Trump names failed TN Ed Commish to U.S. Dept. of Ed
Former Tennessee Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn has been nominated to serve in the Trump Administration as Deputy Secretary of Education. If confirmed, she’ll serve under former WWE CEO Linda McMahon.
In job after job, Schwinn caused problems and wreaked havoc. Financial mismanagement. Misrepresenting the truth. Carrying the water for a destructive agenda with a smile. Seems she’ll fit right in with the Trump team.
As states and school districts explore and implement bans on smartphones at school, the question remains: Will these bans improve the student learning environment?
Overall, 68% of US adults responding to a 2024 Pew Research Center survey say they support a ban on middle and high school students using their phones during class. The biggest reasons these Americans gave for backing the move? Fewer distractions (98%), better social skills (91%), less cheating (85%), and reduced bullying (70%).
And, bans are in place in a number of areas of the country:
As of November 4, 2024, eight states — California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia — have passed policies that ban or restrict phone use in schools. These broadly take effect during the current school year. Twelve more states have introduced such legislation.
Anecdotal evidence suggests some improvement – students actually talking to each other during lunch, for example. Less instances of social media bullying.
Still, the research is uneven in terms of whether these bans will have a long-term, positive effect.
One analysis of studies that analyzed cell phone bans in schools across the globe found:
“Overall, the results indicated that the ban and no ban schools either did not differ significantly, or there were minimal differences, in terms of problematic use of mobile phones, academic engagement, school belonging, and bullying,” the authors reported.
Today, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced that he will call for the Tennessee General Assembly to convene a special session on Monday, January 27, to pass the Education Freedom Act.
The session will also include a disaster relief package for areas impacted by Hurricane Helene.
Conservative groups are already speaking out against Lee’s voucher scam.
• With 10,000 scholarships initially available and expanding by 5,000 each year, the program’s long-term cost could strain Tennessee’s budget, leading to higher taxes for hardworking families.
• Public schools will retain their funding even when students leave, forcing taxpayers to fund both public schools and ESAs simultaneously. This double-dipping could bankrupt our state over time.
The math: TCN says the voucher scheme will cost $268 million in year one – and continue to be a drag on state and local budgets, likely resulting in tax increases:
Another conservative group, Tennessee Stands, says they oppose vouchers because:
Vouchers are wealth distribution. Vouchers are government funds that come with additional regulatory oversight. Vouchers are dangerous for home schools and private education.
With many colleges dropping standardized testing for applicants, transcripts featuring calculus — preferably Advanced Placement — have come to signify rigor to admissions officers. However, nearly 20% of American high school students have no access to calculus whatsoever. As a result, a scant 2% of science, technology, engineering and math majors who arrive at college needing to take precalculus manage to earn a STEM bachelor’s degree, while those who didn’t progress past algebra 2 in high school have a less than 40% chance of earning any four-year degree whatsoever.’
The point: Unless a student completes Algebra 1 in 8th grade, they won’t be on track to take calculus in high school. And, as the author notes, most kids in 8th grade have little or no idea what they’ll want to do in the future – not offering Algebra 1 to 8th graders limits options.
Divided School Board votes against adding Lee’s voucher scam to legislative agenda
The Knox County School Board will not ask lawmakers to support Gov. Bill Lee’s school voucher push, despite an attempt by the Board’s GOP majority to adopt the issue.
All Republicans except District 5 representative Lauren Morgan and District 9 representative Kristi Kristy voted Jan. 9 in favor of asking lawmakers to expand Tennessee’s private school voucher program. Kristy took a “pass” vote and Morgan voted “no.”
Morgan explained her “no” vote:
I don’t believe it’s in this board’s realm of duties to make vouchers a legislative priority as we don’t have control over what the legislator does. I think it’s our job here on this board to make Knox County Schools the best that they can possibly be and be the place where our students and our families want to get an education and choose to go to school.”
Unfortunately, in reading the tea leaves, when it comes to the education world, it appears to me, 2025 will provide much the same as 2024.
We’ll fight over vouchers, bemoan charter schools, while pretending that teacher shortages don’t exist.
I’m betting that conversation over funding for desperately needed updates to existing facilities will be shuffled to the back burner once again, and kids will continue to attend schools with pest problems, heating and cooling issues, and inadequate space for enrolled students.
The “school choice movement,” which Coulson’s documentary promoted, has always been a classic bait-and-switch swindle: Charter schools were the bait for vouchers, and vouchers the lure for public acceptance of market-based schooling. While narrow debates about accountability, taxpayer costs, and the public funding of religious schools raise important concerns, the gravest threat posed by the school choice movement is its ultimate objective: putting an end to public responsibility for education.
Burris notes that incoming President Trump appears to be on-board with this agenda:
The America First Policy Institute, where Trump’s Secretary of Education nominee Linda McMahon serves as board chair, states in its recent policy agenda that “the authority for educating children rests with parents.” As public responsibility for schooling shifts to parents, educational subsidies will be gradually reduced until Friedman and Coulson’s dream of a fully for-profit marketplace that competes for students is achieved.
That’s what’s changed under Bill Lee’s approach to education
When Gov. Bill Lee came into office in 2018, Tennessee school funding system was broken.
The state lagged behind our neighbors in terms of support for schools by all measures. Billions in unfunded infrastructure needs. Teachers paid well below their peers in Southeastern states. Total investment in students ranked in the bottom 5 in the nation.
Bill Lee’s solution to all of this was to propose a school voucher scheme.
While it passed by a single vote in the House, the fallout is still being felt – one House Speaker lost his job over it. Staffers were indicted. And it seems the saga is not over.
The schools of the future are here – in Arizona, at least.
That is, schools without teachers. Schools where students zone-in on a device for two hyper-focused hours and then play Dungeons and Dragons or use a rock climbing wall the rest of the day.
Adults are in the building – but for emotional support and supervision, not for teaching.
Unbound Academy, which also operates in Texas and Florida under the name Alpha Schools, claims that kids can learn twice as much using a two-hour learning plan that gets customized by an AI program instead of a traditional human teacher in front of a classroom.
The two have filed legislation to expand the state’s current Pre-K program so that all families can benefit.
“Working families are the backbone of Tennessee, but far too many struggle to afford high-quality preschool for their children,” said Rep. Behn. “This legislation cuts costs, gives families a raise, and ensures every child gets a strong start in life. The research is clear: when families have access to free pre-K, parents can work more, earn more, and build a more secure future for their children. It’s a win for families, businesses, and the state economy.”