Inside TNSuccess

TN Legislative Corner 

The Tennessee General Assembly is in session again this week and legislators are hard at work. This week, Tennesseans for Student Success is keeping an eye on several education-related items, including:

• Senate and House Education Committee schedules
• House Education Instruction Subcommittee consideration of HB647 (Faison), which would create a different 11th grade assessment for a student who intends to attend a career and technical college or pursue a career path; TSS is opposed
• House Education Instruction Subcommittee consideration of HB1446 (Hicks), which directs the department to provide career and technical education opportunities for students in middle school; TSS is supportive
• Two bills being considered by the House K-12 Subcommittee that TSS opposes; HB858 (Powers) and HB1407 (Haston)

More details are available on the TSS blog here.

WPLN: How Pandemic Relief Could Reshape Tennessee’s Public Schools

With Tennessee public schools set to receive a massive infusion of money from the federal government, WPLN’s Nina Cardona sat down with Marta Aldrich, chief statehouse correspondent for Chalkbeat, to discuss how the money might be spent.

Click here to read more from WPLN.

Governor Lee Renews Proposal for Mental Health Trust Fund

Governor Lee on Monday renewed a proposal to assist K-12 families who are “facing significant mental health issues in the wake of COVID-19.” The proposal allocates $250 million in available funds to create “strong mental health services for school-aged students through a systemwide, evidence-based approach.”

“The mental health of all Tennessee students is essential to their safety, education and success beyond the classroom,” said Gov. Lee. “While my administration proposed these critical mental health supports last year, we now have the available funding and a greater need than ever before to ensure our students have access to mental health resources. I thank the members of the General Assembly for their partnership in this important effort.”

Read more here.

In Case You Missed It

Fox 17 (Nashville): Tennessee school districts face critical choices with $4B to spend from relief packages
Fox News (Op-Ed): Sen. Tim Scott: COVID taught us this lesson — school choice matters more than ever
Wall Street Journal (Editorial): School Choice Scores for Public Schools
Chalkbeat: Some states were still hoping to cancel testing. The Biden administration just said no.
Washington Examiner: Measure granting Tennessee school boards sole authority to close schools heads to Lee