the state’s standardized tests than students in public schools, although ESA students outperformed their peers in Memphis-Shelby County schools last year. The comptroller’s report also notes that scores from students receiving ESAs have increased over time.

Meanwhile, virtual schools participating in the ESA program for the first time last year performed worse than both private schools with ESA students and local public schools. Just 20% of ESA students enrolled in virtual schools were proficient in English language arts, and just 17% were proficient in math.

Parent satisfaction with the program remains above 95%, but the comptroller notes only 15% of participating families actually provided feedback on the program last year.

There could be major changes to ESAs this year. The comptroller report suggests lawmakers reconsider eligibility requirements and where the program is targeting, noting other districts like Knox County Schools could be drawn in.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Cameron Sexton wants to eliminate the income limit and enrollment cap altogether for the program and open it up to all students in the current three counties.

This current income cap is 200% or less of the federal income eligibility to receive free school lunch, which would be $83,590 this year for a family of four. Around 76% of families in ESA-eligible counties are already eligible for the program, according to an EdChoice analysis.

The ESA this year provides around $9,747 per student, which fell below the average tuition cost by about $3,000 for participating private schools, the majority of which were religiously affiliated.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

House GOP to push forward Memphis school takeover plan with ‘teeth’

2025-12-23T15:47:16+00:00

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Tennessee House Republican leaders will push forward a plan in 2026 to install a Memphis-Shelby County schools oversight panel that would seize significant decision-making authority from the locally elected school board.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton and education committee Chairman Mark White confirmed this month they are committed to working with the Senate to pass a form of takeover legislation in the 2026 legislative session.

Republicans in the two chambers failed to find a compromise after passing differing versions of the bill earlier this year amid ongoing frustrations with school board governance and academic performance issues. If lawmakers can agree this year, change could come quickly to Memphis-Shelby County schools, which is already primed for major upheaval in 2026.

White’s plan would essentially install a governing oversight board with the authority to veto part or all of the local school board’s budget, the largest single decision the school board is responsible for.

White argued the oversight board must have the “teeth” to make significant district decisions, compared to the 2025 Senate version of the plan that would operate as an advisory board.

The oversight board under White’s plan would also have approval authority for any contracts or expenses larger than $50,000 and essentially control final charter decisions in the district. White’s proposal would institute the board for three years, with the potential for another three-year extension.

“Putting a board in place that has no authority to do anything is a waste of time,” Sexton said. “It does nothing. If you’re going to put it in, then you’ve got to trust them to make the decisions.”

Sen. Brent Taylor, a Memphis Republican carrying the Senate version of the bill, did not respond to a request for comment.

The Senate and House passed differing versions of the legislation in 2025, with the two chambers at odds over details of oversight board authority.

If Senate and House leaders can come to a compromise on the legislation when the General Assembly reconvenes in mid-January, it could quickly be passed into law. Because the bills are still live, the chambers could hash out any changes in conference without reverting back to a lengthy legislative committee process.

Potential oversight changes would be one of several significant changes on the horizon for Memphis schools.

The early 2025 firing of former Superintendent Marie Feagins ignited long-simmering dissatisfaction with the school board and triggered both local and state backlash. Now, all nine seats on the board are up for election in 2026, meaning Memphis voters may go to the primary ballot box this spring to vote for a board whose governing power could soon be greatly diminished under the legislative plan.

The board must also make a decision on the interim superintendent’s contract sometime in 2026.

White said he will move “full speed ahead” to enact “drastic” changes.

“I don’t believe an elected school board can fix decades of bureaucracy. I’m not putting blame on any past or present school board,” White said.

Legislative Democrats and Memphis-Shelby County school leaders have sharply criticized the takeover effort as political overreach, pointing to previous state takeover failures in the Achievement School District and incremental progress the district has made recently.

“State intervention in Memphis schools has historically failed to improve outcomes,” Memphis-Shelby County schools interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond said during a fall community meeting.

Launched a decade ago, the Achievement School District took control of low-performing schools and often turned them over to the charter operators. But the state intervention model led to no meaningful long-term improvements for students, research showed, and often sparked community backlash for takeovers in low-income neighborhoods.

Memphis schools have had some growth in recent years. This year, MSCS students outpaced the state average for academic growth in reading and math. More Memphis schools also earned top marks in Tennessee’s report card system for the 2024-2025 school year.

Yet the district continues to lag significantly in academic achievement, with less than 25% of MSCS students meeting grade level benchmarks in reading and math on state tests.

Sexton suggested any improvement is too little, too late after decades of underperformance in the state’s largest school district.

Republicans are also eyeing an ongoing state financial audit of the district, though both Sexton and White said the takeover legislation would move ahead regardless of those findings.

White has denied that the legislation amounts to a state takeover, given that members of the governing board must be residents of Shelby County. White says he, along with other Memphis natives, believe “we have to have local intervention.”

But under White’s 2025 bill, the appointing power for the oversight board would sit in state government and, by extension, give the Republican Party governing authority of local schools in a majority Democratic county.

Under the House bill, the Tennessee governor would appoint five members, and the House and Senate speakers would receive two appointments each.

Critics of the legislation have also warned the measure could have ripple effects beyond Memphis and encroach on local control in other areas of the state, though the legislation currently only applies to Shelby County. White’s 2025 legislation could trigger an oversight board in a local district if:

50% or more of enrolled students did not meet state testing grade level expectations.
30% or more of schools in a district receive a D or F state letter grade.
25% or more of students enrolled were chronically absent in the most recent school year.
One or more schools have been identified as a priority school by the state education department.
And the local legislative body of the county approves a resolution of no confidence in the local school board.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

2024-25 letter grades are out for Tennessee schools. Here’s what they show.

2025-12-18T23:00:08+00:00

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About 1 out of every 5 Tennessee schools scored an A this year under a state assessment system and the number of schools receiving D- and F-grades decreased, according to data released on Thursday.

The Tennessee Department of Education announced the letter grades for 2024-25 on Thursday with the launch of an updated Tennessee Report Card.

Around 78% of Tennessee schools that met the school grading criteria received a C or higher, a slight increase over last year’s 75%.

A 2016 state law required the department to grade schools in part to give parents and communities insight into the quality of education at each school. But the grading system was initially plagued by testing issues and pandemic delays.

The grading plan was totally revamped in 2023 to emphasize academic achievement or proficiency over academic growth, a controversial decision that some opponents argued ignores socioeconomic realities in some communities.

The school grades are not just for parents. They can carry consequences for districts with “failing” grades.

School districts and charter authorizers can now face state Board of Education hearings for D and F scores. Schools might also have to submit corrective action plans or undergo a state audit.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Top GOP lawmaker wants to drop income, enrollment caps in Tennessee’s early voucher program

2025-12-10T12:00:01+00:00

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A top Tennessee Republican lawmaker wants to drop the enrollment cap and income limit in the state’s Education Savings Account voucher program.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton’s proposal could significantly expand voucher access to families in three of Tennessee’s largest counties.

“Whether you’re making $30,000 or $140,000, you should have the opportunity” for school choice, Sexton said of removing what he called “arbitrary” income caps in the ESA program.

Sexton has already said he wants to at least double the capacity of the Education Freedom Scholarships program, which launched this year with 20,000 seats.

Dropping the enrollment cap on the ESA program — launched in 2022 after an extended court battle in Davidson, Shelby, and Hamilton counties — alongside EFS expansion could significantly expand Tennessee’s taxpayer-funded voucher offerings in two programs that have widely varying requirements and accountability measures.

The ESA program is limited to 12,500 enrollees under state law this school year, with a maximum cap of 15,000 set to kick in next year. But the program has never been fully utilized, with under 5,000 students enrolled in the current school year.

State Democrats, historically opposed to school voucher programs like the ESA and EFS, sharply criticized Sexton’s proposal.

“We cannot afford a more expensive voucher program that drains resources directly from classrooms that are stretched to the breaking point,” Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari, a Memphis Democrat, said. “Removing income restrictions from the 2019 voucher law would divert even more taxpayer dollars away from neighborhood schools to subsidize tuition at private schools.”

It’s not clear if the speaker’s plan will gain traction with other Republicans amid what is expected to be a tight budget year. Majority Leader Jack Johnson, a Republican from Franklin, was noncommittal on the proposal, though he said he supported “empowering parents with more freedom and flexibility” while advancing “responsible, sustainable school choice policies.”

The ESA program was first opened in Shelby and Davidson counties and later grew to Hamilton County. It currently provides just under $9,800 to students this year from lower income families. This income cap is defined as 200% or less of the federal income eligibility to receive free school lunch, which would be $83,590 this year for a family of four. Around 76% of families in ESA-eligible counties are already eligible for the program, according to an EdChoice analysis.

In a Chalkbeat Tennessee interview this month, Sexton argued this income cap is arbitrary and could penalize families working overtime or two jobs to bring in more family income.

“I see it as their tax money, and they should have the opportunity to put it where they want to go, whether they want to send their kid to a public school or a public charter school or to a private school,” he said.

Increased enrollment in the education savings voucher program could lead to dueling voucher systems within Tennessee unless lawmakers realign enrollment and accountability measures between the two.

First-time ESA applicants must either be entering kindergarten or be moving from a public school to a private school. Students already enrolled at private schools aren’t eligible for the program, unlike the new EFS program, which isn’t tracking how many vouchers are going to previously enrolled private school students.

ESA participants are also required to take the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program tests for math and English language arts, aligning them with peers in the public school system. ESA students showed a slight gain in math and a slight loss in ELA proficiency per state data released this fall, though participating students still lag significantly behind statewide averages of public school students.

In Shelby County, math proficiency was slightly higher in ESA students compared to the overall public student population.

Republican voucher supporters balked at similar test requirements for the broader statewide EFS program, in part due to pushback from private school operators who did not want to change their testing standards.

EFS opponents have argued that without cohesive testing requirements, it will be impossible to measure achievement and student progress for accountability measures.

Sexton has not filed legislation to codify his proposal. Lawmakers return to the General Assembly on Jan. 12 for the 2026 session.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee House speaker wants to fund student teacher stipend amid teacher shortage

2025-12-05T12:00:01+00:00

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Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton wants the state to start paying student teachers for their required internships, a proposal state education advocates say they support amid ongoing concerns about teacher shortages.

Sexton told Chalkbeat Tennessee this week he wants to provide additional state funding to allow local districts to pay teacher trainees directly.

Sexton said the amount could mean a $1,500 or $2,000 monthly stipend, though the proposal appears to be in the early days of development with few concrete details.

“When I talk to teachers and new teachers, they’re frustrated that when they do their internships, they do it for free,” Sexton said, noting that some aspiring teachers are taking out loans to stay above water while they finish their programs. “They’re teaching, but they’re still trying to survive. That’s a barrier for them.”

Tennessee education preparation programs vary in cost, according to a 2022 state report, but more than two-thirds of surveyed teachers reported having debt because of them.

Gov. Bill Lee’s office, which is currently crafting the governor’s proposed budget for the legislative session that will reconvene in January, was noncommittal on Sexton’s proposal.

“Gov. Lee is grateful for Speaker Sexton’s commitment to ensuring every student has access to a quality education and looks forward to working in partnership with the General Assembly to further innovate Tennessee’s education system and support teachers, parents, and students,” a Lee spokesperson said.

The stipend proposal is the second teacher pipeline proposal Sexton has floated ahead of session. The Crossville Republican also wants to lower education requirements for would-be teachers, proposing an accelerated and specialized two-year associate’s degree pathway for potential elementary school teachers.

Sexton believes the program could be popular at community colleges that provide free tuition to eligible high school graduates in the state and often are located closer to rural schools that struggle with teacher recruitment. Sexton said any associate’s degree holder would have to pass the same PRAXIS exam as four-year graduates,

Teachers groups in the state have criticized the associate’s degree plan, arguing lowering academic standards to enter the profession is not an appropriate solution to reduce vacancies. But educator advocates say they’re on board with potential student teacher stipends.

“It’s imperative that solutions to the teacher shortage be crafted with care to avoid any reduction in quality with respect to the training needed to be a successful educator,” Tennessee Education Association President Tanya Coats said.

The leader of the Professional Educators of Tennessee said unpaid student teaching is a significant barrier that can deter talented teachers from the profession.

“Securing pay for student teachers is essential for making teaching a viable career choice, opening the door for future educators, and enriching the profession,” Executive Director J.C. Bowman said.

Tennessee has cobbled together various policies in recent years in an effort to address teacher staffing issues, a trend exacerbated nationwide by the COVID-19 pandemic. High turnover and attrition are among the causes, while rates of new graduates from Tennessee teaching training programs also declined in recent years.

Data released by the Tennessee Department of Education in November indicated total teacher vacancies, defined as a position left unfilled for 20 or more days, actually declined significantly from fall 2023 to fall 2024. Full vacancies fell from 1,434 to 817, a 43% reduction.

But that number doesn’t tell the full story of the state’s teacher shortage, as the number of potential vacancies filled by emergency hires increased by 9% over the same time period and by more than 300% in the last five years.

Tennessee schools are increasingly turning to emergency and usually unlicensed teachers, with 6,579 emergency credentials issued in the 2024-2025 school year, according to data released by the Tennessee Department of Education last month.

A portion of those emergency credentials include emergency endorsements, which is when an educator is granted permission to teach outside of their previous area of expertise. But most emergency credentials are going to temporary permits for unlicensed teachers.

Coats said compensating student teachers could address the “teacher pipeline shortage and place more high quality teachers in Tennessee classrooms without sacrificing valuable preparation.”

“Decisive action such as this is especially important now given the concerning trend of districts needing to fill vacancies with unqualified individuals on temporary emergency credentials,” Coats said.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Which students are eligible for Tennessee’s 2026 voucher program?

2025-11-25T21:21:36+00:00

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When new applications for Tennessee’s voucher program open in January, the state will change how it prioritizes applicants for next school year, though it’s not yet clear how many open seats will be available.

The Tennessee Department of Education announced last week that applications for the 2026-2027 Education Freedom Scholarships program will open on Jan. 13 and close on Jan. 20. Students currently enrolled in the program can renew beginning on Dec. 9.

Any student waitlisted for the 2025 school year must reapply, according to the department.

It’s also not clear how many new seats Tennessee will add to the program, which provided $7,295 in public tax dollars to 20,000 students this fall to use at private schools.

A mechanism in the state law will allow lawmakers to easily expand the program for 5,000 new students since the state received more than 40,000 applications, well above the expansion threshold set by state law. But Gov. Bill Lee and other Republican lawmakers say they want to expand the program even further.

But it’s unlikely the number of new seats will be decided on by the time applications close on Jan. 30, just days into the 2026 legislative session.

The state law outlines the order in which the education department must prioritize applications going forward. Previous recipients receive top billing and are almost guaranteed a spot in next year’s program.

In 2025, the 20,000 available spots were split between a universal category, open to any family of any income level, and an income-limited category open only to families who earned 300% or less of the federal free or reduced-price lunch guideline income, or around $173,000 for a family of four.

In 2026, that income limit will drop significantly.

After current EFS students, students whose household income equaled 100% or less of the federal guidelines will receive top priority, which is around $59,478 for a family of four.

Families earning 300% or less would be next on the prioritization list.

Fourth on the list would be public school students or rising kindergarteners. The state has courted criticism for not tracking how many first-year vouchers went to students previously enrolled in public schools, but it will now have to track this data to determine prioritization eligibility.

Any remaining spots in the program will go to eligible students on a first come, first served application basis.

Applications for the program will open as the state fights off a lawsuit over the program. A group of parents sued the governor and state education leaders last week over the new voucher law, alleging the program violates the state constitution by diverting public funds to private schools.

The governor’s office said Lee is “confident” the court will uphold the program that a “vast majority” of Tennesseans support.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee parents sue to stop voucher program

2025-11-21T15:13:24+00:00

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A group of parents are suing Gov. Bill Lee and state education leaders over Tennessee’s new voucher law, alleging the program violates the state constitution by diverting public funds to private schools.

The lawsuit marks the first legal challenge to the Education Freedom Scholarship Act, a signature initiative pushed by Lee that provided $7,295 in public tax dollars to 20,000 students this fall. Lee and other Republican lawmakers hope to expand the program next year.

The lawsuit filed Thursday alleges the voucher program violates the Education Clause of the Tennessee Constitution, which gives the General Assembly a constitutional mandate to support and fund “a system of free public schools.” Diverting public funds away from this system violates the mandate, the lawsuit alleges.

“Tennessee’s Constitution is clear: the state must maintain and support a system of free public schools,” Lucas Cameron-Vaughn, senior staff attorney with the ACLU of Tennessee, said in a statement. “This voucher scheme does the opposite. It siphons desperately needed resources away from public schools that serve all students and hands that money to private schools with no accountability, no transparency, and no obligation to serve every child.”

Plaintiffs also argue the public school system is already chronically underfunded. They point to teacher shortages and educator feedback from a 2025 Tennessee Department of Education survey that found the majority of school district leaders say the state’s base funding level is inadequate.

Dustin Park, a Blount County parent whose child has Down syndrome, said the voucher program “fundamentally discriminates” against children with disabilities.

“Private schools can refuse to admit students like my son or fail to provide the accommodations he needs to succeed,” Park said, in contrast to Tennessee public schools that are required to accept all students.

Equitable access for students with disabilities has long been a major issue in the Tennessee voucher debate. The state Department of Education told Chalkbeat last month it was not tracking how many students with disabilities are benefiting from the voucher program, a transparency concern for disability rights advocates.

The lawsuit argues that because the voucher law allows private schools to deny enrollment to high-need students, “it will likely increase the concentration of higher need, more costly-to-educate students in public schools, which are already left with less money available to meet students’ educational needs.”

A Lee spokesperson said the governor is “confident” the court will uphold the program that a “vast majority” of Tennesseans support.

The ten parents who filed the lawsuit in Davidson County Chancery Court are backed by multiple legal and education organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Education Law Center.

The plaintiffs are seeking both permanent and preliminary injunctions against the voucher program. The state has not yet responded in court.

Shortly after the plaintiffs filed the lawsuit, the Department of Education announced it would open applications for next school year’s voucher program in January.

The Department of Education released important dates Thursday for families wanting to apply for the voucher for the 2026-27 school year.

Students currently enrolled in the program can begin the renewal process on Dec. 9, while new applications will open on Jan. 13.

A provision of the voucher law allows lawmakers to quickly expand the program by 5,000 seats during the 2026 legislative session, based on the number of applications the state received last summer. But Lee and other lawmakers want to go even further. House Speaker Cameron Sexton wants to at least double the program, which would cost the state more than $298 million to fund 40,000 seats.

Ahead of what is expected to be a tight budget year, the governor has not yet gone as far as backing Sexton’s proposal. But Lee has repeatedly said it is a top priority for him to expand the program beyond 5,000 new seats.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Federal judge won’t block Tennessee district book bans before trial

2025-11-20T22:21:38+00:00

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A federal judge has declined to block ongoing book bans at one of Tennessee’s largest school districts before a full trial next year.

In April, after months of heated school board meetings and district schools pulling more than 140 books from library shelves, three high school students sued the Rutherford County Board of Education. The students, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, argued in initial filings the book bans violated their First Amendment rights and disadvantaged students by blocking them from accessing “crucial, acclaimed, and historical works.”

Judge Eli Richardson denied a preliminary injunction this week, declining to block the district from limiting access to books until the full trial plays out and indicating that the defendants have an uphill battle in the case.

“Here, the Board (or for that matter the State writ large) has not prohibited students from reading the books or acquiring them elsewhere; instead it has merely opted not to carry them on school library bookshelves,” Richardson wrote.

Attorneys for both parties declined to comment on the ruling on Thursday.

The Rutherford County case, which also includes the literary and free expression group PEN America as a plaintiff, is the first legal challenge to Tennessee’s expanded school book statute in 2024 that culled hundreds of books from school shelves.

Rutherford County book removals include “Beloved,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the horrors of American slavery that includes depictions of sexual violence, and “Catch-22,” a satirical World War II novel. Both books have been recommended in Advanced Placement literature classes curricula in previous years.

The Republican-backed legislature used a state obscenity law to prohibit any school material that “in whole or in part contains descriptions or depictions of sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence, or sadomasochistic abuse” or is “patently offensive.”

But guidance for interpreting the law was limited when schools were required to implement it last fall. Critics wondered if books depicting classic art with nude figures or books about puberty education could be included in the ban and questioned who gets to define “excess” violence or offensive content. The ACLU of Tennessee warned the law would be wielded by some who wanted to ban books that address race, racism, LGBTQ+ rights, and marginalized groups.

Other removals in Rutherford County include “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” a popular young adult novel in which a supporting character is gay, and “Wicked,” the popular retelling of Wizard of Oz.

A 2024 survey of members of the Tennessee Association of School Librarians found that more than 1,100 titles were removed in just a few months, as schools grappled with how to interpret the newly expanded law. PEN America named Tennessee as among the top 3 states with the largest number of book bans in the last school year.

A review in The Tennessean earlier this year found book removals surged in the past year, with 1,155 unique titles either fully removed from school libraries or heavily age-restricted between December 2023 and January 2025.

A full trial in the Rutherford County case is not expected to begin until next fall.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

New proposal would reduce Tennessee world language graduation requirement

2025-11-19T23:32:20+00:00

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Tennessee State Board of Education Chairman Bob Eby wants the state to reduce its world language requirement for high school students.

Under a new proposal, Tennessee high school students would only be required to have one language credit to graduate instead of the current requirement of two.

Eby’s proposal also includes increasing state elective requirements from three to four credits.

Though Eby will present the proposal to the board on Thursday, it would not be up for a formal debate or vote until at least February.

The board chairman first informally suggested dropping the requirement altogether earlier this year, suggesting stringent language requirements might restrict students interested in alternate electives such as technology or coding courses.

Eby at the time said he didn’t want to remove world language electives from schools altogether, but his comments sparked significant backlash from Tennessee educators and students.

A petition to maintain the two-year language requirement garnered thousands of signatures, and at least one lawmaker weighed in on the benefits of language education.

Some educators also warned eliminating a world language requirement would lead to schools dropping language classes completely, given staffing and hiring constraints.

“The suggestion of removing this requirement could dismantle years of progress and set Tennessee students at a disadvantage to their peers nationwide,” Matthew Harrison, a Spanish teacher in Kingsport, told the board at a July hearing.

Tennessee students are currently required to earn 22 credits to graduate, including the two in world language, one in computer science, and three in electives. Last year, the state board amended the state’s four-credit math requirement, allowing students to complete required classes before the ninth grade as long as they are enrolled in a math class three out of the four years of high school.

Eby said the math credit debate inspired him to reconsider the language requirements and what flexibility might be helpful for students.

“What can we do to provide the students with the greatest opportunity? That includes world language opportunities, but also includes other other opportunities,” Eby said in July. “A lot of people seem to think that I want to yank world languages out of schools. I do not want to do that.”

Reducing the world language graduation requirement could put Tennessee students at odds with some college requirements.

The University of Memphis lists two credits of language as a “minimum” entrance requirement, but the university states it will consider students for admission without it. The University of Tennessee Knoxville encourages two language credits but does not require it.

But Eby noted in his proposal that at least 26 states do not have a formal language requirement, and many of the states that do provide some flexibility.

“This is obviously not impacting those students from entering colleges of their choice,” Eby said.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis school board members want to sue over the 2026 reset election. But time is running out.

2025-11-19T02:40:51+00:00

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The Memphis-Shelby County School District board is one step closer to filing a lawsuit over the 2026 reset election that would cut short five newly elected members’ terms.

In a meeting Tuesday, board members voted unanimously to hire a lawyer who will “promptly assess the legality and constitutionality” of putting all nine seats on the ballot in May, according to the resolution. Those findings could trigger a future lawsuit, though it’s unclear who it would be against.

Board Chair Natalie McKinney said Tuesday that the election reset is “blatantly, patently and clearly unconstitutional.”

“This is not about individual positions,” she added. “This is about the integrity of this body.”

The Shelby County Commission adopted the realignment of MSCS board elections in September, a move made possible by a state law passed earlier this year. That vote came after months of debate and community pushback, including a veto by Mayor Lee Harris.

County commissioners overrode his veto in late October. Now, candidates can start filing for a seat in any of the nine school board districts on Dec. 22.

Board members say in the resolution that these election changes are an “imminent threat to the lawful function and democratic integrity” of the district. The board has compelling interests, the resolution says, including:

“Protecting the integrity of its governance structure;
Upholding the democratic process by preserving the full terms of office as established at the time of elections; and
Maintaining the decision-making authority vested in the body by law.”

State lawmakers and some Memphis parents have been calling for more accountability since the MSCS board fired former Superintendent Marie Feagins in January. But board members Tuesday said that decision doesn’t give the county or state permission to nullify voters’ choice in 2024.

“Being angry doesn’t mean you take the votes away from the people who put us here,” Towanna Murphy said.

Murphy is one of five board members who would have their terms abridged by the 2026 election, along with McKinney, Stephanie Love, Sable Otey, and Tamarques Porter.

Board members Michelle McKissack and Amber Huett-Garcia, who opposed the Feagins ouster, were not present for Tuesday’s vote. Keith Williams was also not present.

The 2026 board election is already set up to be different than in years past, with MSCS candidates running in partisan primaries for the first time in May.

Plus, Republican legislators say they’re once again sponsoring bills to establish a state-run “board of managers” to oversee the district. And Rep. Torrey Harris, a Memphis Democrat, plans to introduce legislation that would allow Tennessee residents to recall local elected officials, including school board members.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee education department wants more money for summer learning, tutoring

2025-11-07T00:49:47+00:00

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The Tennessee Department of Education wants a $30 million increase in summer learning funding next year, though education officials say schools need more flexibility to use the money throughout the school year for required tutoring rather than just summer learning camps.

Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds requested the funding increase on Thursday in the department’s budget hearing for the upcoming fiscal year.

Tennessee summer learning camps this year enrolled nearly 90,000 students, 25% of whom were rising fourth graders. School-based summer learning camps are one of several “promotion pathways” rising fourth graders can use to move on from third grade if they don’t hit the benchmarks required by the state’s third grade reading law.

“We’re seeing significant gains in proficiency” in the summer learning pathway, said Kristy Brown, the department’s chief academic officer.

While education officials requested the funds for “summer programming,” the department appears poised to push for more flexibility for how local districts use those funds.

“For some schools, it could be continuing summer learning,” Reynolds said. “But for some, it could be tutoring. What many districts have talked to us about is if there’s an opportunity to create flexibility around the program.”

Tennessee departments this week are presenting their upcoming budget requests to Gov. Bill Lee and his staff. But Reynolds did not yet have details on two of the education department’s largest line items: the state voucher program and overall public education funding formula.

Reynolds said the department is gathering data as the school year progresses before it makes budget requests for those items.

Lee earlier this week again acknowledged he will prioritize expanding the voucher program in the upcoming legislative session, but he stopped short of committing to a specific number of new seats.

In addition to the $30 million summer programming increase, Reynolds requested an additional $2.6 million for the department’s paid parental leave program. The program supported six weeks of paid parental leave for around 2,300 employees at school districts in the last fiscal year, according to data provided by the department.

The request increase would cover projected participation in the program and planned salary increases.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee school boards could face voter recalls under new bill

2025-10-23T22:26:16+00:00

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Could Tennessee school boards soon face voter recalls?

That could happen under legislation filed by Rep. Torrey Harris, a Memphis Democrat, that would allow recall elections for school boards and other local offices.

The Memphis Democrat’s bill, which would apply statewide, is his latest effort aimed at the Memphis-Shelby County school board in the ongoing fallout from a controversial superintendent firing earlier this year.

House Bill 1448, which does not yet have a Senate sponsor, would allow a local resident to file a petition with the county election commission that demands a recall of a local elected official. The petition filer must have voted in the last local election and must gather the signatures equal to at least two-thirds of the total vote cast for the office in the last regular election to trigger the recall.

“This legislation [House Bill 1448] is about restoring the power of accountability where it belongs — with the people,” Harris said. “Our communities deserve to have confidence that if their elected leaders stop representing their values or fail to uphold the public trust, there is a process in place to act responsibly and democratically.”

Harris filed the legislation days before the Shelby County Commission was set for a final battle over another bill Harris passed in early 2025. Harris, along with Shelby County Republican Sen. Brent Taylor, passed legislation that allows local governing bodies to reset school board elections.

Though the legislation was nominally aimed at better aligning school board terms with other elected offices, it also was passed in the ensuing controversy after six Memphis-Shelby County school board members voted in January to fire the district’s new superintendent.

Shelby County commissioners voted in late September to put all nine school board seats up for reelection in 2026, cutting five board members’ terms short. But Mayor Lee Harris vetoed that resolution earlier this month, saying only emergencies or criminal conduct should stunt an elected official’s time in office.

The commission is expected to vote on Oct. 27 whether to override the mayor’s decision. The group needs eight votes to override, one more than the original resolution secured. Commissioner Mick Wright, who supports the 2026 reset, said winning that additional vote will be a “struggle.”

Rep. Mark White, a Memphis Republican who has been critical of current MSCS leadership and is leading a charge for increased state oversight in the district, said he needs to dig into the details of Harris’s proposal.

“Recalls are not really easy,” White said. “But I think for the citizens of Shelby County, if the elected officials are not serving them adequately, I think they should have the right to recall.”

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Fewer Memphis students are showing up to mental health assemblies. This state law may be to blame.

2025-10-23T20:31:06+00:00

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Tennessee’s largest school district is reaching significantly fewer students in school-wide suicide and bullying prevention trainings, and Memphis leaders say it’s because of a controversial parents’ rights law passed in 2024.

Donna Goings, who leads the mental health centers in Memphis-Shelby County Schools, said the number of students attending these “lifesaving” assemblies fell by two-thirds last year. That’s because the Tennessee Families’ Rights and Responsibilities Act requires districts to receive verbal or written consent from parents for psychological and other health care services.

Goings said the majority of those permission slips aren’t brought back.

“Before it was passive consent, so if students didn’t bring the [permission] form back, we assumed that it was OK,” she said. “Now we have to physically have you say, ‘Yes, my child can participate.’ That’s severely impacted the number of students that we’re able to see.”

The 2024 law has already been revised once because of unintended consequences. Earlier this year, state lawmakers amended the language to allow school nurses to provide “non-emergency first aid” for students without parent permission. That change came after some school staff and parents complained the law prevented students from receiving the most basic care.

In the original law, school mental health staff were blocked from providing any counseling or psychological services without consent. The amended version now allows school counselors or psychologists who are licensed by the state board of education to provide “preventative and developmental counseling” without limit.

But in MSCS, the suicide and bullying prevention assemblies are typically run by school social workers. Social workers focus more on therapeutic support for students, Goings said, while psychologists run evaluations and give diagnoses. Leaving social workers out of the list of exempted providers creates a legal barrier, she said.

Sen. Ferrell Haile (R-Gallatin), who sponsored the original bill, said MSCS is misinterpreting the amended legislation.

“The intent of the law is to protect parental rights related to individual counseling and medical decisions—not to restrict general educational or preventative initiatives offered to all students,” Haile said in an email to Chalkbeat.

Haile says he hasn’t heard reports of the family rights law reducing these school-wide prevention services elsewhere. He’s open to making more amendments, he said, but there aren’t any plans for changes in the upcoming legislative session.

The push for parental rights in education has been a key platform point for conservatives nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic. Some local and state efforts focus specifically on parents’ ability to control their child’s exposure to topics like sexuality and race, while others more broadly establish rights to direct education decisions.

Advocates for more oversight in education, including conservative groups like Moms for Liberty, say parents know best what their child can and should be exposed to. But opponents say these measures politicize school environments and hinder teachers’ ability to educate and support students.

Haile said the 2024 Tennessee law is meant to “protect parents’ God-given rights” to be the “primary decision makers for their children.”

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee should fully fund special education pre-K, districts say

2025-10-14T11:00:00+00:00

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Tennessee school districts have been footing the bill for special education pre-kindergarten classes, and now they want lawmakers to allocate money for it in the state’s school funding model.

Some districts are pulling hundreds of thousands of dollars from their K-12 budgets to provide classrooms for students as young as 3 with disabilities while receiving limited federal funding and no recurring state dollars. More than 9,900 pre-K students in Tennessee require special education services per a February 2025 state analysis.

Federal disabilities law requires schools provide services to these students, who often need expensive therapies and extra teachers. But the state’s Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement Act formula adopted in 2022 doesn’t factor them in and only provides per-student funding once they enter kindergarten.

The Germantown Municipal School District is spending over $800,000 yearly to run special education preschool. It only receives around $23,000 in state grant funding.

“Each preschool classroom requires a highly specialized team: a dually certified teacher, two paraprofessionals, therapists, and sometimes a nurse,” said Germantown Superintendent Jason Manuel. “The total cost per classroom can range from $143,000 to more than $200,000 annually, depending on the student needs and staffing.”

Last month, the Lakeland School System’s board of education unanimously approved a resolution urging lawmakers to amend the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement Act formula to include special education pre-K students.

The resolution renews a statewide Tennessee School Boards Association lobbying push to address the funding gap after a bill to amend the TISA formula stalled in the General Assembly in early 2025.

“If the federal government and state government is going to require this, then I think it’s essential that we address this,” said Rep. Mark White, a Shelby County Republican who sponsored the 2025 legislation.

Next year, White plans to push again for pre-K funding, though he acknowledges the estimated costs of fully funding the program have stalled progress on the issue.

Financial analysts at the legislature estimated the previous bill would cost the state more than $159 million annually.

But local educators think the estimate was skewed and overestimated how many children would be included in the program.

“We are asking whatever the figure is, give us 20% of it, give us 40% of it. It needs to be recurring dollars, or it doesn’t make sense,” White said, noting districts need to be able to rely on recurring funds rather than less stable grant funding.

Last year the Germantown district served 56 pre-school students with disabilities ranging from development delays to hearing impairments who required services such as physical and speech therapy.

And because of certain federal and state laws mandating class size and educating special education students alongside more general education peers, Germantown enrolled 65 other students in the program and spread students across eight classrooms.

Lakeland schools this year staffed four classrooms for 34 special education pre-K students aged 3-5 and served 25 general education students in the same classrooms.

Costs run more than $617,000 annually, which Lakeland schools must pull from other programs funded through TISA.

“Over the past several years, Germantown and Lakeland have worked together to raise awareness of this funding gap,” Manuel said. “Our school boards and leadership teams have met with legislators and even the governor’s finance team to advocate for a fix. Everyone agrees it’s needed, but it hasn’t yet been included in the governor’s budget.”

District leaders in west Tennessee say they’ve encountered “fundamental” misunderstandings of how special education pre-K programs work and are funded, even by state officials responsible for education oversight.

“Another reason this issue has been overlooked is confusion at the state level between voluntary pre-K programs and special education preschool programs,” Manuel said. “Voluntary pre-K serves at-risk students based on income, while special education preschool serves students ages 3-5 with developmental delays or disabilities — it’s not optional; it’s required by law.”

Voluntary pre-K receives some $85 million in state allocated funding, but Lakeland and Germantown are among the few districts in Tennessee that do not have voluntary pre-K programs. Still, even districts receiving voluntary pre-K funding aren’t being funded for separate special education students and classrooms.

Lakeland leaders last month expressed frustration at trying to bring attention to the issue at the state level, where it first stalled in 2024 over misunderstandings about what funding was available. Lakeland board member and legislative liaison Michelle Childs also criticized the focus on private school choice at last year’s special session over fully funding special education pre-K classes.

“We’ve explained it pretty well,” Childs said. “They just made the choice that they wanted to fund private school vouchers over special needs kids.”

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis-Shelby County School Board will switch to a political primary election in 2026

2025-10-02T23:50:29+00:00

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Memphis-Shelby County school board candidates will face partisan primaries for the first time next year, though some sitting members say they plan to run as independents to avoid party labels.

Voters will head to the polls on May 5 to choose their candidates on a Democratic or Republican ticket. In a Democratic stronghold like Shelby County, some races could effectively be decided in the primary. Running without a party backing could put candidates at a disadvantage on a partisan ballot.

This change adds another layer to an already unusual school board election, given a recent county commission decision to put all nine seats on the ballot at the same time in 2026.

Towanna Murphy, a current MSCS board member, told Chalkbeat that she likely won’t align with a party to run for re-election, even though she identifies as a Democrat, because it could be confusing for voters. Sable Otey, another current board member, said partisan elections “risk dividing our community even further.”

“Our focus as a board should be on education, not on party politics,” she said.

Tennessee lawmakers gave local counties the option to put school board seats on a partisan ticket in 2021. More than half of the state’s districts made the switch that first year, most of them Republican-controlled. But Shelby County held out until now.

The Shelby County Republican Party voted to sponsor school board candidates back in May, hoping to seize on a moment when some parents are demanding more accountability from a vexed Memphis-Shelby County Schools system. Democrats followed suit in August to counter that push. Those two votes put the partisan election into effect.

That happened just before the Shelby County Commission passed an election cycle reset for the school board in late September after months of debate. The decision cut short five board members’ terms in the process, a move critics say is unconstitutional.

“It’s part of a collective effort to undo the democratic process,” said Telisa Franklin, secretary for the Shelby County Democrats. “If we give up too much of our control, we’re compromising not just our future but our now.”

Local Republicans argue that there needs to be more accountability for what they see as a failing Memphis-Shelby County school system. Those calls grew louder from the GOP and some MSCS parents after the school board voted to fire former Superintendent Marie Feagins in January.

Luke Cymbal, vice chairman of the Shelby County Republicans, said the local GOP backed calls for change after the Feagins ouster, including realigning the election cycle. That made parents take notice, he said.

“We had a lot of people say, ‘Oh my gosh, the local Republican Party is helping us and the Democrats are not,’” he said. “It’s starting to be a little bit of a wake-up call.”

Cymbal said he thinks the local GOP could win at least two MSCS school board seats in 2026. But he said the main motivation for partisan elections is showing the strong Republican presence in the six neighboring suburban districts.

“We want to show the difference between the really well-run suburban districts and the failing Memphis-Shelby County school district,” he said.

Franklin said Democratic candidates will need to be strong public school advocates and against private expansion. The local party will also focus on raising awareness about what school board members are supposed to do, she said, including hiring and firing superintendents.

What do calls for a ‘state takeover’ of MSCS have to do with this?

Cymbal said local Republicans also support proposals from Tennessee lawmakers to establish a state-controlled “board of directors” to oversee the district. Mark White, one of the sponsoring legislators, said even with all the MSCS board election changes, he is still pushing for that goal.

“With the amount of bureaucracy that’s in the system,” White said, “having a highly qualified board election, as well as a board of managers that can move in and intervene, would be helpful to all.”

Murphy, one of the MSCS board members who voted to fire Feagins and is now facing a shortened term, said the partisan election change is “just another step closer to them trying to take over.”

“If Republicans are elected, let’s say the whole board is Republican, then the takeover is going to be effective immediately,” she told Chalkbeat. “It’s up to Democrats to stand up for the rights of the people.”

Otey said she plans on fighting the 2026 election reset. Some MSCS board members, including Otey and Murphy, have expressed support for filing a lawsuit against the commission’s decision. But it’s unclear who will file that lawsuit or when.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee won’t track how many students with disabilities benefit from new voucher program

2025-10-02T14:15:05+00:00

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Tennessee isn’t tracking how many students with disabilities enroll in its new statewide education voucher program, the latest concern for education advocates who say the program needs to be more transparent.

The Tennessee Department of Education said disability documentation is not required in the law establishing the Education Freedom Scholarship program earlier this year.

The department also isn’t tracking how many first-year vouchers went to students already enrolled in private schools. Some advocates and lawmakers argue robust data is needed to determine who is benefiting from the program.

Equitable access for students with disabilities has long been a major point of debate in the Tennessee voucher conversation, particularly around private schools’ right to refuse enrollment of students with disabilities. A Republican majority in the Tennessee House this January voted down a proposed amendment to the voucher program that provided some protections for students with disabilities in private school enrollment.

Jeff Strand, a former special education teacher and assistant director of government relations at EdTrust-Tennessee, said school choice has been billed by some state leaders as a “silver bullet” for families dissatisfied with their local public schools, but the lack of reporting requirements makes that hard to verify.

“It makes comparison or even evaluation of the success of this program impossible,” Strand said. “That has a double impact for marginalized student populations like students with disabilities.”

National data gathered before Tennessee launched its voucher program showed students with disabilities, along with low-income families and students of color, are frequently left out of school programs because they have fewer options to choose from, among other issues. Private schools with specific special education programs may also charge higher tuition prices.

Students with disabilities who move to a private school also waive certain civil rights, such as the right to a free appropriate public education guaranteed under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

“I’d go so far as to say it’s not going to equally serve students with disabilities,” Strand said of Tennessee’s new program. “But we’re not going to be able to know. There’s nothing for us to learn from this. It’s a blank check to cherry pick and handpick your student population as evidenced you’re doing a good job. But you can say, ‘We’re not going to take the toughest kids.’ You can take the kids you’re going to serve with minimal resources.”

The state’s lack of data on disability status stands in contrast to some major voucher programs around the country, such as Florida or Arizona, which uses paperwork from a student’s previous school and information on voucher spending on disability-related services to track how many students with disabilities are using state tax dollars to attend a private school.

Some Tennessee families might have submitted evidence of their student’s individualized education program if they were vying for a specifically allocated voucher.

The EFS program gave some priority to students who were previously accepted into the Individualized Education Account program, an early school choice program Tennessee adopted for students with disabilities in 2015. Tennessee does not allow simultaneous EFS and IEA enrollment.

But the Tennessee Department of Education said in a statement that documentation submitted by former IEA recipients couldn’t capture the full scope of disability status for all EFS enrollees.

“At this time, we do not have the ability to determine the number of scholarships awarded specifically to applicants with IEPs,” Maggie Hannan, the department’s director of communications, said. “While eligible EFS applicants were able to upload documentation under the IEA category, not all of the documentation confirmed eligibility, nor would this likely have been reflective of all possible applicants with IEPs.”

Chalkbeat Senior National Reporter Kalyn Belsha contributed to this story.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis school board chooses new leadership in a tense vote divided by superintendent ouster

2025-10-01T03:49:19+00:00

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The Memphis-Shelby County school board tapped Natalie McKinney as its new chair in a vote Tuesday that highlighted ongoing tensions since the ouster of former Superintendent Marie Feagins.

Board members did not mention Feagins, but spoke sharply about past decisions that lost public trust. McKinney won six votes to secure the 2025-26 board chair position, each from a board member who supported firing Feagins in January. Former chair Joyce Dorse Coleman rallied similar support for the vice chair nomination.

“We’ve been in a challenging time, and there are even more issues on the horizon,” McKinney said Tuesday. “We’re working to rebuild the district, focusing on student achievement and support.”

The MSCS board has faced intense scrutiny from state and local leaders and the public since the Feagins vote. Just last week, the Shelby County Commission voted to put all nine school board seats up for reelection in 2026, cutting five members’ terms in half. Four of the members whose terms will be shortened, including McKinney, voted to fire Feagins.

McKinney is now poised to lead the board through another turbulent year. Tennessee lawmakers are continuing their push to establish a state-appointed board of directors to take control of the district, partially because of the Feagins ouster. There’s a $6 million district audit underway, more school closure decisions on the line, and a potential new superintendent search before the interim’s contract ends this summer.

Amber Huett-Garcia, who did not support Feagins’ ouster, received the only other nominations for both board leadership positions, earning three votes for chair and four for vice chair. She said before voting began that she is the best candidate to “rebuild trust” with the community, and urged her colleagues to usher in “fresh leadership.”

Michelle McKissack backed Huett-Garcia both times. While abruptly leaving Tuesday’s meeting, she said to reporters that the decision “is just not right.”

“All that’s old is new again; we’ve just restored it,” she said.

But McKinney says things have changed since January, and she’s excited to focus on moving forward.

“I think actions speak louder than words,” she said. “As we do the work, it will demonstrate that we mean the work.”

McKinney leads the district’s new facilities committee, which is tasked with developing a plan to address a growing school building maintenance bill of over $1.6 billion in the next decade. Last Tuesday, MSCS leaders recommended closing four local schools by the end of this year and transferring control of a fifth to a neighboring district.

McKinney said the importance of community listening sessions and public hearings being shown through that work should be the model for board operations.

“I want to make sure that we commit to sort of codifying that, making that part of our DNA,” she said. “That is something that the board, no matter who’s sitting in these seats, should be doing on a consistent basis.”

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee educators ask lawmakers to dial back or amend state testing

2025-09-26T05:46:45+00:00

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Tennessee educators are asking state lawmakers to dial back or alter state testing schedules and requirements, with one reading specialist testifying this week that 10-year-olds are not “developmentally ready” to handle the two-week testing block that schools face each year.

“It is a madhouse during testing, and we’re a small school district,” said Angel Moore, the Perry County High School guidance counselor, of the two-week window in April when Tennessee schools administer the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program.

Moore was among several educators who testified Wednesday before the Joint Advisory Committee on Innovations in K-12 Education. They described scheduling upheaval, teachers stretched thin, and kids stressed to the point of physical discomfort in the leadup to state testing.

Dr. Kevin Schaaf, a Metro Nashville Public Schools reading specialist, said students are often fatigued and disengaged in class, stressed by the emphasis on test performance.

“The two weeks of TCAP in April skews our efforts throughout the rest of the school year,” Schaaf said.

Schaaf suggested students should be screened before taking TCAP’s reading assessment, arguing there is no need to test a student if they have already demonstrated in the classroom and other testing that they cannot read at level. He also recommended splitting TCAP into three parts throughout the year.

“Imagine the difference when teachers are saying, ‘Next week we have an important math test on Thursday,’ instead of “The next two weeks are dedicated to TCAP,’ ” Schaaf said. “Ten-year-olds are not developmentally ready to endure two straight exam weeks as if they’re in college, so why are we putting them through it?”

Rep. Mark Cochran, a Republican from Englewood, also asked the education department to consider spreading TCAP testing out.

David Laird, Tennessee’s assistant education commissioner of assessment and accountability, said many states that attempted to spread out testing ultimately abandoned the practice “because it essentially enforces a statewide version of a pacing calendar, which is wildly unpopular in a lot of places.” Education officials also said it could impede local control to set school calendars.

High school testing requirements are also too stringent or ill-suited for certain students, some educators testified on Wednesday. Monroe County Schools federal programs director Lee Anne Strickland suggested the state eliminate its Algebra II “end of course” exam for 11th graders, maintaining the course requirement but dropping the test needed to get a high school diploma.

“That’s something we hear so frequently from our parents and our community: We test too much,” Strickland. “Now, I’m a firm believer in accountability, so I don’t want to suggest that we shouldn’t be held accountable for what we do in public schools.”

The Algebra II exam is given in the same grade Tennessee students are required to take the ACT. The dueling tests are not needed for students on career technical paths, Strickland argued, and it’s not “logical” to prepare students for two different standardized tests during the same school year.

Tennessee in recent years eliminated similar end-of-course exams for 11th grade chemistry and English.

Sen. Bo Watson, a Republican from Hixson, pushed back on Strickland’s testimony, saying students and teachers should be accountable for an end-of-course exam in the same way they would be for a final exam.

Some legislators appeared more amenable to Strickland’s suggestions.

“At some point, do we have to ask ourselves, are we giving a Tennessee EOC just for the sake of giving it? Or should we make something that is more aligned to the ACT?” Cochran said.

Some changes to state testing are already in the works, education officials said.

Tennessee elementary schoolers will begin taking their state TCAP tests online as early as spring 2027, a move education officials hope will accelerate grading and the release of results to schools and families.

Elementary schoolers will continue to receive paper writing tests, which could require schools to administer the writing test earlier in the school year to allow for a shipping and grading window.

Laird told lawmakers that students will continue to use physical materials on reading comprehension tests, even if the test questions will be on a computer.

“If they’re taught all year to work with paper products, highlighting and underlining as they read, we’re going to give them the materials to use those strategies while they take the test,” Laird said.

The committee plans to meet again in October to consider potential recommendations yielded from the Wednesday testimony and previous meetings. Lawmakers expect to prepare a report with specific policy proposals when lawmakers return to session in January.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

County leaders vote to reset Memphis school board in 2026, despite legal concerns

2025-09-23T00:43:24+00:00

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Memphis-Shelby County residents will vote in an entirely new school board in 2026, meaning five members will have to run for reelection after serving only half of their terms.

The Shelby County Commission voted 7-5 Monday to immediately align school board elections with the general cycle, adopting language directly from a state law passed earlier this year. This comes after months of debate about whether to start the alignment in 2026 or 2030, and questions of whether cutting short board members’ terms is unconstitutional.

Commissioner Michael Whaley sponsored the final version of the resolution, which simply authorizes the state law and does not name a specific start date for election realignment. That returns the language to its original form, which defaults to the next election in 2026.

Whaley said he hopes centering the state law will prevent the commission from being sued. But Megan Smith, a representative from the district attorney’s office, said that protection isn’t guaranteed.

MSCS board members have said the election reset proposal is discriminatory and a form of retaliation. The board has faced heavy criticism and demands from the public for accountability since firing former Superintendent Marie Feagins in January.

Four of the five MSCS board members who will now face shortened terms — Natalie McKinney, Towanna Murphy, Sable Otey, and Stephanie Love — voted to fire Feagins. If reelected in 2026, they would be allowed to serve two full four-year terms again — a potential 10-year total tenure — under new term limits adopted by the commission in August.

Whaley said Monday that the resolution is about “long-term structural change,” not “airing a grievance” with specific people. But Erika Sugarmon, one of the commissioners who voted in opposition, said the measure disenfranchises voters who elected the current board members in 2024.

“If we start overturning elections, where would it end?” she said. “We don’t want to be heavy-handed. We get enough of that from Trump.”

Sugarmon also sponsored a new plan Monday to allow local residents to vote for future recalls of school board members. The commission gave unanimous approval to the proposal, which will come up for an official vote in the coming months.

But the Tennessee state legislature would need to pass a law authorizing that change to the county charter. Residents currently have the power to remove other elected officials from county offices, but not school board members.

Bennie Smith, a state election commissioner, said Monday that recall by referendum is the correct, democratic channel for removing elected officials from office. School board member Natalie McKinney also expressed support for the recall path over election cycle realignment.

The state attorney general has yet to weigh in on the constitutionality of cutting board members’ terms short. In the meantime, commissioner Britney Thornton, who co-sponsored the adopted plan, said community members need to start looking for candidates to run.

“Or else everything that you’ve fought for is for naught,” she told meeting attendees Monday. “We have a seven-month window here.”

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee won’t say how many students are enrolled in new voucher program

2025-09-17T15:34:57+00:00

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Months after Tennessee launched its first statewide voucher program, the Tennessee Department of Education won’t say how many students are using it to attend private school.

The department has declined to release basic information on enrollment, delayed public records requests, and blocked attempts by at least one lawmaker to gather data on the program approved by Republican lawmakers in January.

The lack of information has shrouded the rollout of Gov. Bill Lee’s signature voucher program, which is expected to funnel more than $146 million of taxpayer money to private schools, and makes it difficult to determine whether the quick implementation of the program is working as intended.

It’s also the latest transparency issue for the department, which drew criticism earlier this summer after Chalkbeat Tennessee reporting revealed Tennessee would not explicitly track how many vouchers will go to students already attending private schools.

Tennessee launched the universal voucher program application in May with significant fanfare. Lee, in a joint statement with the department, touted a “remarkable response” to the program, citing more than 33,000 applications submitted within hours of launch.

But since May, the department has refused to release further data. The education department did not respond to multiple Chalkbeat Tennessee requests this summer for specific numbers regarding acceptances, denials, and applications submitted in the “income-limited” category of the program.

Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds told reporters in July that additional data on Education Freedom Scholarships enrollment would be released in August. None was published.

On Tuesday, the department again declined to answer specific Chalkbeat Tennessee questions, including how many students were enrolled in the program as of Sept. 1 and how many are currently waitlisted.

A department spokesperson said additional information would be provided in “the coming days” and again pointed to numbers on applications, rather than data on actual enrollment in the program.

“The department looks forward to sharing data from the Education Freedom Scholarship (EFS) program for the 2025-26 school year in the coming days,” said Maggie Hannan, communications director for the TDOE. “It’s important to note that with more than 42,000 applications, approximately 50 percent were submitted by families with a qualified income. This remarkably strong response demonstrates what Gov. Lee has known all along: Tennessee parents want choices when it comes to their child’s education, regardless of ZIP code or income level.”

The department has delayed fulfilling Chalkbeat Tennessee records requests filed in early August, which are still outstanding. It also knocked down data requests filed by Rep. Caleb Hemmer earlier this summer.

Hemmer, a Nashville Democrat, said last week he is considering filing a lawsuit against the department to push for more transparency.

“It’s a continual theme of not following the law and having to take extreme steps to correct that. It’s so frustrating,” Hemmer said. “Our kids deserve better, Tennesseans deserve better. It overshadows the good work that the department and department employees do for our kids.”

The department has denied Hemmer’s request for residency data of student applicants. Hemmer said he filed a records request after learning the department was not collecting data on whether applicants already attended a private school when applying for the voucher.

“After getting the application and looking at it, I was surprised to learn that they left out this key piece of information,” Hemmer said. “So, I wanted to see for myself what the data looked like. I wanted to see how many of my constituents applied.”

The department has cited student privacy laws, though Hemmer believes the data could be released as “directory” data.

“Our education attorney’s review found that they had a different opinion of what should and shouldn’t be public,” Hemmer said.

Deborah Fisher, executive director for the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, said that while it’s not unheard of for a state lawmaker to “tangle” with a state agency to get information, it is not often that a lawmaker sues for the information.

But Fisher said the months of silence from the education department is “unusual.”

“To get just radio silence on the governor’s signature program is unusual,” Fisher said. “You should be able to get basic government data. This is government money, this is taxpayer money. You should be able to get basic information.”

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Unsafe lead levels found in water at 24 Memphis schools

2025-08-08T22:32:13+00:00

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Over 10% of Memphis-Shelby County Schools have high levels of lead in at least one water source, according to the latest round of state-mandated testing.

Most of the contaminated sites are kitchen or concession stand sinks, the district said in a statement Friday. But two drinking water sources, located at Kingsbury Middle and Raleigh Egypt High schools, also showed lead levels well above the acceptable state limit of 20 parts lead per billion parts of water.

That threshold is set by a 2018 law that also requires Tennessee school districts to test water sources in buildings constructed before 1998 every two years.

The Environmental Protection Agency says the safety limit should be 15 parts per billion, or ppb. Children are especially vulnerable to lead, the agency says, which in even low levels of exposure can cause learning disabilities, impaired hearing, and blood cell damage.

Seven MSCS schools have water sources containing over 10 times the safe amount of lead. A cafeteria sink at Invictus Academy, for example, tested with a lead level of 765 ppb. And a Whitehaven Elementary kitchen sink came back with 581 ppb.

The district said in an emailed statement that all contaminated water sources were “immediately taken out of service,” and will be subject to corrective action and retesting in the next 90 days.

“We continue to provide bottled water to affected schools, and all of them have water filtration machines and hand sanitizer, which means students do not ever have to come in contact with the school’s water,” the district said.

In 2019, the first year of Tennessee school testing, 10 MSCS schools had contaminated water sources. The most recent tests flagged high lead levels at 24 out of the district’s 222 schools.

Below are those schools and their affected water sources. (A water source marked with an asterisk indicates a source with over 10 times the legal limit.)

Bellevue Middle, kitchen sink (48 ppb).
Bolton High, two concession sinks (148 and 28 ppb).
Central High, kitchen sink (24 ppb).
Cromwell Elementary, kitchen sink (29 ppb).
Ford Road Elementary, kitchen sink (21 ppb).
Geeter Middle, kitchen sink (44 ppb).
Georgian Hills Elementary, kitchen sink* (204 ppb).
Germantown High, two stadium sinks* (422 and 30 ppb).
Invictus Academy at Airways, cafeteria sink* (765 ppb).
Jackson Elementary, kitchen sink (49 ppb).
Kingsbury Middle, bottle filler outside cafeteria (23 ppb).
Middle College High, concession sink* (212 ppb).
Northeast Prep Academy, kitchen sink (27 ppb).
Oak Forest Elementary, kitchen sink (113 ppb).
Peabody Elementary, kitchen sink (29 ppb).
Raleigh-Bartlett Meadows Elementary, kitchen sink* (235 ppb).
Raleigh Egypt High, kitchen sink* and cafeteria water cooler (276 and 31 ppb, respectively).
Raleigh Egypt Middle, kitchen sink (23 ppb).
Sheffield Career and Technical Center, kitchen sink (34 ppb).
Sheffield Elementary, kitchen sink (42 ppb).
Southwest Career and Technical, kitchen sink (161 ppb).
Treadswell Middle, kitchen ice machine* (236 ppb).
White Station High, kitchen ice machine (36 ppb).
Whitehaven Elementary, kitchen sink* (581 ppb).

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Shelby County leaders won’t cut current school board terms. But election changes are still pending.

2025-08-07T01:18:29+00:00

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A Shelby County Commission committee advanced a resolution Wednesday to align school board races with the general election cycle by 2030, dropping an earlier plan that would have cut short five members’ terms.

Last week, commissioners delayed voting on a proposal to put all school board seats on the 2026 ballot. They said that proposal, which shortened some current terms, raised constitutional concerns. The full commission is expected to vote as early as Monday on the new resolution, which also includes term limits that could start with those elected in 2030.

A state law with bipartisan backing made the election cycle changes possible. The Memphis lawmakers who sponsored the bill, Democratic Rep. Torrey Harris and Republican Sen. Brent Taylor, had argued that syncing up election cycles would save money and increase voter turnout, which is consistently low for school board-only elections.

But some have characterized the move as a school board reset amid the controversy that followed Superintendent Marie Feagins’ January ouster.

Resolution opponents said Wednesday that the new proposal still violates the state constitution because it would create term limits without a voter referendum. That concern caused Memphis Rep. G.A. Hardaway, who originally voted for the state legislation, to ask the Tennessee Attorney General to weigh in.

School board member Natalie McKinney told Chalkbeat that she doesn’t oppose board term limits but said that voters should decide whether or not to implement them.

“We don’t have to do this, and we don’t have to do it this way,” she said. “So you have to ask yourself, what’s the real goal here?”

Commission Chair Michael Whaley, who sponsored the original resolution, refuted the claim that these changes are about individual board members or district performance.

“We are talking about an issue of governance, and whether we want this [system] to exist decades from today, with new people in these seats,” he said. “We really need to look at it longer-term.”

But Commissioner Miska Clay Bibbs, who leads the county education committee, said Wednesday that she doesn’t think aligning election cycles will increase turnout. She cited current voter data that, she said, “shows that as you go down the ballot, based upon what the seat is, less people vote.”

Commissioner Erika Sugarmon, who sponsored the new resolution, said the amended measure, which pushes back changes for four years, would make a lawsuit less likely. But a representative for the county attorney’s office said that isn’t guaranteed.

Four of the five school board members who originally faced shortened terms voted to fire Feagins after just 10 months on the job. Towanna Murphy, one of those members, called the measure a “form of retaliation.” She said delaying the timeline doesn’t change that.

“None of this was happening until that incident with Dr. Feagins, and then they decided to take these measures because they were angry at us,” she told Chalkbeat Wednesday.

In January, the county commission issued a no-confidence vote for the school board members who voted to fire Feagins. Some Republican state lawmakers subsequently advocated for a state-appointed board to control the Memphis-Shelby County district.

Commissioner Henri E. Brooks, one of three who voted against the revised resolution, said the state law allowing for election-cycle changes has “discriminatory intent,” since it applies only to county boards of education and not to the six suburban districts within Shelby County.

“If we’re going to do it to the Memphis-Shelby County Schools, then the others should be susceptible,” she said.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis school board gives green light to new cellphone ban days before classes start

2025-07-30T02:52:02+00:00

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Following a fast-tracked school board vote on Tuesday, Memphis-Shelby County students will face a more stringent cellphone ban when classes begin next week.

School board members voted unanimously to approve the ban, which explicitly permits Memphis schools to confiscate devices and employ other disciplinary measures, including suspensions, in response to student violations.

It also adds smartwatches to the list of devices that need to be “powered off and out of sight” during school hours. Some board members previously expressed concern about how students would be disciplined if caught with their devices.

No further discussion followed Tuesday’s vote.

The new student cellphone policy replaces one that the Memphis district first put in place in 2010, and it follows a new state law that requires all school systems to adopt a ban on “wireless communication devices” ahead of the 2025-26 school year. The state law mandates exceptions for students with medical conditions or disabilities.

Tennessee’s law comes amid a wave of state legislation across the country to curb cellphone use in schools, as research grows on the learning and health impacts for young students.

The legislation leaves all other details about how the ban should be enforced, including what devices to include and where students have to keep them during the school day, up to local school boards.

According to the new district policy, students will be required to place their powered-off devices in “designated locations” during the school day, which will be determined by the superintendent or a school leader. Those locations could include:

Individual secured pouches
Student lockers
Backpacks or purses
Students’ personal cars

MSCS has yet to provide additional guidance about how the new policy will be enforced.

The district’s decision to include smartwatches on the list of banned devices was the result of an amendment proposed by board member Michelle McKissack last week.

Stephanie Cole-Farris is the clinical services manager for Memphis’ chapter of Youth Villages, a statewide youth mental health nonprofit. She said there needs to be a “pilot phase” for students as they adjust to the state directive, since the district’s cell phone policy wasn’t consistently enforced in years past.

“Our children are born into and brought up at a time where we are very much reliant on devices throughout the day,” she said. “Not having access to that could create stress, anxiety, and overall, just a feeling of hopelessness and being overwhelmed.”

Cole-Farris also stressed the need for district leaders to develop a robust communication plan for all parties involved, especially in the case of emergencies.

Interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond said last week that his team is working on such a plan.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

What will a new student cellphone ban look like in Memphis schools?

2025-07-23T18:41:26+00:00

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Memphis school board members will vote next week on a revised student cellphone policy to align with new state standards.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools already had a cellphone policy in place since 2010 that required students to keep phones and “personal communication devices” turned off and stored in their locker during school hours. But the new version adds state-mandated exceptions, such as students with documented health conditions or disabilities using devices as outlined in their individual education plans.

During a meeting Tuesday, board members raised concerns about disciplinary measures outlined in the proposed policy, which aren’t required by Tennessee’s new law. The proposed revisions specifically outline that repeated violations “will result in the escalation to a higher progressive disciplinary measure.”

District officials say the consequences echo what was included in the original policy, which mainly talked about confiscating devices and mentioned “additional consequences” for multiple violations.

In the spring, Tennessee lawmakers unanimously passed a bill banning the use of “wireless communication devices” such as cellphones and tablets during the school day. The law, signed by Gov. Bill Lee in April, tasks local boards of education with hashing out the specific policy details.

That move aligned with a nationwide trend to ban cellphone use in schools at the state legislature level, due to rising concerns about student mental health and bullying.

With the renewed state and local push, including more devices and exceptions to navigate, MSCS board member Michelle McKissack said there should be extra support in place for administrators.

“This is going to be a big fat deal,” said McKissack. “There really is a serious concern from principals, because the greater majority are at risk of violating this. These are iBabies; they literally were born with phones in their hands.”

District Policy Advisor Maria Stewart said the board needs to vote as soon as possible to have the policy in place by the Aug. 4 school start date.

Stewart said the new policy would follow the district’s current “progressive disciplinary approach” for violations, which starts with consequences like confiscation and escalates to suspension.

Board member Amber Huett-Garcia said Tuesday that the process feels “devoid of personal circumstances” for students, who often have “adult responsibilities” that dictate their phone use.

“I think it’s very different if you are a high school senior, and your mother’s texting you to pick up your elementary sister, or you’re scrolling on TikTok during AP history,” she said.

Huett-Garcia said she’s also concerned about consequences being “greater than the disruption.”

“If I was on my phone for 10 minutes during the school day, but then you’re going to be out of school for three days, what’s the greater learning loss?” she said.

Interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond said his team will review data on the effectiveness of current disciplinary measures for student cellphone use.

He also said he’s putting together a communications plan about the new rules in anticipation of concerns from parents and students.

Are you an MSCS teacher or principal with thoughts or concerns about the new state cellphone ban? Email bhatch@chalkbeat.org to tell me more – I’d love to hear from you!

A previous version of this story listed Facility Services Officer Michelle Stuart as the district spokesperson at the board meeting. Policy Advisor Maria Stewart is the correct speaker.

Memphis school leaders say being called ‘dumbasses’ by a legislator is a symptom of bigger problem

2025-07-22T15:50:30+00:00

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Memphis education leaders are pushing back on what they call misleading and offensive language from lawmakers leading the charge to turn over control of the school district to the state.

Rep. Mark White and Sen. Brent Taylor, both Republicans from Memphis, told WKNO/Channel 10 earlier this month that in January they will bring back their bills to create a state-appointed board to lead Memphis Shelby-County schools. In the interview, Taylor called the current school board members “dumbasses.”

“The school board ranks right up there with jock itch, in terms of what people think about them,” he said.

The district declined to comment, and Taylor did not respond to Chalkbeat’s requests for comment. But a school board member and local advocates condemned Taylor’s language.

Taylor is known for making off-color and often incendiary public comments, particularly during General Assembly debates. While the comments aren’t surprising, education officials in Memphis say the rhetoric further inflames already tense relations between city and state officials.

“I think he’s become emboldened, given the tenor of our current national politics that has trickled down into our state and is now trying to trickle down into our local politics,” said MSCS board member Natalie McKinney.

The school board faced backlash in the winter for ousting former Superintendent Marie Feagins, a move White and others publicly urged against. Feagins filed a lawsuit against the board in February, saying her firing violated the Tennessee Open Meetings Act.

The district in recent years has faced significant academic and financial challenges, in addition to repeated administrative drama at the superintendent level. Feagins lasted less than 10 months in the job before her ouster, which prompted White to introduce his bill to rework district leadership.

In an interview, White told Chalkbeat that he’s not worried about the senator’s language.

“We’ve all got our style, so I’ll let Senator Taylor do his thing,” White said. “He’s doing a great job as far as I’m concerned.”

But Cardell Orrin, who leads Stand for Children Tennessee, a Memphis-based nonprofit working to promote equity in school outcomes, called the senator’s language “very clearly offensive.”

“We have a high tolerance for ignorance here, but this white suburban Republican legislator is comparing school board members, who are mostly Black women, to jock itch,” he said. “This senator whose main hashtag is ‘Make Memphis Matter’ … is doing all of these things to assert control over this place that he doesn’t live in.”

During the WKNO interview, lawmakers cited MSCS’ recent state test scores as a main reason a leadership change is needed, calling the “small incremental increases” insufficient. Just over 29% of the district’s students in grades 3-5 passed in reading this year, a critical reading benchmark for the state, up from 26% in 2023-24.

“We’re not meeting the mark on preparing our Memphis-Shelby County students, which are the inner city kids, to be able to get those jobs and to move out of high school,” White told Chalkbeat. “It’s no longer about any particular school board or any particular superintendent. This has been going on for decades, and it’s just time for intervention.”

Dolores Rivers, interim director of the Memphis-Shelby County Education Association and a retired teacher of 26 years, said that minimizing the district’s progress is “a slap in the face of the teachers that are in the classroom.”

“People need to understand that our kids come to us behind; they start behind,” she said. “Proficiency is the goal that we’re trying to attain. Growth is the path.”

MSCS outpaced average state improvement on some testing benchmarks, including third-grade reading proficiency. But the district continues to lag behind statewide results, with 41.7% of all Tennessee third graders scoring proficient on the test. White said getting MSCS to hit that state figure is the goal.

While on WKNO, White and Taylor compared MSCS test scores to smaller, less diverse nearby school systems like the University Schools, which is an independent public school system that’s been run by the University of Memphis since 2024.

But Rivers said those comparisons are unfair, noting that the district has a waiting list.

“We have to accept everybody,” she said.

Memphis students have to apply to the University Schools system, and are required to show a “satisfactory conduct grade and attendance record” to be admitted. White said the schools serve “many of the same students” as MSCS because they pull from the same ZIP codes.

“And whether it’s fair or not, that’s not the point,” he said. “The point is, year after year, Memphis-Shelby County Schools does not perform.”

In their WKNO interview, Taylor and White said the University School system serves an equal number of white and Black students. But according to a 2024 report, 31% of the district’s 1,200 students are Black and 53% are white.

And 2024 data from the Tennessee Department of Education shows that the percentage of economically disadvantaged students in the University Schools system ranged from 7% in elementary to 14% in middle school, compared to 53% of MSCS students district-wide.

McKinney said those differences in student demographics matter.

“This attempt to dissect poverty from the ability to take advantage and have full access to all your educational opportunities is something that we need to stop lying to ourselves about,” she said.

Orrin was one of many community leaders to launch the “Save Our Students” initiative fighting against the previous round of state takeover bills in the spring. He acknowledged that there is “a lot to improve at the district,” including holding board members and district leadership accountable.

But Orrin says the lawmakers’ reasons for upending the MSCS school board “keep changing over time,” and the $6 million forensic audit set to start this month — which the lawmakers said will guide their efforts going forward — will only make that worse.

“They’re on a hunt for why they’re doing the state takeover again, so it’s another rationale,” he said. “Again, we don’t have any context or any prior consideration of what they’re looking for.”

The state hasn’t conducted an independent investigation of any other system, Orrin said. And the lawmakers admitted they’ll likely only have partial results by the time the legislative session ends.

White says he’s confident the partial results will be enough to inform how he and Taylor can reconcile the two state takeover proposals the duo introduced earlier this year. But he said there’s nothing the audit could find that would make him change his mind.

“We need more than advisers right now,” he said. “You have to have this complete overhaul to break down that bureaucracy.”

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

The push to take over Memphis-Shelby County Schools isn’t over, state lawmakers say

2025-07-14T16:43:24+00:00

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The two Republican lawmakers who introduced bills this spring to change who controls Memphis-Shelby County Schools say the push for a state takeover isn’t finished.

Rep. Mark White and Sen. Brent Taylor told WKNO/Channel 10’s “Behind the Headlines” Friday that their legislation to establish a state-appointed “board of managers” overseeing the district will be fast-tracked to pass this spring.

That’s because the lawmakers’ two versions of the legislation – which include some key differences – each passed one chamber by April, then stalled. Now, Taylor and White said they’re waiting for results from the $6 million independent audit of the district, which started this month, to best inform how they’ll combine the bills come January.

“They’re sitting there fully ready to go,” White said. “All we have to do when we go back in January, if the timing is right, is just line them up, kinda like the Big Beautiful Bill that Congress just did.”

White’s version gives the state-appointed board power over elected MSCS board members. Taylor’s puts the state in an advisory role, but gives the commissioner of education authority to remove MSCS members who are “obstinate to the change,” he said.

Taylor also said he thinks the state’s largest school district will ultimately need to be broken up into smaller districts in order to operate effectively.

“We’ve got a district that is too big; it’s unmanageable,” he said.

District officials didn’t respond to requests for comment before publication.

The lawmakers’ comments, and the scale of the changes they discussed, set the stage for another fight over the district’s future in 2026.

Both White and Taylor said the reason for state control boils down, mainly, to academic results in the Memphis-Shelby County district. The push for state takeover also came on the heels of the board’s sudden decision to oust former Superintendent Marie Feagins, which sparked demands for more accountability.

MSCS students improved on state tests for the fourth year in a row, with even larger reading and math score gains for the district’s youngest learners. Just over 29% of students in grades 3-5 passed in reading this year, up from 26% in 2023-24.

Statewide, 41.7% of third graders hit the mark. Fourth and fifth graders saw 47.7% and 40.7% proficiency rates, respectively.

Taylor said the “small incremental increases” from MSCS aren’t good enough.

“We don’t expect them overnight to get to the state average,” he said. “But we need to be moving and headed in the right direction.”

The Memphis and Shelby County school systems merged in 2011. State lawmakers then passed a bill allowing surrounding suburban neighborhoods to break off and form their own districts, with significantly smaller and less diverse student populations.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Gov. Bill Lee downplays transparency concerns about Tennessee school voucher program

2025-07-01T23:54:58+00:00

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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee defended the state’s new private-school voucher program amid questions about its application process, which does not require families to report where their students went to school before.

“It’s not required by the legislation, so it’s not necessary to have,” Lee said Tuesday, reaffirming comments his office made last week about the legislation that established the program. “What we hope for is universal school choice where every family, regardless of their child’s past education history, has access to a scholarship. Ultimately, that would be the goal.”

But it will be nearly impossible for Tennessee to determine whether the new program, a longtime passion project for Lee, is actually expanding access to private schools for all Tennesseans or providing taxpayer funds mainly to families whose children are already enrolled in private schools.

How Tennessee’s expansive, expensive school voucher law made it to the finish line

Chalkbeat Tennessee reported in late June that Tennessee is not asking families to report their student’s prior enrollment. This is a frequently asked question in other state voucher programs and was a required question on the application for Tennessee’s first voucher initiative, the Education Savings Account program.

Tennessee is also not collecting data on the household income of tens of thousands of applicants vying for a “universal” voucher, the vouchers open to any Tennessee resident, regardless of family income.

In the first year of the program, half of the state’s 20,000 vouchers are subject to income limits. They are reserved for families who make under 300% of the federal income threshold to qualify for free or reduced price lunch. A family of four, for example, would be eligible for the income-capped voucher if they made less than $173,160.

When asked how he would respond to criticism that a lack of data could hamper accountability and oversight measures of the program, Lee said he didn’t think it would be an issue. He also said he wasn’t concerned about tracking whether the program is indeed expanding access to private schools for families who had previously been enrolled in public schools, which has long been Lee’s stated goal for the program.

“With half of the families being low-income families, I think that problem is being solved,” Lee said.

Lawmakers who opposed Lee’s voucher plan have raised questions about the data collection. State Rep. Jody Barrett, a Republican from Dickson, has called for an independent board to oversee the program, according to a Tennessee Lookout report.

Meanwhile, Rep. Caleb Hemmer, a Nashville Democrat, has been seeking answers and data from the department about the program. Hemmer sharply criticized the department on Tuesday and said that the vouchers should be called “Education Fraud Accounts.”

“We are distributing over $125 million in taxpayer funds in $7,300 increments, yet there appears to be no meaningful oversight or basic data collection,” Hemmer said. “Common sense would dictate that we ask fundamental questions and track how this money is being used and who really is receiving it.”

Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds last week declined Hemmer’s request for demographic information on students who had applied for the program.

Though Lee on Wednesday said he was encouraged that “Tennesseans of multiple backgrounds and economic diversity” want to participate in the program, the department has released very limited information about the program so far.

It is not yet clear how many applicants have been accepted into the program. The TDOE has not responded to multiple Chalkbeat Tennessee requests this summer asking how many applicants have been accepted or provided specific information on whether the department has filled 11 positions the legislature funded to help administer the voucher program.

“We’ve already seen the consequences of unchecked voucher programs in other states — most recently in Florida, where funds were used to purchase more than 5,000 theme park tickets, including to Disney World,” Hemmer said. “I am currently working with the Legislative Attorney’s Office to explore all legal avenues to access this publicly available data and ensure this program is operating within the bounds of the law and in the best interest of taxpayers.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools forensic audit set to begin in July

2025-06-09T20:47:31+00:00

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Tennessee plans to launch a deep dive into Memphis-Shelby County Schools’ finances and administration in mid-July following Republican leaders’ insistence the district should be examined for irregularities amid discussions of a potential state takeover.

The contract for the state-funded forensic audit, which is designed to dig for potential fraud and abuse, is set to begin on July 17, according to documents published by the Tennessee Comptroller’s office. The office concluded a bidding process in early June and is expected to select a firm to perform the audit by the end of the month.

It’s not yet clear how long the audit could run, but the proposed contract would require the auditor to inform the state immediately if it discovers any evidence of fraud.

Rolling audit reports could keep the pressure on Memphis-Shelby County Schools even while lawmakers are in recess for the rest of the year.

Tennessee lawmakers this spring approved a $6 million budget item for the audit as Republican leaders called for a state takeover of the Memphis district.

The takeover legislation ultimately fell apart in the final days of the General Assembly session as Republicans couldn’t come to an agreement on the details of the plan.

But Republicans vowed to revive MSCS intervention legislation next year and say the results of the forensic audit could factor into the renewed effort.

“We’re going to really take a look at the books to see if there is fraud, abuse, or waste,” House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Republican from Crossville, said earlier this year. “That has been mentioned to us time and time again that might be coming out of the school system.”

The state audit funding was a significant increase over the $50,000 previously tapped by the Shelby County Commission for an audit earlier this year. The commission authorized the funds after it approved a no-confidence resolution directed at MSCS board members who opposed then-Superintendent Marie Feagins.

The state’s call for bids highlights that the audit should examine potential “fraud, waste, abuse, and any deficiencies” in the district, but it also calls for an evaluation on the “effectiveness and efficiency of MSCS operations” and its legal compliance.

A spokesperson from the Tennessee comptroller’s office declined to reveal which firms were in the running for the bid, or how many had expressed intent, citing a Tennessee law that shields sealed bids until the bidding process is complete.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee education bills: What passed, and what didn’t, in the latest legislative session

2025-04-25T19:20:22+00:00

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Tennessee’s legislative session ended this week, after lawmakers considered several controversial bills that would directly affect students. Here’s a roundup of how the most important education legislation turned out.

The failed Achievement School District has a replacement

The Achievement School District is set to shut down by the start of the 2026-27 school year, replaced by a new model of state intervention in low-performing schools.

The ASD aimed to push Tennessee’s bottom 5% of schools up to the top 25% by removing local control and placing schools in a state-run district, with mostly charter operators running the schools. But research shows the district’s schools experienced high teacher turnover rates and little gain in academic performance. After ASD’s peak of serving 33 schools, only three remain in the district.

The new model promises to give more control to local districts over how to intervene in low-performing schools. If a school does not improve, the state can escalate its level of intervention, up to the extent of school closure.

Takeover bill for MSCS evolves, then stalls

Bills aiming to intervene in Memphis-Shelby County Schools passed the state House and Senate, but stalled until next session because the two chambers didn’t agree on a final version.

The proposals emerged after the MSCS school board fired Superintendent Marie Feagins in January, less than a year into her tenure, a move that drew strong objections from the community and calls for accountability.

Republican Rep. Mark White of Memphis first proposed a version that would strip most powers from the elected school board and hand authority over to a state-appointed board of local residents. The version ultimately approved by the House called for an oversight board with authority to approve the district budget, among other powers, and allowing for expanded conversion of schools to charters.

The Senate version, from Republican Sen. Brent Taylor of Memphis, also called for a state-appointed advisory board for the elected school board. His bill would also allow the state education commissioner to recommend removing the MSCS superintendent and school board leaders, and allow the Shelby County Commission to choose their replacements.

The sponsors intend to take up the legislation again after a state-funded forensic audit of MSCS.

A bill targeting undocumented students didn’t pass

A bill that would allow school districts to deny free public education to undocumented students in Tennessee stalled due to financial concerns.

The legislation faced wide protest after its introduction. On multiple occasions, lawmakers had to abruptly end sessions as members of the public and activists in the gallery chanted and sang prayers.

The bill would directly challenge a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that guarantees a free public education for all students, regardless of immigration status. Along with its constitutional challenge, the bill also could also jeopardize more than $1 billion of federal education funding, according to its fiscal memo.

The legislation passed the Senate 19-13 on April 10, with seven Republicans joining Democrats to vote against it. But its fiscal note prevented the bill from moving forward.

Schools will have to teach a ‘student success sequence’ that includes marriage

The legislature passed a bill requiring public schools to teach students that the keys to success are to graduate high school; enter the workforce or pursue postsecondary education; marry; and then have children — in that order.

The success sequence emerged in the early 2000s, as researchers argued taking these steps leads to better economic futures. The concept has since generated support in conservative-leaning education policy circles. Critics say the concept does not account for the structures that drive poverty.

Much of the bill matched model legislation from the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, a policy plan for changing the U.S. government.

Cellphone ban coming to Tennessee public schools

A ban on cellphones in Tennessee public school classrooms will take effect beginning in the 2025-26 school year.

Students will be able to use their phones with teacher permission. There are also exceptions for emergencies and when students need to use devices for managing their health.

The majority of Tennessee schools already have bans in place. The new legislation gives districts the flexibility to decide details of their policies – such as how students would be disciplined for violating the ban and when the cellphones must be stored.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools remains under pressure, even as state intervention bill stalls

2025-04-23T20:08:22+00:00

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Memphis-Shelby County Schools narrowly avoided legislation that would have expanded state control over its elected school board and budget. But lawmakers intend to bring that bill back — and other efforts to audit the district and potentially change the timing of its school board elections have advanced.

Though versions of state intervention bills passed in the House and Senate, the chambers could not reconcile them before the Tennessee General Assembly adjourned on Tuesday. Each bill called for a state-appointed oversight board whose members would be paid by the school district, but the two versions differed on what powers it gave that board, and the thresholds that would trigger state intervention.

Rather than settle on a compromise bill, the sponsors made a “strategic decision” to keep the bills alive, according to a statement from sponsor Rep. Mark White of Memphis.

“Continuing to invest in failed leadership and administrative mismanagement without addressing the district’s fundamental issues is doing a disservice to the people we were elected to represent,” White and Senate sponsor Brent Taylor of Memphis said in a joint statement.

A bill that would allow for the recall of school board members also stalled.

White’s legislation came in response to the firing of MSCS Superintendent Marie Feagins in January — less than a year into her tenure — a move that drew strong objections from many district educators and members of the community. At the time, many of them warned that firing the superintendent would signal the kind of disorder that would invite state intervention.

But critics of the legislation called it undemocratic and an example of state overreach. The local teacher’s union president delivered more than 5,000 petitions against the legislation last week. Many members of the Memphis delegation also voiced opposition, as did the elected school board.

The state has a history of interventions in MSCS, including the Achievement School District turnaround program, which removed low-performing schools and placed them in a state-run district, often under the control of charter operators. Earlier this week, the state voted to end the ASD after research showed it failed to achieve long-term academic improvements.

School board member Michelle McKissack, who represents District 1, said there is a need for reform in MSCS — a state takeover was not the solution.

“I also was frustrated and upset by the decision of members of my board in terminating the previous superintendent,” McKissack said. “But at the same time, I didn’t want to see the state step in, take over, to the degree of usurping the voice of the people.”

Though this intervention legislation stalled, more change could be on its way. State lawmakers passed a budget that will fund a $6 million forensic audit of MSCS, conducted by the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury. The sponsors of the intervention bill intend to merge their legislation when results of the audit are in, according to a press release from the state House Republican Caucus.

The legislature also passed a bill Tuesday that would allow the Shelby County Commission to synchronize school board elections to the same cycle as commission elections. It’s an effort to increase voter turnout for those positions. But it could mean that elected school board members’ terms are cut short.

The commission would need to pass a resolution before the election timing would change.

McKissack said an increase in voter turnout could be beneficial, but it could also lead to a total replacement of the school board at one time, wiping out veteran knowledge and creating upheaval. Ultimately, she said she wants to see some stability for MSCS.

“We’ve been through a very tumultuous period,” McKissack said. “No matter what, moving forward, I hope that all of the stakeholders involved just really keep children at the forefront of what’s best. Sometimes that has gotten lost in the conversation.”

Tennessee lawmakers vote to replace failed Achievement School District turnaround program

2025-04-22T00:26:09+00:00

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After more than a decade of state takeovers and contentious charter conversions, Tennessee is set to shut down the state-run Achievement School District and create a new model of intervention for low-performing schools by the start of the 2026-27 school year.

Legislation to replace the failed ASD cleared the House 75-15 on Monday, sending the bill to Gov. Bill Lee, who has indicated his support.

“Tennessee needs a support system for priority schools that contains accountability but also provides school districts more local flexibility in determining which interventions will be most effective,” a Lee spokesperson told Chalkbeat in a statement.

The ASD removed low-performing schools from local control and placed them under a state-run district, with the goal to push Tennessee’s bottom 5% of schools to the top 25%. Many of the schools were turned over to charter operators to run under 10-year contracts.

Research showed the ASD led to high teacher turnover, and did not generate long-term improvements for students. The district also faced community backlash for taking over schools in districts that served mostly low-income communities and predominantly Black student populations. The ASD cost taxpayers over $1 billion. Only three schools remain in the ASD.

The new model creates a tiered system, with escalating levels of intervention for schools that do not academically improve. Schools identified for intervention for the first time would start at the first tier. The Tennessee Department of Education then will review each school’s performance annually to decide whether to change the level of intervention.

Tier 1 would give districts the option to direct their own intervention plans or partner with a turnaround expert.

In Tier 2, districts can choose between conversion to a charter school, transfer of operations to a higher education institution, or the replacement of some or all school leadership and specific staff. There is also the option to implement an intervention committee – made up of school board members, school employees and parents – to develop a plan with a turnaround expert.

Tier 3 involves school closures or replacement of school leadership and instructional staff under the direction of the state department of education.

All strategies would require state approval.

The new model applies to “priority schools” across the state, defined as:

The bottom 5% of schools in performance. Federal law requires states to intervene in public schools in the bottom 5%.
All public high schools that fail to graduate one-third or more of their students.
Schools with chronically low-performing student groups that have not improved after receiving additional support.

Democratic Rep. Antonio Parkinson of Memphis, who has previously brought legislation to end the ASD, celebrated its sunset.

“We finally end this catastrophe of an experiment in education, served on the backs of our communities,” said Parkinson. “Just when we thought the schools couldn’t perform any worse, because they’re at the bottom of the 5%, the Tennessee Achievement School District came and proved us wrong.”

However, he said the bill’s new model was a “remix” of the ASD and cautioned that the legislation could expand charter conversion.

Republican Rep. Debra Moody of Covington, who sponsored the bill, said charter conversion is one option among many that the district could choose.

The legislation now heads to the governor’s desk for signature.

Tennessee bills on Memphis school intervention outline powers of state-appointed boards

2025-04-18T21:26:41+00:00

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New versions of legislation aiming to intervene in Memphis-Shelby County Schools would establish state-appointed boards to oversee the elected local school board and superintendent contracts, while the bills emerging from the Tennessee House and Senate differ somewhat on the amount and types of authority those boards would have.

The bills follow the firing of MSCS Superintendent Marie Feagins by a divided school board in late January — nine months into her tenure — a move that prompted calls from community members for greater accountability for district leaders. Critics call the legislation undemocratic and state overreach.

In both proposals, members of the state-appointed boards would have the authority to review large contracts for superintendent pay, but it would be up to the districts to pay the members of the state-appointed boards.

Republican Rep. Mark White of Memphis, who sponsored the House legislation, said MSCS needs intervention now.

“For a city like Memphis, it’s important that you have a strong K-12 system,” he said. “It’s time that we address an issue of a system that has a $1.8 billion budget.”

White’s legislation looks much different from a previous iteration, which would have stripped the majority of the elected school board’s powers.

Memphis schools have faced continual upheaval over the past 15 years, from a merger that created the Memphis-Shelby County district and the withdrawal of several municipalities from that district, to the takeover of many local schools by the state-run Achievement School District turnaround program and leadership turmoil that has left the district with its fourth superintendent in less than three years.

Multiple Democratic members pushed back on the bills, saying that the state has a bad track record in intervention, and that the proposals would only add to the district’s upheaval.

“The children have to absorb all of those changes every single year,” said Democratic Rep. Karen Camper of Memphis, adding: “No other county, no other district, has been through this, and it’s been traumatic.”

The House and Senate versions still need to be fully reconciled. Both are set for a full floor vote on Monday.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers passed a budget this week that will fund a forensic audit of MSCS.

Who would make up the board

Both House and Senate proposals envision nine-member boards made up of county residents.

In the House proposal, the members would be appointed by the governor and speakers of the state Senate and House. The board would operate for three years, with the possibility of a three year extension.

In the Senate proposal, the board would include the city and county mayors, or their designees. The board’s oversight would last four years, with a two-year extension option.

In both proposals, the state-appointed board members would be compensated the same amount as the elected school board members, and be paid by the district. In the Senate version, the board would also be allowed to hire up to three staff members and determine their salaries. These salaries would be paid for by the local legislative body — like the county or city — not the state, according to the proposal.

“Now we’re putting a whole new unelected board that taxpayers have to fund, that they did not choose,” Democratic Sen. London Lamar of Memphis said during discussions of the bill this week. “So we’re basically superseding the decisions of voters.”

Republican Sen. Brent Taylor of Memphis, sponsor of the Senate bill, said the board would act in an “advisory” capacity.

The board’s powers: Senate vs. House version

In the Senate version, the state commissioner of education could recommend removing elected board members and the district superintendent, and seek help with this from the state-appointed board. The Shelby County Commission could then appoint new school board members, who would have to be confirmed by the state.

In districts like MSCS that have had frequent leadership turnover, the bill would allow for the County Commission to appoint a superintendent, who would serve for at least four years.

The state-appointed board would submit “recommendations” to items on school board agendas. The board would also conduct an annual comprehensive needs assessment to create a “transformation plan” for the district.

The state-appointed board would review contracts worth $50,000 or more before the elected school board could sign, amend, or renew them.

“Public education in the state of Tennessee is a partnership between the state and the local government,” said Republican Sen. Jack Johnson of Franklin. “It is altogether entirely appropriate that we send an advisory board, that we get further engaged as a partner in how those kids are being educated.”

In the House bill, the board’s main power would be to approve or veto items in the local elected school board’s budget. As in the Senate version, it would review contracts of $50,000 or more. The board would also approve or deny expenditures of $50,000 or more. These contracts and expenditures would exclude contracts and salaries for teachers and principals, but would apply to payments for the superintendent.

Bills create more openings for charter schools

Both bills would help promote the spread of charter schools. For example, they would require the elected school board to send a list of vacant and underutilized property to the state-appointed board. The board would then determine which properties could be occupied by a public charter school.

The Senate version would allow the state commissioner to recommend charter conversion for schools in the district. It would also outline a process allowing charter operators to apply directly to the public charter school commission for authorization.

The House version would restrict the elected school board’s ability to deny charter renewals, charter conversions, or amended applications for new charter schools. The oversight board would need to review and approve any such denial.

“It seems like this is the actual goal: to take these properties and hand them over to your charter friends,” said Democratic Rep. Johnny Shaw of Bolivar.

Rep. White denied that, and said he supports any school that can educate MSCS children.

Thresholds for intervention

Both bills specifically target Memphis-Shelby County Schools, though any district meeting the following thresholds could face intervention.

The Senate version kicks in when:

50% or more of district students are economically disadvantaged
50% or more did not meet grade-level expectations in math and English
At least one school managed by the district has been identified as a priority school for the last five lists released

The House version applies when:

50% or more of district students did not meet grade-level expectations in math and English
At least 30% of district-managed schools receive a failing grade from the state
At least 25% of students are chronically absent
At least one school managed by the district has been identified as a priority school for the last five lists released
The county legislative body approves a resolution declaring no confidence in the district’s school board

‘Success sequence’ bill passes House, heads to governor’s desk for signature

2025-04-07T22:59:23+00:00

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Tennessee public schools could soon be required to teach the “success sequence” – that the keys to future success are to graduate high school; enter the workforce or pursue postsecondary education; marry, and then have children. The state joins others around the country introducing legislation around the controversial education idea.

The state House approved the bill, 73-20, on Monday, sending the legislation to Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s desk for his signature. The Tennessee Senate previously passed the bill in a 25-5 vote.

Educators would be required to teach the success sequence as part of family life education beginning in the 2026-27 school year.

Utah’s governor recently signed similar legislation into law. Several states, including Mississippi, Kentucky, Texas, and Ohio, have introduced bills related to the success sequence this year.

The success sequence was popularized in the early 2000s by researchers who argued this life path yields better economic prospects in adulthood. Critics have argued that it places a burden on individuals rather than structures that drive poverty, like access to quality education, housing, and infrastructure.

Research from conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute in 2021 found that 76% of U.S. parents support teaching the sequence.

A 2020 report contracted by the Department of Health and Human Services under the Trump administration broadly found an association between these individual milestones – education, full-time employment, and marriage before children – and lower poverty rates. However, the report found more research is needed as to whether the sequence causes this success. The report also found relatively few studies that examined the sequence as a whole.

More recently, the success sequence has become a touchstone in conservative-leaning education policy circles, promoted by charter school founder Ian Rowe, a senior fellow at AEI. U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s first official K-12 school visit was to Rowe’s charter school in New York City in March.

Much of the bill’s language matches model legislation from The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that published Project 2025, a policy plan built to reshape the U.S. government.

Republican Rep. Gino Bulso of Brentwood sponsored the bill.

“It’s demonstrated that the nuclear family is the best antidote that we have in society to avoiding poverty,” Bulso said during earlier debate on the bill.

Democratic Rep. Aftyn Behn of Nashville attempted to add language to also teach economic barriers that can prevent students from completing the sequence, but the amendment failed to be considered.

“What you are trying to do refuses to acknowledge the diversity and plurality of the human experience,” she said. “(This bill) ignores the real barriers that people face, including me, a millennial woman.”

Tennessee bill targeting undocumented students clears a hurdle in House

2025-03-27T00:25:35+00:00

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Tennessee lawmakers voted to advance a bill Wednesday that would allow public schools to check students’ immigration status and charge tuition to students who cannot provide proof that they are in the country legally.

The legislation aims to provoke a challenge to a 1982 Supreme Court decision that guarantees free public education for students regardless of immigration status. The lead House sponsor is Republican Rep. William Lamberth of Portland.

After a tense debate, the House Education Committee voted 11-7 to clear the bill, bringing it a step closer to a floor vote. The language of the bill also changed to align more with its companion bill in the Senate.

If passed, the legislation would give public schools and public charter schools the option to ask students for documents showing that they are U.S. citizens or legal residents, or are in the process of obtaining citizenship. If a student cannot provide this documentation, then the districts could charge the family tuition for enrollment, in addition to whatever taxes the family is paying to help fund public schools.

An earlier version of the bill would have allowed public schools to deny enrollment to students who are “unlawfully present” in the United States.

As Rep. Lamberth gave closing remarks ahead of the vote, he was interrupted by opponents of the bill seated in the hearing room, who began singing, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.” A young child walked up to lawmakers and began shouting, “You’re attacking my friends!”

The committee chair, Rep. Mark White of Memphis, yelled over the singing for lawmakers to cast their votes.

During the debate, several lawmakers spoke on the moral implications of the legislation.

“We should not put our children — the least of us, those that cannot do for themselves — in the middle of an adult battle,” Democratic Rep. Sam McKenzie of Knoxville said. “This is a bully bill.”

Rep. Lamberth said one purpose of the bill is to force a reconsideration of Plyler v. Doe, the 1982 Supreme Court decision that found states cannot prevent undocumented students from attending public school.

He also said that children who are “recent to the United States” cost more to educate.

“It is not fair to the rest of the families in that community that all do pay for that entire educational structure and that system to bear the brunt of those additional expenses,” Lamberth said.

Lawmakers opposing the bill pointed out that parents of undocumented children already contribute to the public coffers that help fund education. Undocumented immigrants in Tennessee contribute $314.2 million in federal, state, and local taxes, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

The fiscal impact of the bill is also uncertain, as it could put federal education funding on the line for Tennessee.

A Senate version of the bill is scheduled to be heard next in the Senate Finance, Means and Ways Committee, where more debate is expected.

Tennessee bills could bar undocumented students from public schools, defying federal protections

2025-03-24T20:20:04+00:00

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Undocumented students could be denied enrollment in Tennessee public schools under new legislation introduced by Republican state lawmakers in a direct challenge to current federal law.

The bills are set for debate in the House Education Committee and the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee this week, where lawmakers could vote to advance the legislation for further consideration.

Both bills are unconstitutional under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1982 decision in Plyler v. Doe, the sponsors of the legislation acknowledge. That decision held that students have a right to a free public education regardless of their immigration status. If passed, the Tennessee legislation could become a test for the conservative-leaning Supreme Court to revisit the decision amid a broader crackdown on illegal immigration by the Trump administration.

The administration is also seeking to nullify a provision of the U.S. Constitution that guarantees U.S. citizenship to all people born in the United States.

The Tennessee legislation has already faced strong opposition. Hundreds gathered at the Tennessee Capitol earlier this month, shutting down proceedings when the bill advanced out of subcommittee.

What the bills say, and their potential impact

The House bill, from Republican Rep. William Lamberth of Portland, would allow public schools to refuse to enroll students who are “unlawfully present” in the United States.

“This gives an option to the local districts to require proof of citizenship, just as they require proof of residency or immunizations,” Rep. Lamberth said during an earlier debate.

The Senate bill, introduced by Republican Sen. Bo Watson of Hixson, differs from Lamberth’s, and would require public schools to verify a student’s legal status before enrollment. Students would need to provide documents showing that they are U.S. citizens or legal residents, or are in the process of obtaining citizenship.

If a student cannot provide this documentation, then local school districts and public charter schools have the option to charge the family tuition for enrollment, in addition to whatever taxes the family is paying to help fund public schools. That charge would be at least the state base per-pupil funding amount — $7,075 this school year — but no more than the total average cost per pupil each school year, which was most recently $8,959.

If undocumented students do not pay tuition, school districts could choose to bar them from enrollment.

“I am willing to stand here and take the slings and arrows, the criticisms and the name calling, because I have the responsibility to the financial oversight of our state,” Sen. Watson said.

He said the current cost of educating undocumented students is unknown, as schools do not report immigration statuses of students to the state. But the fiscal impact of this legislation is uncertain, according to a state analysis. The law could increase local revenue through collecting tuition — but because it defies federal law, it could also jeopardize federal funding to state and local governments.

A bill similar to Watson’s that would have required districts to charge tuition for undocumented students failed last week.

Opponents press lawmakers to reconsider

Ruby Aguilar, a public school educator and daughter of Salvadoran immigrants, testified against the Senate bill. She said education is not a privilege, but a human right.

“How would you explain this injustice to the students who come into empty classrooms because their peers can no longer attend school with them?” Aguilar said. “I wish you could spend just one minute of your day with my students, and gauge just a snippet of all the potential and possibilities for the future of Tennessee. You will realize that we cannot and must not stand by and let this happen.”

Damian Felipe Jimenez, a sixth grader from Knoxville who identified himself as the son of immigrant parents, testified against the House bill earlier this month. He said that his favorite subject is science and that one day, he hopes to own a restaurant.

“We have the right to dream and make those dreams come true,” he said. “We deserve respect and compassion. Before you make your choice, I ask of you all to think about how this could change our lives.”

The legislation is still working its way through the committees in each chamber. For it to become law, the language of the bills would need to be reconciled. Rep. Lamberth told reporters earlier this month that he and Sen. Watson are working to combine their bills.

Both lawmakers also acknowledged that their bills are unconstitutional. Legal challenges could block the legislation down the line.

You can follow the progress of the bills on the legislature’s website.

Bill to strip power from Memphis-Shelby County Schools board moves ahead

2025-03-18T19:09:02+00:00

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A Tennessee bill that would strip power from Memphis-Shelby County Schools board and create a state-appointed panel to oversee the district advanced in the legislature.

In a 6-2 vote along party lines, the bill from Republican Rep. Mark White of Memphis cleared the Tennessee House’s K-12 subcommittee after a hearing Tuesday, and moved ahead for consideration by the full education committee.

The hearing was lawmakers’ first public discussion of the legislation, which could overhaul how decisions about Tennessee’s largest school district are made. The bill would create a nine-member, state-appointed board to manage the district for at least four years. The elected school board would continue in an “advisory capacity,” but the state board would be able to veto the elected board’s choice of superintendent and direct a range of its actions, according to the draft legislation.

Critics of the legislation warned that the bill, if approved, could set a precedent for the state to encroach on local control in other districts across the state.

White insisted the legislation should not be framed as a state takeover.

It is not that, he said. “I am a representative of the city of Memphis. I am locally elected by the citizens of Memphis and Shelby County, and they have asked me to push forward on such legislation.”

The board members would all be Shelby County residents, and they would be experts in facilities, curriculum, contracts, budget, finance, K-12 education — “all the above things that you need to run the school system,” White said.

Under the draft legislation, the governor would appoint five members to the state-appointed board of managers, with the speakers of the state Senate and House each appointing two others. It also allows the state education commissioner to recommend that district public schools convert to charter schools.

Under the bill, modeled on a Texas law, the state board would have “full authority to right-size the district,” said White.

The legislation leans on Tennessee’s public accountability act, which enables the state education commissioner to intervene if at least 30% of a district’s schools have a D or an F letter grade and 25% of the students are chronically absent, White said.

In the Memphis Shelby County Schools district, just 17% of students are proficient in math, while 1 in 4 are proficient in reading, and the district has more than $1 billion in deferred maintenance needed for its facilities, White said.

MSCS recorded some improvement in the latest round of school letter grades released in December, with more schools earning A’s and B’s, and fewer schools earning F’s. However, 11% of eligible schools in MSCS earned failing grades, the largest proportion of F’s among districts with 50 or more schools.

White said he wants to see better outcomes given that $1 out of every $7 of the state’s $1.8 billion education budget goes to Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

“Our students deserve better than what we’re giving them,” White said. “The state deserves better, and so what I’m working on is a system of intervention.”

The proposal follows several years of leadership turmoil in the district. After Superintendent Joris Ray resigned under a cloud of scandal in August 2022, it took the school more than a year to find a permanent successor. But that successor, Marie Feagins, lasted less than 10 months on the job before the board fired her on the grounds that she misled the board about a range of topics.

The move divided the board and drew strong criticism from educators and members of the community. While some board members saw the firing as a necessary removal of an uncooperative leader, others saw an abrupt, potentially destabilizing decision driven by personality conflicts, and warned that it could invite state intervention.

White had urged the board to retain Feagins, saying the board’s conflict with the superintendent was distracting members from focusing on students’ academic challenges.

District advocates and officials, including school board members, sharply criticized White’s bill this week, and Democrats voiced their opposition at Tuesday’s hearing.

Rep. Sam McKenzie, a Knoxville Democrat, questioned whether the state was an appropriate body to address issues in the local school system, and said passage of the bill would override the rights of local voters to determine how their school district is managed through representatives on the board.

He pointed to the failures of the state’s Achievement School District — a state-run turnaround school district created in 2010 that took over many Memphis schools and turned them over to charter operators in arguing against the bill.

Ron Redwing, the founder of the Save Our Students coalition, told lawmakers he “vehemently opposed this bill.”

Redwing acknowledged the school district faced challenges, but asked lawmakers to let district leaders solve them at the local level. He also warned that the bill could give the state leeway to strip power from other local districts and their elected boards.

“Be careful of the doors you open,” he said. “Because it’s Memphis and Shelby County today, but it’s Crockett County, Fayette County, and every other county tomorrow.”

Max Lubbers contributed reporting.

Here are the charter operators applying to open or run schools in Tennessee in 2026-27

2025-02-25T23:05:58+00:00

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Charter school operators have applied to open or run 13 schools in five Tennessee school systems beginning in the fall of 2026 amid the state’s rapidly changing school-choice landscape.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools received five applications by this month’s deadline — the most by any school system statewide, according to the state education department.

They include two from IOTA Community Schools asking for new 10-year charters to continue operating schools in its network that are set to exit the state-run Achievement School District next year.

And two aspiring charter operators are interested in opening Tennessee’s first-ever “opportunity” charter schools in Memphis and Nashville under a 2024 state law aimed at creating learning options for youth considered at risk of becoming disconnected from traditional public schools.

School choice options are expanding rapidly under policies pushed by Gov. Bill Lee and panned by critics who say they are destabilizing traditional public schools. Traditional public schools serve most of the state’s nearly 1 million students, including historically underserved groups.

The state is preparing to launch a universal school voucher program this fall to give up to 20,000 students taxpayer funds to pay toward private school tuition.

And a new charter school proposal from Lee would create ways for operators to bypass their local elected school boards and apply directly to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission for authorization to open more of the independently governed but publicly funded schools.

If that bill becomes law, some of its provisions could kick in with this year’s cohort of charter applicants.

The filings kick off application reviews by staff for each receiving school system, which will recommend to their school boards whether to approve or deny them this spring.

Based on that local feedback, rejected applicants can submit revised applications for another school board vote this summer. Applicants that are denied again can appeal that decision to the state commission to vote on this fall.

Last year, nine applicants met the state’s Feb. 1 deadline to submit proposals to open a charter school for 2025-26. Six were ultimately approved, including four on appeal.

In 2023, 14 operators applied, and six were ultimately approved, including four on appeal.

New legislation, new law could impact Tennessee’s charter sector

Under the governor’s new legislative proposal to revise charter school law, beginning this July 1, any school board whose decision to deny a charter application is overturned by the state three times within three years could be bypassed, allowing a charter operator to apply directly to the state charter commission for authorization during the next five years.

Also at play this year is the 2024 opportunity charter school law, pushed by House Speaker Cameron Sexton, to open new charter school campuses for middle or high school students who are considered at risk.

At least 75% of each school’s students would have to be documented as dealing with any of a range of challenges such as juvenile crime, substance abuse, chronic absenteeism, teen pregnancy, getting held back in several grades, dropping out of school, or experiencing abuse or neglect.

Opportunity charter schools would operate under different standards than traditional public schools or other public charter schools.

If their opportunity charter applications are approved, the Still I Rise Academy in Memphis and The Rock Academy in Nashville schools would not receive A-F letter grades in their first year of operation, based on rules approved in December by the state Board of Education.

After that, the state’s calculation to grade opportunity charter middle schools would place slightly more importance on academic growth than on student proficiency. And the state’s grades for opportunity charter high schools would emphasize college and career readiness.

Hillsdale-linked charter group didn’t apply again

Missing for a second straight year from the state’s list of charter applicants is American Classical Education, the group associated with Michigan’s Hillsdale College. Hillsdale made headlines in 2022 with Lee’s endorsement and invitation to its leaders to apply to open at least 50 charter schools across Tennessee that align with the governor’s conservative beliefs regarding civics and history.

American Classical withdrew its first three applications later that year amid public outrage over Hillsdale President Larry Arnn’s comment that teachers are “trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country.”

In 2023, American Classical was approved to open two charter schools in Tennessee, one authorized locally in Rutherford County and the other approved by the state commission on appeal for Madison County.

Asked why the network didn’t seek new charters in 2025, board member Tricia Stickel told Chalkbeat that American Classical is focused on supporting its new Rutherford County school, which opened in La Vergne last August.

The Madison County charter, which in January received its second one-year delay to launch, is now scheduled to open for 2026-27 as American Classical seeks to hire a leader and secure a campus location.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee teachers should follow Trump’s ‘Gulf of America’ order, GOP leader says

2025-02-21T16:31:52+00:00

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A state Republican leader has introduced a resolution encouraging Tennessee teachers, especially geography teachers, to use the names Gulf of America and Mount McKinley when speaking with their students about map locations recently rebranded by President Donald Trump.

As a proposed resolution and not a law, the measure would not place any mandates or requirements on teachers if it’s approved.

State Sen. Bo Watson, a Hixson Republican who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, filed his resolution Thursday and had amassed 19 co-sponsors, including Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, by the end of the day, ensuring its passage in the 33-member Senate.

Watson’s resolution follows Trump’s executive order renaming as the Gulf of America the body of water that for 400 years has been known internationally as the Gulf of Mexico. The order — titled “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness” — also reversed President Barack Obama’s 2015 executive order renaming Alaska’s Mount McKinley, the nation’s highest peak, as Denali, the site’s Native Alaskan name.

Republican lawmakers in Iowa already have advanced a bill that would require schools to change educational materials to map names that align with Trump’s “America First” worldview.

The Tennessee proposal reads: “We most heartily agree with President Trump that ‘the naming of our national treasures … should honor the contribution of visionary and patriotic Americans in our nation’s rich past.’”

On Friday, Senate Democrats called the resolution a “distraction” to important education matters aimed at preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow.

“Everybody has a right to file resolutions if they think it’s important, but it’s not going to be one that I’ll support,” said Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari, of Memphis.

Trump’s order has already sparked reflection, discussion, and debate among teachers, as well as mapmakers, journalists, and textbook publishers who seek to stay apolitical about map lines that are inherently political.

Mark Finchum, executive director of the Tennessee Council for the Social Studies, said his organization’s board has not taken a position so far or offered guidance to social studies teachers who are its members.

“Personally, I believe what teachers will do is what’s in the best interest of students,” said Finchum, a retired social studies teacher from Jefferson County.

“I don’t think they’re going to ignore the topic, but I also don’t think they’ll simply call it the Gulf of America and continue with the lesson,” he said. “In Tennessee, geography is primarily taught in middle and high school, so these students are old enough to have heard the words Gulf of Mexico. If you just call it the Gulf of America, some student is going to raise their hand.”

Tennessee, which overwhelmingly voted for Trump last fall and where Republicans have a firm grip on state government, has been an early adopter of laws stoking culture war battles around education in recent years.

In 2021, it became one of the first states to enact a law intended to restrict K-12 classroom discussions about race, gender, and bias. That law is being challenged in court by a group of teachers and the state’s largest teacher organization.

Under Republican Gov. Bill Lee, the legislature also has passed several laws leading to the purging of hundreds of library books from public schools, with titles involving race, sex, and the Holocaust among the most frequent targets.

And earlier this month, Watson introduced a bill that could allow school districts and charter schools to bar undocumented students from enrolling, potentially challenging a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision entitling all children to a public education regardless of their immigration status.

Sen. Bo Watson, a Republican from Hixson, chairs the powerful Senate Finance Committee of the Tennessee General Assembly.

His latest resolution says the body of water between Florida and Mexico warrants renaming because of the gulf’s pivotal role in shaping America’s future and the global economy.

Regarding the name of the nation’s highest peak in Alaska, the resolution cites President William McKinley’s leadership behind the U.S. victory in the Spanish-American War and the nation’s rapid expansion, including the annexations of Puerto Rico, Guam, and Hawaii, during McKinley’s administration from 1897 until his assassination in 1901.

Informally, Alaskans have called the snow-covered mountain Denali, its Native name, for decades. President McKinley, who was from Ohio, never set foot in the state.

You can track the resolution on the General Assembly’s website.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Last schools in Tennessee’s shrinking Achievement School District seek to make their move

2025-02-21T00:33:23+00:00

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The operator of the last charter schools in Tennessee’s waning Achievement School District is seeking to continue managing them as part of their original school system in Memphis.

A decade ago, the State of Tennessee took over Kirby Middle and Hillcrest High schools due to low academic performance and assigned them to a charter management group called Green Dot Public Schools, now known as IOTA Community Schools.

The schools didn’t improve enough to exit the ASD on their own under a turnaround plan that was never meant to last more than a decade.

But now, with its 10-year contracts with the ASD soon to expire, IOTA has applied with Memphis-Shelby County Schools for new charter agreements to manage the two campuses in southeast Memphis beginning with the 2026-27 school year.

IOTA already is transitioning Wooddale Middle, the third and final Memphis school leaving the ASD, to reopen this fall under a new contract between IOTA and the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission.

Last fall, the commission authorized IOTA’s new charter after overturning the Memphis school board’s decision to deny its application to continue operating Wooddale.

Planning for the future of the Achievement School District’s last three schools — and its 1,352 students — foreshadows changes ahead for the state’s most ambitious and aggressive school turnaround model, which had 33 schools in its portfolio at its peak in 2016.

The initiative, created under a 2010 state law as part of Tennessee’s federal Race to the Top initiative, has been marred by painful takeovers of neighborhood schools, contentious handoffs to charter networks, and mostly abysmal student performance on state tests.

Last year, a proposal to eliminate the ASD passed the Tennessee Senate but a different version to revamp the program stalled in the House, even as several of the GOP-controlled legislature’s top Republican leaders acknowledged that the model has failed and should be replaced.

Gov. Bill Lee’s administration is expected to propose changes this year, but neither his office nor the state education department has said what that might look like.

Elizabeth Lane Johnson, the governor’s press secretary, confirmed Thursday that Lee’s administration was “working with stakeholders to consider legislation around the Achievement School District.”

A potential successor could be the likely expansion of a small pilot turnaround initiative that began in 2022 with five low-performing schools. It has received generally positive reviews.

The antithesis of the Achievement School District, the pilot model emphasizes collaboration over takeover and does not use charter management organizations to lead its turnaround work. Instead, low-performing schools partner with an independent turnaround expert and a locally appointed committee to create and implement an improvement plan emphasizing data, coaching, and making adjustments in real time.

In Memphis, Trezevant High School and Hawkins Mill Elementary have shown marked improvement under the pilot program with the aid of turnaround consultant Cognia.

Other schools still in the pilot are Jere Baxter Middle School in Nashville and Lincoln Elementary in Jackson-Madison County, both using Ed Direction as their turnaround consultant, with mixed results. Orchard Knob Middle, in Chattanooga, dropped out of the program before it started after Hamilton County school board members said an existing improvement plan was already working.

Fate of the last two ASD schools is uncertain

The future of the last two schools exiting the ASD will be decided this year after staff with Memphis-Shelby County Schools reviews IOTA’s applications and recommends whether to approve them.

Both campuses serve mostly students of color, more than half of whom are considered economically disadvantaged. According to the state’s most recent school report card, Kirby Middle made average progress for its students in 2023-24 and was graded an F by the state. Hillcrest High made below-average progress for its students and was graded a D.

If the Memphis school board denies IOTA’s applications, the network could appeal those decisions to the state commission, which has the power to transition more ASD schools from one state-run district to another state-run district — just as it’s in the process of doing with IOTA’s Wooddale Middle.

Adding to that discussion could be a new charter-friendly proposal from the governor to create ways for charter operators to bypass their local elected school boards and apply directly to the state commission for authorization.

If the legislature passes the governor’s bill, beginning July 1, any school board whose decision to deny a charter application is overturned by the state three times within three years could be bypassed, allowing a charter operator to apply directly to the state commission for authorization during the next five years.

Appealing to the commission isn’t a slam dunk, however. Since it began hearing appeals in 2021, the panel has sided with local school boards on half of their application denials.

State commission is familiar with ASD’s last charter operator

The commission already has one IOTA school in its portfolio.

Bluff City High School opened in Memphis in 2017 when IOTA was part of the Green Dot Public Schools network based in California. Last summer, the network’s charter schools in Memphis transitioned to IOTA, a new Tennessee-based network, after Green Dot ended its expansion efforts in Tennessee and Texas.

Asked Thursday whether she’d prefer to operate under the oversight of Memphis-Shelby County Schools or the state commission, IOTA Executive Director Jocquell Rodgers said she can’t compare them because the local district has never authorized one of the network’s schools.

Under Executive Director Tess Stovall, the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission has expanded its footprint and impact on Tennessee education.

“My goal has always been to forge a relationship with the local district because I believe we serve the same children,” Rodgers said. “But I will say that I’ve enjoyed working with the state charter commission. Their expectations are very clear, and our relationship has helped us build stronger processes as an organization and stronger academic outcomes for our students.”

For instance, when the commission put Bluff City High School on academic probation in 2022, the state was clear about necessary improvement steps, Rodgers said. Last month, in recognition of the school’s progress, the commission moved Bluff City off academic probation to a lesser intervention level.

The state Board of Education rated both the commission and Memphis-Shelby County Schools as “exemplary” in its most recent evaluations of charter authorizers in Tennessee.

The commission currently has six former ASD charter schools in its portfolio, most of which left the turnaround program under a 2021 state law letting higher-achieving ASD schools bypass their home districts to transition to the commission’s control:

Cornerstone Prep Denver
Cornerstone Prep Lester
Lester Prep
LEAD Neely’s Bend
Libertas School of Memphis
Promise Academy Spring Hill

All of those former ASD schools are in Memphis except LEAD Neely’s Bend, which is in Nashville.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Some Tennessee charter school applicants could bypass local districts under governor’s proposal

2025-02-13T23:52:04+00:00

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Gov. Bill Lee is pushing for a major revision to Tennessee charter school law to create ways for operators to bypass their local elected school boards and apply directly to a state commission for authorization.

The legislature’s Republican majority leaders have filed a bill on behalf of Lee’s administration to create three new pathways for charter school operators to seek approval from the state:

Beginning July 1, any school board whose decision to deny a charter application is overturned by the state three times within three years could be bypassed, allowing a charter operator to apply directly to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission for authorization during the next five years.
Public colleges and universities could apply to the state commission to open a charter school for K-12 students.
An operator with at least one charter school that is authorized by a local school board or the state commission and that has been operational for at least one year could apply either to the local district or state commission to replicate its model to create one or more charter schools.

If the Republican governor’s bill passes the GOP-controlled legislature, the measure could further dilute local control over Tennessee’s charter sector, while giving the powerful 4-year-old commission even more authority to open and close publicly funded but independently controlled charter schools.

The commission, whose nine members are appointed by the governor, already has significantly expanded its footprint through an appellate process that allows the state to authorize and open charter schools when overturning a local board’s application denial. Another law allows better-performing charter schools in the state’s Achievement School District turnaround program to transfer to the state commission’s oversight, rather than returning to their home district.

The charter commission now oversees 25 charters, including seven that are scheduled to open in the next two years and one transferring from the ASD. Most are in urban Davidson and Shelby counties, but a few operate in suburban Madison and Rutherford counties.

Three of the schools were previously overseen by the state Board of Education before the state commission took over its charter responsibilities in 2021 under a 2019 law initiated by Lee.

The governor, who is one of the nation’s biggest charter advocates, pushed to create the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission to ensure that high-quality charter schools can open and ineffective ones are closed.

He initially wanted to give the new body the power to bypass local school boards altogether and open new charter schools directly. But he agreed to limit the commission’s authority after district leaders expressed outrage to their legislators about any measure that would circumvent local education control.

The commission has not been a rubber stamp for opening charter schools. Since it began hearing appeals in 2021, the panel has sided with local school boards on half of their application denials.

Gov. Bill Lee (center) poses in 2021 with original members whom he appointed to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission. Commissioners represent all three of the state's grand divisions.

However, the latest legislative proposal, if approved, would move the state closer to Lee’s original vision for the commission.

The first proposed pathway — allowing operators to bypass local boards if their denials have been repeatedly overturned — is viewed by charter advocates as an incentive for school boards to take their charter authorization process seriously.

“This bill supports fairness, transparency, and high standards for Tennessee’s successful public charter school community, upholding local input while ensuring districts fulfill their responsibilities,” said Elizabeth Lane Johnson, the governor’s press secretary.

Charter critics, meanwhile, characterize it as a way to pressure school boards into approving charter applications.

While districts would begin with a clean slate on July 1, a review of the last three years of the commission’s appellate decisions shows that Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, in Davidson County, has had the most denials overturned by the state, followed by Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Asked about the proposed changes to the state’s charter school law, a spokesman for Nashville’s school system said district officials do not typically comment publicly on pending legislation.

In Memphis, school board Chair Joyce Dorse Coleman told Chalkbeat that leaders of Memphis-Shelby County Schools are “carefully monitoring” the bill.

The Tennessee School Boards Association did not respond to Chalkbeat’s request for comment.

Tennessee charter growth has been nurtured by out-of-state groups

In all, Tennessee has about 115 charter schools, most authorized locally by the board for Memphis-Shelby County Schools, with a total statewide enrollment of about 44,000 students, according to the Tennessee Charter School Center. Under a 2002 state law, Tennessee’s first three charter schools opened in Chattanooga, Memphis, and Nashville in 2003.

Along with funding from several Tennessee-based foundations, the state has seen an influx of money from out-of-state philanthropic groups to promote and support the sector’s growth in Tennessee. They include Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Charter School Growth Fund, and the City Fund. (The City Fund’s partners include two prominent figures in Tennessee education: Chris Barbic, founding superintendent of the charter-centric Achievement School District, and Dorsey Hopson, founding superintendent of the merged Memphis-Shelby County Schools district.)

Much of the money is distributed through the State Collaborative on Reforming Education, or SCORE, a nonpartisan education advocacy and research organization founded by former U.S. Sen. Bill Frist in 2009. (Among SCORE’s grant recipients is the Memphis Education Fund, whose president and CEO, Terence Patterson, is a member of the state charter school commission.)

In its most recent report outlining SCORE’s goals for 2030, the organization listed three recommendations to bolster the state’s charter sector, including one to expand pathways for authorization to open new schools.

“The General Assembly should update state law to allow charter school operators to consolidate under a single authorizer when seeking renewal with schools under multiple authorizers,” the report said. “Further, the state should allow existing high-performing charter schools seeking to replicate and new charter schools seeking to meet a critical workforce need to choose their authorizer.”

The Tennessee Charter School Center also supports the governor’s legislative proposal, said CEO Elizabeth Fiveash.

“We appreciate the fact that the legislation continues to provide districts the first opportunity to review charter school applications,” Fiveash said, “but also provides increased accountability for districts that don’t meet their authorizing obligations.”

You can read the bill here and track its movement on the General Assembly’s website.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee governor expects a quick launch after signing universal school voucher law

2025-02-13T01:32:25+00:00

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Gov. Bill Lee signed Tennessee’s universal school voucher bill into law Wednesday, officially kicking off the state’s push to roll out the program this year for up to 20,000 students.

With only about six months until the new school year, the state has a lot to do before eligible families can receive taxpayer funding to send their children to private schools.

The state Board of Education must develop and approve rules for Lee’s Education Freedom Scholarship Program. For instance, how can families appeal if the state denies them a voucher?

Tennessee’s education department will have to staff up — a projected 11 new positions — to oversee the program.

From bumpy road to fast track: How Tennessee’s universal school voucher law made it to the finish line

And perhaps most pressing, Lee’s administration must decide whether to seek a new vendor to automate application and payment processes for the statewide program, or use its current vendor, Indiana-based Student First Technologies, which manages the state’s two existing smaller school voucher programs.

Because the state’s 2023 contract with Student First requires the company to accommodate at least 20,000 users, the legislature’s financial analysts assumed the state would use Student First for the statewide program too.

But Lee said Wednesday that no decision has been made about a vendor, and he wouldn’t commit to ensuring that the state education department seeks competitive bids if it decides to pursue a new company.

“I’ll defer to the department on the procurement process,” he told reporters after signing the bill.

Last month, after the voucher bill passed during a special legislative session, the governor’s spokeswoman said the state was exploring its options.

“While we have had success with Student First Technologies, … our team has met with a number of experienced vendors to learn how other states have implemented universal school choice programs successfully,” said Elizabeth L. Johnson, Lee’s press secretary.

Tennessee bypassed the market leader when choosing its first voucher vendor

In 2023, Tennessee raised eyebrows by signing a $3.675 million, five-year contract with Student First, a young company with a small staff, modest cash flow, and no state-level experience managing education savings accounts.

The contract was signed after a competitive bid process, and after the state failed to reach terms with Florida-based ClassWallet, Tennessee’s first choice to run its education savings account program for Davidson, Hamilton, and Shelby counties, as well as a smaller voucher program for students with disabilities. Within a year, Student First launched its electronic platforms in Tennessee.

But several other states using Student First say the company has not kept up with demand as private school voucher programs have expanded nationally.

Last fall, Arkansas terminated its Student First contract after the company failed to meet deadlines and created faulty platforms, according to that state’s education department.

In West Virginia, which awarded Student First a $10 million contract to manage purchases and payments for its education savings accounts, the system struggled to keep up as enrollment climbed.

Tennessee’s education department has not fulfilled Chalkbeat’s public records request, submitted last June, to inspect correspondence and other documents that would show how Student First platforms have performed, including the thousands of transactions that the company manages on behalf of the state with ESA participants.

Mark Duran, the company’s founder and chief executive officer, did not respond Wednesday to Chalkbeat’s request for comment.

Meanwhile, other companies in the school-choice marketplace are interested in pursuing a new contract for Tennessee’s statewide program, including ClassWallet, which scored highest in the 2023 competitive bid process and currently has voucher contracts with 12 states.

“ClassWallet would welcome the opportunity to bring our mission to Tennessee and maximize the impact of school choice for families and students there,” Jamie Rosenberg, the company’s founder and CEO, told Chalkbeat.

He added that ClassWallet has experience and capacity to launch a state-level education savings account program in a matter of weeks.

“Families tell states that our software is straightforward and easy to use,” he said Wednesday.

Governor is confident of a 2025 launch

Voucher opponents criticized Lee for including his proposal in a special legislative session in late January that also addressed disaster aid and immigration policies. But Lee argued that passage in early 2025 would be necessary to launch the voucher program in time for the upcoming school year.

Gov. Bill Lee is surrounded by students as he signs the Education Freedom Scholarship Act on Wednesday.

After signing the bill Wednesday, Lee said he told Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds to “get started on implementation.”

He wouldn’t speak about the details of a rollout, but said he’s confident of a 2025 launch.

“You’ve got to remember, we already have an education savings account plan in place in this state for our three largest school districts, so we have some expertise within the department in how to implement this plan,” Lee told reporters.

While no timeline was immediately available, the department will have to open the application window soon to determine which private schools will participate. Then comes the application window for families who want access to the vouchers, which provide about $7,200 toward the cost of private education services.

“We will partner with the State Board of Education as they promulgate rules and are collaborating with the state’s Central Procurement Office to explore all options to implement the program in compliance with state procurement laws and rules,” said department spokesman Brian Blackley.

Also at issue: How will the state confirm legal residency for participating students?

While the initiative is touted as a “universal” program for anyone in Tennessee — the family income limits disappear after the first year — Republican leaders included a provision in the law saying the state education department “shall deny” any school voucher application from families that “cannot establish the eligible student’s lawful presence in the United States.”

The provision appears to conflict with a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that requires states to offer public education programs to all children, regardless of their immigration status. The Tennessee program pays for private-school education, but it uses public funds.

“What’s most important to know,” Lee told reporters, “is that this language doesn’t change anything about the state’s obligation as it currently stands to educate children.

“But for this scholarship,” he added, “it’s only available to Tennessee citizens.”

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee governor’s annual address highlights civics education, jobs of tomorrow

2025-02-11T01:49:19+00:00

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Praising the Trump administration as leading a “revival of our nation’s founding principles,” Gov. Bill Lee called on Tennessee schools Monday to step up K-12 civics education with an emphasis on the principles of American exceptionalism.

To accomplish that, the Republican governor wants assistance from the Institute of American Civics at the University of Tennessee, which the legislature created with bipartisan support in 2022 to strengthen civic education and participation.

“This year, I am proposing funding to expand the institute’s reach and make sure Tennessee children — from kindergarten to 12th grade — learn about the founding principles that make America the greatest country on Earth,” Lee said near the close of his 2025 address to a joint session of the Tennessee General Assembly.

Lee didn’t give specifics about how much he wants the institute to get or how the money would be spent.

Under Lee’s administration, the state has been roiled in political culture wars over what teachers can and can’t teach their students, and state law has come down on the side of restricting lessons on topics that lawmakers consider divisive, including enduring patterns of racism in America.

Tennessee was one of the first states to enact a law restricting instruction about race, gender, and bias. Numerous school boards also have banned hundreds of library books on those topics based on several state laws passed by the Republican-controlled legislature.

State budget proposal would raise minimum pay for teachers

This week’s address coincided with the release of Lee’s $59.5 billion proposed budget for state government for the year beginning July 1, including $7 billion for K-12 public education, an increase of nearly 3% over last year, and a $1 billion new investment in Tennessee roads.

Fresh from pushing through a costly universal school-voucher plan during a special legislative session, Lee called for another bump in pay for public school teachers, plus recurring funding to continue summer learning programs.

The minimum annual teacher salary would increase to $47,000 for the 2025-26 school year, up from $44,500 currently. Lee pledged in 2023 to gradually get teachers’ base pay to $50,000 by the fall of 2027, his last full year in office.

Still, Tennessee teachers are earning less than they were a decade ago, adjusted for inflation, and the state continues to trail most of the nation in student funding, according to the latest data from the National Education Association.

Lee’s spending blueprint includes extra money to support school systems that are experiencing high growth in enrollment, as well as those that are considered high performing based on more than half their schools receiving an A grade under the state’s 2-year-old evaluation formula, which emphasizes proficiency.

Lee calls for expanding career training, childcare

The governor’s address highlighted the importance of connecting today’s students with the jobs of tomorrow.

Lee wants to expand the state’s youth employment program and create a new “Tennessee Works” scholarship to cover all of the costs of attending one of the state’s 24 colleges of applied technology.

The governor said he also wants to find ways to make childcare more accessible and affordable in Tennessee, where infant care costs about the same as in-state tuition at a four-year public college. He promised “tens of thousands of new daycare spots” to help create a family-friendly workforce, but only specified an $11 million investment in the Boys & Girls Clubs, one of the state’s top childcare providers.

The address followed the end of a special legislative session in which Lee saw his full agenda pass for private school vouchers, disaster relief, and a crackdown on immigration.

Those items alone will add nearly $1 billion to next year’s state budget, during a time when state tax collections have slowed.

Democrats slammed Lee’s administration as building an economy for corporate and special interests instead of for working families who want more funding for public schools, among other things.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.