The Tennessee General Assembly approved a $160 million package of bills Thursday night and Friday morning, legislation aimed at tackling student learning loss during the pandemic, the state’s stagnant literacy rates and how schools will handle standardized testing after a year of academic disruptions.
The education initiatives, introduced by Gov. Bill Lee, were finalized in a whirlwind, four-day special session that allowed lawmakers to quickly approve major programs for schools before taking on other bills. It was the third special session Lee has called since taking office in 2019.
But the warp-speed approval meant significantly less time to iron out the legislation and a truncated budget process compared to bills taken up during regular session.
The governor and legislative leadership previously said this week’s bills on literacy, upcoming standardized testing and summer remedial programs needed to be in place to allow school districts time to plan.
In three separate bills, Lee and his Department of Education pushed to implement a new phonics-based reading program to help boost literacy rates; allocate resources for tutoring and summer programs to catch up children who are behind after months away from the classroom; and attempt to ensure educators aren’t punished for potentially poor standardized testing scores this year.
RELATED:Plan to hold back Tennessee third graders who don’t meet reading standards draws scrutiny
A separate budget bill allocated funding for the new programs, including giving districts money to provide 4{c25493dcd731343503a084f08c3848bd69f9f2f05db01633325a3fd40d9cc7a1} raises for Tennessee educators. Teachers are to receive a 2{c25493dcd731343503a084f08c3848bd69f9f2f05db01633325a3fd40d9cc7a1} raise in the meantime, ahead of the full increase set for later this year. The pay increases amount to $43 million.
The majority of the bills passed the Senate and House Thursday evening, though delays in the House required both chambers to return Friday morning.
Schools must begin teaching phonics-based reading
This legislation requires local school districts to use a phonics-based approach for teaching children to read. It also provides training and support for educators to teach phonics-based reading instruction.
The literacy proposal marks a victory for the Lee administration after a similar $68 million proposal ultimately failed last year, though the updated version is significantly scaled down.
RELATED:Plan to hold back Tennessee third graders who don’t meet reading standards draws scrutiny
The legislature has approved roughly half of the $1 million in funding for the new literacy measure, while the rest is set to be included in the state’s final budget this spring.
According to House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, $40 million in other federal grants will supplement initiatives in the bill, but those are separate from the legislation that lawmakers passed.
Most legislators praised the bill, which is the latest effort in the state’s decades-long attempt to improve reading scores.
Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, said for years lawmakers have known what could be done to tackle reading instruction, including implementing phonics-based approaches like the science of reading, but have failed to execute it.
“This is the first time we can actually get off of talking about strategy and begin talking about the execution of the strategy,” Watson said.
In the House, Democrats pressed Republicans about whether hidden costs would emerge for schools as a result of the program.
Lamberth maintained the funds the state is budgeting for literacy and other new education programs would sufficiently cover schools’ costs.
“Not only is there not an unfunded mandate, we have funded it well above anything we did last year,” Lamberth said. “Our kids don’t know how to read. If they don’t know how to read well, they can’t do anything else.”
Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, raised concerns about how quickly lawmakers passed the legislation this week with little time for the public to study the bills and offer feedback.
“We need to make sure our local leaders actually own this and believe in this and support this, and I think we get off on the wrong foot with a top-down approach,” Yarbro said of the new literacy initiative.
‘Summer camps’ to be held to catch up students
In an effort to make up for anticipated pandemic-related learning loss, the state will also now require school districts to offer a series of summer camps offering intensive support for students who are behind, especially in literacy and math. The camps would begin this summer and would include both four- and six-week sessions, as well as additional after-school opportunities.
The legislation also creates the new Tennessee Accelerated Literacy and Learning Corps to provide high-quality tutors to help bring students back up to speed.
The bill strengthens a 2011 law requiring third graders be held back if they aren’t reading on grade level, a measure that drew criticism and ultimately an amendment to provide parents an appeal process for their children.
Students could opt to retake the assessment and attempt to score on grade level, attend a four-week summer program, commit to a year of intensive tutoring and other interventions or repeat the third grade.
Despite the $116 million cost, some lawmakers have questioned whether the training and resources provided by the state would essentially force districts to use a one-size-fits-all approach, but most have been in favor of the effort.
Others have raised questions about whether the funding will be sufficient for the new afterschool and summer camp programs and whether every district will receive adequate resources to cover transportation, food, staffing and other related costs.
“We are extending a six-week period for every school district in the state for a lot of students and we are not sending anywhere near the resources to pay for it,” Yarbro said. “I understand we do have to respond aggressively in a pandemic, and we are doing that but we are doing that on the cheap.”
The programs could target more than 40{c25493dcd731343503a084f08c3848bd69f9f2f05db01633325a3fd40d9cc7a1} of the state’s elementary school students, though recent data shows that only about 36{c25493dcd731343503a084f08c3848bd69f9f2f05db01633325a3fd40d9cc7a1} of Tennessee third graders are reading on grade level.
Rep. Brandon Ogles, R-Franklin, attempted to introduce a late-filed amendment Friday morning to prevent state funding from being allocated to a program that requires holding back third- and fourth-graders based on a standardized test reading score.
“There is an unintended consequence of holding some of those children back, and that’s the fact they’re going to age out, possibly not being able to play sports their senior year,” Ogles said to colleagues on the House floor. “So some of these seniors now are going to be 19 and 20 years old and they’re going to be going to prom with a 15-year-old child.”
Ogles ultimately withdrew the amendment.
The General Assembly is banking on pulling from the state’s large reserve of unused Temporary Assistance for Needy Family funds — which come in the form of an annual federal block grant that has reached a surplus of more than $740 million — to cover part of the costs of the learning loss programs. They estimate using $35 million from TANF each year for the initiative.
During a House committee meeting Thursday morning, Rep. Bryan Terry, R-Murfreesboro, questioned whether the state has received permission from the federal government to use TANF funds that way and if there is a backup plan to pay for the programs.
Terry has been at the forefront of the legislative effort to develop a plan for spending a portion of the massive TANF reserve, which are the largest in the nation.
Lamberth assured him there would be no hangups in the process. Representatives from the Department of Education said the state previously used TANF funds on a reading program.
Testing ‘won’t count’ but will still be conducted
The decision to ensure teachers and schools are not punished by potentially poor standardized testing results this year — an effort with wide bipartisan support going into the special session — still drew questions from lawmakers.
Despite waiving accountability measures based on these test scores, Rep. Mike White, R-Memphis, said standardized tests will still be administered “so we can find a foundational line of how much learning loss and remediation is needed.”
But the bill requires at least 80{c25493dcd731343503a084f08c3848bd69f9f2f05db01633325a3fd40d9cc7a1} of students in each district to participate in testing this spring, which will occur in-person.
Some lawmakers, namely those from Davidson and Shelby counties, raised concerns since those districts are also currently closed for in-person instruction.
Yarbro, who voted against all three bills, described the 80{c25493dcd731343503a084f08c3848bd69f9f2f05db01633325a3fd40d9cc7a1} requirement as an effort to use assessment policies “to try to put a thumb on the scale to reopen schools.”
Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma, echoed many concerns heard from educators and education advocacy groups about still conducting testing, despite teachers not facing consequences for poor results.
“I think the data will be flawed at best and every moment is crucial and should be used for instruction,” she said.
The legislature’s decision to waive accountability measures for teachers and students is not a surprise, though, as the they have done so several times in recent years due to problems with administering state testing.
Technology failures, new standards, and schools closing last spring because of the pandemic have previously prompted legislators to waive accountability for test results.
Any decisions made to waive or change testing requirements are predicated on the state receiving approval from the U.S. Department of Education to make those changes.
Other education bills filed were scrapped
The governor’s package of bills wasn’t the only legislation filed during the education special session, but they were the only ones that ultimately made it to the Senate and House floors for passage.
Lamberth and Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, filed a late bill that would have allowed the state to withhold funding to public schools that don’t offer at least 70 days of in-person instruction to elementary and middle school students this year.
The bill could have jeopardized funding for Memphis and Nashville public schools, the state’s two largest school districts, but was never scheduled to go before committee for debate. Lee’s office declined to say whether he supported the bill.
Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, said Thursday the legislature would likely tackle the issue of public school funding levels during the regular session that resumes next month.
Other bills were also scrapped, including one co-sponsored by Sexton regarding access to special online courses and one filed by Rep. Bruce Griffey, R-Paris, who sought to place a fine on foreign wire transfers to generate revenue for schools.
Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, led the chamber in a moment of silence at the start of the House floor session Thursday, reading off a list of names of Tennessee teachers who have died from COVID-19.
Want to read more stories like this? A subscription to one of our Tennessee publications gets you unlimited access to all the latest news and the ability to tap into stories, photos and videos from throughout the USA TODAY Network’s 261 daily sites.
Reach Natalie Allison at nal[email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.
Reach Meghan Mangrum at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.
:strip_exif(true):strip_icc(true):no_upscale(true):quality(65)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gmg/QH2FLHZ4FJHWHBPPN5WD5WLJZ4.jpg)