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Grundy County Says “NO” to Teacher Bonuses

One Tennessee school district is leaving free money for teacher pay on the table. The Grundy County School Board has decided not to accept the state’s $2000 bonus for teachers that was provided as part of the universal school voucher bill that passed this year.

Chattanooga’s NewsChannel9 has more:

“. . . the Grundy County school board did not approve thousands of dollars from the state for teacher bonuses.

Those $2,000 bonuses were tied to the Education Freedom Act and school vouchers.

After the votes failed last week, one board member said he voted against the bonuses because he believes vouchers are wrong.

But another board member said not accepting that money only hurts the county, no matter what strings may be attached.

The strings included passing a supportive resolution to accept the funds that some perceived as a tacit endorsement of Gov. Bill Lee’s voucher scheme.

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Public Schools Hall of Fame

From an email from Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF):

We are looking forward to the annual Public Schools Hall of Fame event on September 30, 2025, where we will honor outstanding educators, nonprofits, and leaders in our community. This year’s honorees represent exceptional dedication and expertise and have shown tremendous commitment to our public schools, students, teachers, and families. We invite you to visit our website to learn more about the event, meet the honorees, and save the date to join us.

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JT Moore Band Saved by Ramsey Foundation

From a release provided to the media:

On Tuesday, June 24, Old Dominion’s Matthew Ramsey presents a donation of $50,000
on behalf of The Ramsey Foundation to the “BAND TOGETHER” fundraiser to help save the
concert band program at J.T. Moore Middle School in Nashville, TN.

On March 28, 2025, it was announced that J.T. Moore Middle School’s long-standing
band program would be eliminated for the 2025–2026 school year. In response, a passionate
group of parents launched the “BAND TOGETHER” campaign with the mission to save the
school’s concert band program and keep music education alive. With generous support from
Matthew Ramsey and The Ramsey Foundation, the campaign has raised over $65,000, enough
to hire a part-time band director for the upcoming year. The campaign’s goal is to reach
$92,000 by June 30 to fund a full-time band teacher and keep the music alive for all grades.

MORE INFORMATION

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Mississippi and the Fight for Public Schools

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Defending Public Education in Mississippi

School privatizers are persistent – they work and work and work to obtain access to public funds. They work to reduce accountability. They work to profit from what should be a public good.

Two public education advocates share their story of fighting (and so far, winning) for public schools in Mississippi:

Defeating vouchers is a priority because vouchers provide a direct funding stream to private schools that takes funding away from our public schools. Private schools are not designed to be a public good. They want to be able to select the students that they educate and are not open to all students. Because they have a selective admission process, they can refuse any child for any reason. And they operate outside of the public eye. We don’t know what the standards are that they are purporting to meet. We don’t have any accountability for the quality of education that they are providing.

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On the Many Forms of School Privatization

Wherein Pennsylvania provides an example of the damage caused by cyber charters:

The district is among the vast number of Pennsylvania districts that has come out in favor of funding reform in the state. In Pennsylvania we still fund cyber charters by means laid out for bricks and mortar charters over twenty years ago. It’s nonsensical, inconsistent, and highly profitable, which is probably why Pennsylvania is the cyber capital of the country.

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Educators’ Cooperative Celebrates Summer

In their recent newsletter, Educators’ Cooperative hyped up their summer:

At EdCo, we’ve been reflecting on the end of this school year and celebrating the huge impact we were able to make due to our new Program Coordinator, Virginia Henry.

Thanks to her expertise and work ethic, our “EdCo in the Classroom” Programs were able to triple the delivery of in-class support to schools all over Nashville from Q3-Q4!

Looking forward, EdCo is excitedly preparing for our 11th Annual Summer Workshop.

We’ve been reviewing teacher-applications and selecting candidates for EdCo’s 11th Cohort. Summer Workshop is where they’ll come together for the first time as a class of our newest Members and learn how to use (and contribute to) EdCo’s mutual aid network.

We can’t wait to graduate them as official Members of our Educators’ Cooperative!

READ MORE

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Bill Lee vs. Sun Bucks

One more story on Gov. Bill Lee letting TN kids go hungry:

For the first time in five years, the majority of low-income students across Tennessee will not receive supplemental grocery funds this summer to help bridge the months when they aren’t receiving school meals.

This is because Lee rejected federal support of Summer EBT – and instead, created a new, TN-funded program. The new program will serve only 25,000 kids in just 15 counties – down from the 700,000 kids served in all 95 counties since 2020.

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Voucher Wisdom from Utah

The decision by a Utah judge that a school voucher scheme violates that state’s constitution is a win for defenders of public education.

“This decision protects the integrity of public education, ensuring critical funding remains in schools that serve 90% of Utah’s children and prioritize equitable, inclusive opportunities for every student to succeed,” said the Utah Education Association. “It reinforces the belief that public education is a cornerstone of opportunity for everyone, regardless of their background or circumstances.”

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Slater Promotes Voucher Coupon Scheme

Sumner lawmaker touts plan that would undermine the Sumner County Schools in his district

State Rep. William Slater who represents Trousdale County and part of Sumner County in the General Assembly, is actively promoting a school voucher scheme that could have devastating consequences for the public schools in his area.

Slater voted for the scheme – as did all of the representatives of Sumner County’s legislative delegation.

Now, the former headmaster of Hendersonville Christian Academy is actively seeking applicants to take public money to enrich private schools and their operators. The plan would also essentially provide a discount coupon to families already sending students to private schools.

State Rep. William Slater, R-Gallatin, is encouraging interested families in Trousdale and Sumner counties to apply for Education Freedom Scholarships (EFS) beginning May 15.

All Tennessee students can apply for the program, which provides a $7,295 scholarship to attend a private school that will best fit a child’s needs. Families are encouraged to apply early and have all necessary documents and information readily available.

In other states, vouchers have wrecked state and local budgets, resulted in property tax increases, and failed to improve student achievement.

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Robbing Farmers, Schools, and Food Banks

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An Explosive Voucher Scheme

State budget set to take a hit from rapid private school coupon scam

This blog takes a look at the numbers when it comes to Tennessee’s expanded school voucher scheme – set to go universal in the upcoming academic year.

Applications continue to flow in for Tennessee’s Education Freedom Scholarship program. The TDOE has released data showing that the number of scholarships applied for by families with a qualified income was equal to those for by parents with no economic restrictions.

As of the beginning of this week, the department has received a total of 38,160 applications:

  • 18,852 applications for qualified income scholarships.
  • 19,308 applications for universal scholarships.
  • Applications have been received from more than 300 zip codes across the state.
  • An average of 2,935 applications per grade level have been submitted for students entering Kindergarten through 12th grade.

Critics of the program continue to fire away even as applications increase. According to Sam Stockard at the Tennessee Lookout, the program is slated to cost about $400 million next year and escalate to $1.1 billion in five years. Democratic Rep. John Ray Clemmons says, calling Gov. Lee’s program “a scam that will harm students, de-fund public education, and expedite our state’s impending budget crisis.”

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