Many education-related issues that received a lot of attention at the beginning of this year’s legislative session flew under the radar following the Covenant School shooting and the ensuing gun violence protests. Here are some of the most notable education bills heading to the governor’s desk.
Much time and money was spent addressing school safety, though Tennessee Republicans’ strategy on this front was greenlighting as many safety measures and resources as possible without addressing gun reform. One bill that would have allowed teachers to be armed was shelved. A school security bill backed by Gov. Bill Lee passed, focusing on locking exterior doors — a measure that proved to be moot in the case of the Covenant School shooter, who entered by shooting out the glass doors of the building. Moving forward, schools that repeatedly fail checks for locked exterior doors could face financial penalties. The legislation also seeks to bolster school buildings against attacks by requiring security mechanisms like cameras, door locks, bulletproof film for glass doors in newly constructed buildings and more. It also requires schools to implement and report school safety plans and drills. The state budget also allocates $140 million to add school resource officers to every public school, plus additional funding to enhance security measures in public and private schools.
A controversial 2021 law that would retain some third-graders will move forward as planned before slight changes go into effect during the 2023-2024 school year. Colloquially referred to as the third-grade retention law, it requires third-graders who don’t pass the English language arts portion of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program to attend summer school, receive tutoring or both in order to be promoted to fourth grade. Going into the session, legislators were flooded with requests to change the law by parents and school leaders. After much deliberation, they passed legislation that will add an additional state benchmark test to be considered alongside the TCAP. Students who score within the 50th percentile of the last benchmark test before the TCAP may be promoted, but if they are promoted via this measure, they must receive tutoring in fourth grade. Additionally, the bill allows school staff to assist parents in appealing a retention decision to the state, and requires students who have been previously retained to receive tutoring.
The legislature found some new culture-war bills to pass this year as well. One, titled the Tennessee Higher Education Freedom of Expression and Transparency Act, focuses on so-called “divisive concepts” at public universities that consider race and sex. A 2022 law allows college students and staff to take legal action if they feel they’ve been negatively impacted for “their refusal to support, believe, endorse, embrace, confess, act upon, or otherwise assent to a divisive concept.” This year’s legislation enables them to file an institutional report if they feel the law has been violated. The institutions must share these reports and results of subsequent investigations with the state comptroller. Another bill prohibits education institutions, from grade school to higher education, from requiring staff to partake in implicit bias training.
Bills that could affect LGBTQ students include one that targets trans athletes in private schools by requiring them to “participate in such athletic activity or event only in accordance with the student’s [biological] sex,” though it clarifies that female students can participate in male sports teams if there isn’t already a female sports team at the school. One bill protects teachers who refuse to use students’ preferred pronouns.
On the privatization front, a bill that will expand the state Education Savings Account Program passed. The ESA program will now include Hamilton County, though an amendment that would also include Knox County ultimately failed.
The passage of these bills, which were widely criticized by state Democrats, indicates that Tennessee’s GOP leaders are not finished wielding power over local school districts, even at the expense of some students.
With national attention trained on Tennessee, the state legislature passed laws punishing Metro and restricting gender-affirming care — but nothing on gun control
