State of Tennessee Archives: on Education

Bill Lee: Expanding civics education with Civics Seal Initiative

Lamar Alexander: COVID: direct some relief funding to school choice programs

Marquita Bradshaw: Relieve current student debt, provide quality childcare

• Relieve current student debt
• Provide quality childcare
• Fund universal pre-K education
• Build towards a free technical, community, HBCU, and public college education
• Provide education and job training programs to re-skill workers

Bill Lee: 4% salary boost for teachers; make $40,000 minimum salary

Bill Lee: Focus on new initiatives in teacher training

Bill Hagerty: Shift education spending to block grants to states

Manny Sethi: Not government's role to wipe away college debt

I don't believe it's the role of government to wipe away college debt. We need to take a look at what colleges are charging and figure out how to lower costs. In a competitive job market with free market rules, there's an effective way to solve this, but government is not the answer.

Bill Lee: Fund school choice; competition via charters and ESAs

Education Savings Accounts will enable low-income students from under-performing school districts to attend an independent school of their choice at no cost to their family. I know there's concern that this will take money from public schools, but my plan will invest at least $25 million new dollars in public schools in the first year. Creating competition will provide a new incentive for schools to improve and provide new opportunities for thousands of students.

Bill Lee: Schools must focus on acquiring job skills

I recently announced the Future Workforce Initiative, a $4 million effort to increase STEM training in K-12 schools. The Future Workforce Initiative will add 100 new CTE programs, grow the number of teachers qualified to teach work-based learning and computer science classes, and expand access to AP courses and early postsecondary options for high schoolers. We are also investing in agricultural education by allocating new recurring funding for both FFA and 4-H youth programs.

Bill Lee: Teach civics, with unapologetic American exceptionalism

Bill Lee: Supports charter schools & vouchers

Karl Dean (D): Yes. Wants to make public education a top priority as governor.

Bill Lee (R): No. Wants to better use existing dollars. Will appoint an inspector general to "seek out waste & abuse in the system."

Q: Education: Support expansion of charter schools or provide vouchers or tax breaks to parents to send their children to private schools with public money?

Karl Dean (D): Opposes vouchers & for-profit charter schools. Believes nonprofit charter schools have a role to play in large urban districts, though "they're not a silver bullet."

Bill Lee (R): Yes. Supports charter schools. "Vouchers are an opportunity to provide another choice. We should certainly pilot voucher programs to see what positive impact they could have."

Karl Dean: Opposes vouchers & for-profit charter schools

Karl Dean (D): Yes. Wants to make public education a top priority as governor.

Bill Lee (R): No. Wants to better use existing dollars. Will appoint an inspector general to "seek out waste & abuse in the system."

Q: Education: Support expansion of charter schools or provide vouchers or tax breaks to parents to send their children to private schools with public money?

Karl Dean (D): Opposes vouchers & for-profit charter schools. Believes nonprofit charter schools have a role to play in large urban districts, though "they're not a silver bullet."

Bill Lee (R): Yes. Supports charter schools. "Vouchers are an opportunity to provide another choice. We should certainly pilot voucher programs to see what positive impact they could have."

Marsha Blackburn: Supports vouchers for private schools

Marsha Blackburn (R): Yes, has voted for vouchers.

Phil Bredesen (D): No. Supports charter schools but "not wild about vouchers."

Marsha Blackburn: Don't lower student loan interest

Marsha Blackburn (R): No. Voted against earlier proposal to refinance student loans.

Phil Bredesen (D): Some level of support. "I'm someone who went to school with student loans, but they were much lower interest than these student loans & longer pay-out times."

Q: Should federal student financial aid, like Pell Grants, be increased?

Marsha Blackburn (R): Unknown.

Phil Bredesen (D): Unclear, but earlier pushed for free community college tuition.

Phil Bredesen: Supports charter schools but "not wild about vouchers

Marsha Blackburn (R): Yes, has voted for vouchers.

Phil Bredesen (D): No. Supports charter schools but "not wild about vouchers."

Phil Bredesen: Free community college tuition; lower student loan interest

Marsha Blackburn (R): No. Voted against earlier proposal to refinance student loans.

Phil Bredesen (D): Some level of support. "I'm someone who went to school with student loans, but they were much lower interest than these student loans & longer pay-out times."

Q: Should federal student financial aid, like Pell Grants, be increased?

Marsha Blackburn (R): Unknown.

Phil Bredesen (D): Unclear, but earlier pushed for free community college tuition.

Bill Lee: Education, including vocational, is key to a bright future

Karl Dean: Expand access to vocational training programs

However, Karl also knows that college isn't the right fit for every high school graduate. As governor, he will work to expand access to vocational training programs across Tennessee, and he will work to align them with the industries and jobs that are growing in our state.

Karl Dean: Increase teacher pay; more resources for schools

As governor, Karl will do the same for the state. He will make education a funding priority every year he is in office with specific emphasis on:
• increasing teacher pay
• investing in high quality early childhood education
• expanding afterschool program opportunities
• ensuring all school districts get the resources they need

Karl Dean: Supports charters; opposes vouchers

Larry Crim: Children should have quality education minus crushing debt

Larry Crim: Children should have quality education minus crushing debt

Bill Haslam: Boost public education by $1.5B

James Mackler: Against vouchers, for accountability

Diane Black: Supports tax dollars for private schools

Karl Dean: Small city property tax increase to directed to education

"No. 1, you've got to run the city and you've got to make sure that you're taking care of the services that are needed by the citizens," Dean told reporters. "And that tax increase was directed largely to education."

Dean, in his statement, said despite a "small property tax increase" during his second term, Metro's property tax rate was still lower when he left the mayor's office than when he arrived. "This was because we saw property values grow significantly and by state law, tax rates have to go down to adjust for an increase in assessed values," Dean said.

Bill Lee: Charter schools change lives of at-risk youth

Those experiences helped form his views on education, public safety and correction. He said he developed "a vision for something bigger" and found himself wondering whether he could expand his influence. "What if I could make life better for six and a half million people? That was a compelling thought to me," he said. "That is really what drove me to consider running for governor."

Karl Dean: Supports publicly financed, privately led charter schools

Karl Dean: Expand school choice teacher accountability

Karl Dean: Charters ok if non-profit, but vouchers not ok

"I think what my record as mayor of Nashville speaks to is that when I say education will be a priority, it will be a priority," he said.

Bill Haslam: Narrow score gaps for minority and female students

Bill Haslam: STRONG Act: tuition-free public college for veterans

David Kustoff: Oppose Common Core; local folks know best

When it comes to education:
• Local folks know best--not the bureaucrats in Washington. Our teachers don't need any national mandates.
• I oppose Common Core.
• I graduated from a public school in Shelby County and support public schools.

Bill Haslam: Tennessee Promise: two years of free community college

For the last 30 years, Tennessee's greatest need has been for better trained workers who can fill the jobs that companies want to bring here. We think the Tennessee Promise is a game changer.

We're also going to include $400,000 in this year's budget to establish the Tennessee Promise Bridge Program. It's a pilot program to bring first-generation students to campus prior to fall enrollment. When nobody in your family has ever gone to college before, being there can be intimidating. This is one more step to make sure these students have the best chance possible to succeed.

Bill Haslam: $2.5M for SAILS program: math tutors for high school seniors

But the reality is that just reaching high school graduates won't be enough to reach our goal. In Tennessee, there are nearly one million adults with some post-secondary credit but without a degree. We have to figure out ways to reconnect those adults and remove the barriers that are preventing them from earning their certificate or degree, which will lead to a better job and future.

Gordon Ball: I believe in public education

We need to return to viewing education as an investment in our future. We need to support early childhood education and give kids a fair shot at success from their earliest days. We need to continue support for school lunch programs. No child needs to worry more about being hungry than about an education. We need to impress upon our state legislatures the importance of incorporating financial literacy into curriculums for grades 6-12. We need to work collaboratively with teachers, not against them, to improve the performance of students, teachers, and schools.

Bill Haslam: Drive to 55: 55% get post-HS certificate or degree by 2025

This time last year, I announced the Drive to 55--our effort to reach at least 55 percent by 2025. This isn't just about higher education--it's about better jobs for more Tennesseans. It's about building a stronger economy. I have spent a lot of time over the past two years on workforce readiness. I am more convinced than ever that our urgent needs are in the areas of access, quality and relevance. To tackle these, our Drive to 55 initiative focuses on five key goals:

1. Getting students ready;
2. Getting them into school;
3. Getting them out of school;
4. Finishing what we started with adult students; and
5. Tying education directly to workforce needs.

Joe Carr: Prohibit discrimination against college religious groups

• No state higher education institution that grants recognition to any student organization shall discriminate against or deny recognition to a student organization, or deny to a student organization access to programs, funding, or facilities otherwise available to another student organization, on the basis of the religious content of the organization's speech or worship.
• A religious student organization may determine that the organization's religious mission requires that only persons professing the faith of the group and comporting themselves in conformity with it qualify to serve as members or leaders.

Bill Haslam: Drive to 55: Increase college graduation to 55% by 2025

Only 32% of Tennesseans have earned an associates' degree or higher. That's not good enough. Our goal is to move the needle so that Tennessee is on track to raise that number to 55% by 2025. Tonight we begin our "drive to 55"--a strategic initiative to have the best trained workforce in America. To do that, we must improve affordability and access in higher education. To help us achieve this goal, we're partnering with Western Governors University to establish "WGU Tennessee." It is an online, competency-based university that is geared to the 800,000 adult Tennesseans that have some college credit but didn't graduate with an associate or four-year degree.

Bill Haslam: Remove 90-cap limit on charter schools

The City University School of Liberal Arts is a charter school with a college preparatory foundation. Students have full access to diverse advanced placement courses and dual enrollment at Christian Brothers University. In Nashville the LEAD Academy is the city's first charter high school with a vision to do Whatever It Takes to ensure students graduate from high school and attend college. The Metropolitan Nashville school system is 1 of 9 in the country recognized by the Gates Foundation for a collaborative approach to blend charter schools in with other district schools.

Phil Bredesen: New reforms: student achievement to evaluate teacher

Phil Bredesen: $48M for state colleges for tuition, & $10M scholarships

• $120 million for at-risk students in K-12, to fully fund the state's share of these costs
• $27 million for student growth needs in local school districts, to fully fund the state's share of these costs
• $48 million to keep tuition increases at state colleges and universities modest
• $10 million to offer free community college tuition to high school students who make an average score of 19 on the ACT, 19 on the math component and 19 on the test's reading component
• $9.3 million to increase Tennessee's Hope Scholarships to $4,000 annually
• $48 million to fund operating increases in Tennessee's higher education system
• Implementation of ACT testing for 8th and 10th grade students, to assess their academic needs early on and design individual learning plans to help them graduate on time and ready for work or college

Don Sundquist: Invest more in teachers and in early education

A RAND report found that Tennessee isn’t doing as well as other states in student achievement and performance goals because we’ve only invested in one of three essential ingredients. Those three essential ingredients are:
1. Reducing class size, which we are doing.
2. Early childhood education, which we do very little of.
3. Investing in teachers, which we need to do more of.

Don Sundquist: We test students & rate schools; now invest in reading

Last fall, for the first time, we posted school report cards on the web. You can log on and see test scores and gains for every public school in the state.

With all this knowledge in hand, and with the results of a literacy report commissioned by this body, now we know that it’s time to focus on reading in Tennessee. We know from test scores that our children can’t read as well as they should. We don’t want our legacy to be that we failed to solve our problems. We don’t want our legacy to be that we passed them on to the next generation because we didn’t have the courage to make the difficult choices. We must invest more in education and expect more in return.

Don Sundquist: Invest in teachers: scholarships, mentors, merit pay

We should start by investing in teachers.
• First, I propose we increase the number of scholarships and target them to people who will commit to certain subjects or school systems, depending on where we have a shortage.
• Next, let’s offer our teachers encouragement to stay in the classroom. I propose we establish a mentoring program in every school so that first year teachers have someone to turn to for guidance. And let’s pay extra to teachers who agree to put in extra time doing the mentoring.
• Let’s also offer extra pay for teachers who become Nationally Board Certified.
• I also think it’s absolutely inexcusable for teachers to have to pay for supplies out of their own pockets. To make sure that does not happen, my plan calls for doubling the amount of discretionary dollars for each teacher, [to] at least $200 a year to spend in the classroom, [with] a goal of $500 per teacher per classroom within five years.