Memphis school leaders are exploring a range of options to help boost student attendance.
One option: Expanding bus service.
Chalkbeatreports that approach carries a heavy price tag:
Memphis school leaders say expanding student bus services to help boost attendance will raise transportation costs by a minimum of almost $10 million next school year.
Collierville is home to Tennessee’s Principal of the Year, WREG-TV reports:
A Collierville elementary school principal has been named as Tennessee’s Principal of the Year for the 2025-26 school year.
Deanna Jones has served as principal of Bailey Station Elementary School in Collierville since 2020.
“Deanna Jones exemplifies the kind of principal who lifts every classroom—pairing strong academics with joyful learning and building collaboration that benefits students and teachers alike,” said Director of Schools Dr. Russell Dyer. “We are proud that the state recognized her work with the Tennessee Principal of the Year award; it is a well‑earned honor that reflects the excellence at Bailey Station Elementary and across Collierville Schools.”
Finally, a good idea from Cameron Sexton. Chalkbeatreports the House Speaker is proposing providing stipends to student teachers.
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.
Sam Stockard over at Tennessee Lookouttakes a look at the crumbling wall of separation between church and state as it relates to education in Tennessee:
The latest disassembly involves an opinion by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti saying the state’s prohibition on religious-based charter schools “likely” violates the free exercise of religion in the First Amendment.
Skrmetti wrote the opinion at the request of Republican state Rep. Michelle Carringer of Knoxville who has a bill relating to charter schools. Carringer said Thursday she requested the opinion for “legal clarity” on the relationship between the Constitution and Tennessee charter laws but has no plans to bring legislation related to it.
The opinion is of interest as a Christian charter operator in Knox County is suing for the right to operate an explicitly Christian “public” charter school using state and local funds.
The Knox County School Board is asking the General Assembly to reject legislation that would require schools to check for immigration documentation before allowing a student to attend.
The Knox County school board will ask Tennessee legislators to stop a bill that could block public education for undocumented immigrants.
The legislature in 2026 could once again take up a bill designed to challenge established rules allowing those without legal status to have the same education access as those who were born here. Board members used their annual legislative priorities list to say they want to educate all students regardless of their immigration status.
The board voted 6-3 to include the priority with two Republicans joining the Democratic minority Dec. 4. Members Betsy Henderson, Lauren Morgan and Steve Triplett voted against it.
Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Crestview, said that at any given moment the state does not know where 30,000 students are in terms of school categories — traditional public or voucher-supported private or home schools — together worth $270 million in education support.
Sometimes, the students are “double-dipping” – enrolled in a private school where voucher dollars have been sent, but actually attending a local public school – the cost, then, is borne exclusively by the local school district.
Knox County school board members will decide Dec. 4 whether to support a Tennessee bill requiring schools to verify students’ immigration status before allowing them into the classroom.
The General Assembly could take up a bill in 2026 designed specifically to challenge a 1982 Supreme Court decision that guarantees access to public schools for all children regardless of their immigration status. Two school board members – Katherine Bike and Anne Templeton – are urging their colleagues to tell lawmakers the Knox County school board opposes the bill.
A new Christian nonprofit attempting to operate a charter school in Knoxville has sued the Knox County Board of Education, asserting the board discriminated against the nonprofit because state and local policies won’t allow “unapologetically Christian” schools to apply.
I suspect that since state dollars flow to explicitly religious private schools by way of vouchers, there’s really little difference when the state and/or a local school board sends funds to an explicitly religious charter school.
Wilberforce Academy is hardly the first openly religious school to offer the pretense of being a fully “public” charter school.
Five proposed charter schools affiliated with controversial Michigan-based Hillsdale College would drain more than $17 million from Tennessee suburban and rural public schools during their first year of operation and roughly $35 million per year at maximum enrollment, according to a new fiscal analysis by Public School Partners (PSP) and Charter Fiscal Impact.
