A bill requiring Tennessee public schools to gather data on student immigration status and report it to the state education department advanced out of a House legislative committee Tuesday.

The bill () was introduced last year as part of a Republican effort to challenge Supreme Court precedent requiring public schools to enroll all children regardless of immigration status. As originally introduced,  the bill would have allowed Tennessee public school districts to refuse to enroll immigrant students who could not provide proof of legal status – or charge their families tuition.

But the controversial measure stalled, in part due to concerns it could jeopardize more than $1.1 billion in federal education funding.

House Majority Leader William Lamberth, a Portland Republican who sponsored the measure, told a legislative committee Tuesday the bill in its amended form is now “literally a data bill” to give state leaders reliable information on the number of students without legal immigration status enrolled in taxpayer funded schools. Provisions allowing schools to deny enrollment or charge tuition have been stripped from the bill.

But opponents of the measure, among them educators, immigrant advocates and Democratic lawmakers, have questioned how the data will ultimately be used, how educators untrained in immigration law can reliably review complex immigration documentation and how the specter of being asked to produce immigration paperwork in schools would impact children and families.

Lamberth last week deflected questions about the ultimate use of student immigration data, which the legislation specifies would be reported to the state in aggregate, non-identifying formats.

“We can take whatever action down the road that this body would choose to take,” after the data was gathered, he said then.

A statement Tuesday from Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of TIRRC Votes, raised continued alarms about the ultimate goal of student immigration status data gathering. TIRRC is the political arm of the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition.

“Across history, we’ve seen the dangers of governments making and keeping lists of the people that they think don’t belong,” the statement said.

“But rather than learn from our past, these power-hungry politicians, desperate for Trump’s approval, are doubling down on their efforts to identify and track immigrant students in the hopes of one day being able to exclude them from our schools.”

The bill is cosponsored by Sen. Bo Watson, a Hixson Republican. The full senate passed the bill in its original form in April but has yet to take it up in its amended form this year. The House and Senate versions of the bill would have to be reconciled before the legislation could ultimately advance to the governor’s desk.

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Each has implemented at least one of five strategies to boost student participation and success in the subject, according to in its recent report. 

Some, through these efforts, have reduced the need for remediation at the college level. This is particularly relevant for low-income students and those of color, who are more likely to be placed in these noncredit courses, which can derail their college trajectories. 

Concern over the issue has risen in recent years thanks to COVID: More than 900 students at the needed catch-up math classes in the fall of 2025 compared to just 32 five years earlier. And their lack of understanding wasn’t confined to high school: they were missing material they should have mastered in middle and Other universities reported similar problems.  

“Too often we spend a lot of energy discussing the challenges and constraints related to education or redesigning math,” said Shakiyya Bland, Just Equations’ director of educational partnerships. “This report highlights states that are doing the work, showing what’s possible — and showing results.” 

The report recognized efforts in other regions, too. The Virginia Community College System, for example, saw the need for remedial math plummet from 40% of incoming students to 4% between 2014 and 2021 after it changed how it judged college math readiness and how it teaches students who need additional help, Bland said. 

“Instead of a single placement test that pushed huge numbers into noncredit remedial tracks, colleges started using multiple measures like high school GPA and math coursework, expanding access for more students to go straight into college‑level math with added support,” she said. “That shift, from assuming students weren’t ready to assuming they could succeed with the right help, is what drove the big drop in ‘remedial’ placements.”

Just Equations cited five strategies states can implement to align mathematics from high school to college, including course co-design, where secondary and post-secondary instructors unite to craft high school math sequences.  

The organization said, too, universities should have transparent expectations for incoming freshmen so these students know what is expected of them for various college majors. 

Just Equations also touts the value of senior year transition or readiness courses for high school students: These classes, the organization observes, help ensure students can handle the challenge of college-level work. 

States might also offer dual enrollment courses which allow high school students to earn college credit, saving them time and money, Just Equations concluded. They can also work to ensure public universities recognize new high school mathematics offerings so students are properly credited for those classes. 

Georgia redesigned its math pathway through a partnership with K-12 and higher education math teachers to make sure new high school courses aligned with college entry requirements. The state also added several new courses for high school seniors, including Advanced Placement Statistics and Mathematics of Industry and Government. 

California had given students conflicting guidance about how many years of high school math they needed: State law demanded two while school districts often required three and some colleges recommended four. State universities are now more transparent about what is needed for college success in general and in specific majors.

Just Equations notes Tennessee’s efforts date back 18 years when its high school students were first required to complete four years of math, including Algebra II. The state’s mathematics offerings have been reworked numerous times since then and statistics has emerged as a valuable course for many.

Out West, Utah’s dual-enrollment program made college-level classes more accessible and affordable. The state also expanded the range of math pathways for high school students beyond college algebra, a course that relies heavily on algebraic procedures where students often struggle with the material and finding its relevancy.

Students may now opt for quantitative reasoning, focusing on practical numeracy skills such as personal finance and statistical reasoning or introductory statistics, geared toward life sciences, business and social sciences.

Mike Spencer, secondary mathematics specialist for the state board of education, said the change has been helpful to many students who might otherwise be kept out of college by their inability to pass a course that often had no bearing on their major or career aspiration. 

But, he said, students were reluctant to make the switch. 

“When it was first released, we saw a majority of our students were still taking college algebra, partly because of tradition,” Spencer said. “So, we made a significant effort to help inform students, families and counselors to understand why you would go into each of these.”

Just Equations noted, too, Utah’s university professors help craft high school syllabuses, screen high school teachers to teach college-level courses, and “verify grading consistency using common assessments.” It credits these and other changes for a massive increase in the rate of high school seniors completing four years of math, from 28% in 2012 to 87% in 2020. 

Bland of Just Equations said states should routinely bring together K–12, higher education, and workforce leaders to find the best math pathways for students. And, she said, they should invest in sustained professional development and K–16 longitudinal data to track students into the workforce to learn which math experiences best supported their success. 

Five years ago, Oregon adopted new mathematics standards intended to be “more modern and equitable,” moving away from the three-course sequence of Algebra I, geometry and Algebra II to a required two-year core curriculum focused on algebra, geometry and data/statistics. 

Students can now choose a course of study for a required third year — including mathematical modeling, data science and quantitative reasoning — and an optional fourth year. 

The changes required colleges to revisit their stated requirements. The University of Oregon, for example, mandated Algebra II for all incoming students, but now requires three or more years of high school math, which “could be satisfied by any math course with a primary focus on concepts in algebra, calculus, data science, discreet mathematics, geometry, mathematical analysis, probability or statistics.” 

In addition to the five core states at the heart of the study, Just Equations also lauded North Carolina’s automatic enrollment policy, adopted in 2018, which places students who score high on state assessments into advanced mathematics courses for the following year, eliminating subjective recommendations. More than 95% of the state’s eighth-grade students who scored at the highest level were placed in advanced math courses in 2022–23, up from 87% in 2017–18, before the policy was enacted. 

While these states have made noteworthy progress, critics note problems remain. 

A lack of longitudinal data in Tennessee makes it difficult to understand the impact of the changes that have taken shape there, state officials say. 

“One of the goals that I have over the next year or so is to better track the entire arc of the student journey,” said Juliette Biondi, who directs the state’s Seamless Alignment and Integrated Learning Support program, as documented in the report. “I want to understand how they do in their college math classes. Do they struggle? Does it influence graduation rates?”

Utah, too, can also improve: Rural areas find it hard to recruit and retain qualified teachers for college-level courses, leading them to rely on virtual instruction.

And Jo Boaler, the Stanford professor who helped California reshape its math program, said she regularly observes ineffective teaching practices that undermine K-12 learning.

“All I can see is that we have not built conceptual understanding or number sense well by the end of school,” Boaler told ����Ӱ��. “When I visit classrooms, I still see students going through uninspiring textbook math. Maybe there has been some improvement but I have not heard about it or seen it yet.”

Disclosure: The Gates Foundation provides financial support to Just Equations and ����Ӱ��.

The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board voted unanimously against an application Monday for a virtual Jewish charter school, citing the state supreme court’s 2024 ruling that public funding for a religious school would violate state law. As expected, some board members voiced support for Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation.

“I think our hands are tied,” said Board Member Damon Gardenhire, who said he didn’t see much difference between Ben Gamla’s application and a now-closed Native American charter school that featured a “spiritual component.” 

In a statement responding to the vote, Brett Farley, a member of the proposed school’s board, said organizers plan to challenge the decision in federal court. “Oklahoma families should have the freedom to choose schools that best meet their children’s needs — without losing strong options simply because they are faith-based,” he said.

The Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board is expected to deny an application for a Jewish charter school Monday, but will likely welcome organizers of the school to take them to court.

Peter Deutsch, founder of the Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation, and a former Democratic congressman, made his pitch for the school in January, saying that he aims to bring “a rigorous, values-driven education” to Jewish parents in Oklahoma.

“I anticipate that our board would like to grant them the application,” Brian Shellem, the board chair, told ����Ӱ��. “But we can’t snub our nose at the court either.”

He means the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which ruled against the nation’s first Catholic charter school in 2024. That decision still stands after the U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked over that case last year. The charter board’s likely denial of Ben Gamla’s application is expected to spark another lawsuit, pitting against those who say it would violate the Constitution’s prohibition on establishing a religion. With a case over a proposed Christian charter in Tennessee already in federal court and another religious school in Colorado founded to test the same legal question, there’s little doubt that the nation’s highest court will eventually settle the debate.

“It is hard for me to imagine the court doesn’t take the issue again when it comes to it,” said Derek Black, a constitutional law professor at the University of South Carolina. But after Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself in the case over St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, resulting in the 4-4 tie, the justices likely in favor of religious charters, he said, “would want a case that was very strong.”

‘Pray and hear Scripture’

So far, the only case to watch is in Tennessee. Wilberforce Academy of Knoxville, a nonprofit that wants to open a K-8 Christian charter school, sued the Knox County school board because the district wouldn’t accept its letter of intent to apply. State law prohibits charter schools from being religious. 

“Students will begin to develop biblical literacy in kindergarten and begin taking catechism lessons by third grade,” according to Wilberforce Academy’s request for a quick ruling in the case. “And they will pray and hear Scripture together in a school assembly every morning.”

As St. Isidore did before them, Wilberforce argues that the nonprofit is a “private actor” and that approving its charter application would not turn it into a government entity.

The Knox County board told the court that it will “most likely” not take a position on the legality of Wilberforce’s argument. On Thursday, the board rejected asking state education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds to consider granting Wilberforce Academy a waiver so they can open the Christian school.

The Knox board, however, also said the issue of religious charter schools “deserves a thorough examination by the federal courts.” 

Judge Charles Atchley Jr, for the Eastern District of Tennessee, thinks so, too. Last week, he allowed a group of Knox County parents and religious leaders, who oppose Wilberforce’s application, . 

The case, he wrote, has the “potential to reshape First Amendment jurisprudence in the educational context” and it wouldn’t serve the court or parties involved to not have “vigorous advocacy on both sides.”

Amanda Collins, a retired Knox County school psychologist, is among those who have signed up to fight against Wilberforce Academy. She has two children still in the district and one who graduated in 2024. She grew concerned about Wilberforce Academy when she learned the organization didn’t have a history of operating charter schools in the state and feels its attorneys are using the district to “merely force an issue up the ladder to the Supreme Court.”

“In Tennessee, we have plenty of things that are underfunded,” she said. “We don’t need to be wasting our local Knox County taxpayer money on somebody’s agenda that is not intended to promote the education safety and wellness of our public school students.” 

‘The clear constitutional boundary’

Another school that could spark a lawsuit over public funds for religious schools is Colorado’s , which advertises that it offers students a “Christian foundation.” 

The school operates “pretty much just like a charter school” said Ken Witt, executive director of Education reEnvisioned, the board of cooperative educational services, or BOCES, that contracted with the school. 

As , emails between the attorney for the Pueblo County district, which allowed the school to open within its boundaries, and the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative law firm, suggest the school was intentionally founded to test the legal argument over whether public schools can practice religion. 

After threatening to withhold state funds because of the school’s religious mission, the Colorado Department of Education funded Riverstone’s 31 students. But the state is also conducting a , which could take another year, before deciding whether it can legally provide money to the school. In the meantime, Riverstone had to close its building last week because of health and safety violations. It’s unclear whether students are learning remotely or in another facility in the meantime.

For now, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat running for governor, hasn’t issued an opinion on Riverstone, but his views on St. Isidore, the Oklahoma school, were clear. Last year, he in opposing state funding for the school.

In , he urged the Supreme Court “to preserve the clear constitutional boundary that protects both religious liberty and the integrity of our public education system.”

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, a Republican who is also running for governor, made a similar argument about St. Isidore before both the Oklahoma and U.S. supreme courts. 

But that’s where both he and Weiser split with the Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. In his , Skrmetti states that categorically excluding faith-based schools from public charter programs violates parents’ rights to freely exercise their religion.

To Ilya Shapiro, director of constitutional studies at the conservative Manhattan Institute, it’s a matter of equity. Higher-income families can move into wealthier neighborhoods or pay private school tuition, he wrote in a on the Wilberforce case. The state, he added, already funds religious schools through education savings accounts. 

“But families who rely on charter schools are told that their options must be secular,” he wrote. 

Black, with the University of South Carolina, said the issue comes down to who authorized the school to begin with. In both Oklahoma and Tennessee, either local or state boards approve charter applications.

“That explicit state involvement, to me, makes it clear that state action is involved,” he said, “and thus the Establishment Clause applies.”

Tennessee families experienced a bottleneck earlier this year as they waited to submit applications for the state’s new program. In July, 166 parents that they had received a scholarship, only to alert them a few days later that the notification was a mistake. 

“It wasn’t the most ideal user experience,” said Heide Nesset, a senior fellow for the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a right-leaning think tank. But there was a “tight runway,” about three months, to get the program off the ground. 

With state leaders hoping to serve up to 70,000 students next year, they’re now . Proposals are due Friday.

But the rough start in Tennessee wasn’t an anomaly. All states with education savings accounts have struggled to some extent with ensuring smooth transactions for families, whether that’s paying a school on time or ordering a homeschool curriculum. Some say the solution lies in picking more than one company to handle the increasing demand and improve customer service.

“If it’s one contract, I think the vendor is inherently trying to ensure that the state department has a really fantastic experience,” said Nesset, who is also the vice president of

implementation at the Yes. Every Kid. Foundation, a school choice advocacy organization. “If you have more than one [vendor], then they start competing, and families have the opportunity to make choices.”

Tennessee’s current vendor is Student First Technologies, which won to run a smaller ESA program in three counties. Earlier this year, the state with the Indiana-based company to manage the new statewide program, despite its problems in other states. 

In West Virginia, where Student First still operates the Hope Scholarship program, an ESA, homeschool families complain that they can’t access the platform on their phones and that approvals and denials for purchases are inconsistent. Arkansas canceled its contract with Student First last fall after it failed to deliver a “fully operational” system on time. The company paid the state . 

‘Get what they need’

Eighteen states now have at least one ESA program. With a new federal tax credit scholarship system beginning in 2027, the demand for organizations to manage them will surely grow. The trick is delivering a system that runs smoothly for families while ensuring that they’re using the money the way the state intended. 

In a , Michael Horn, cofounder of the Clayton Christensen Institute, a think tank, talked with Jamie Rosenberg, the founder of ClassWallet. Still the biggest player in the market, the Florida-based company manages nine ESA programs. 

Prior to platforms like his, states had two options, he explained. They either issued debit cards, which made it hard to ensure parents spent the money on allowable purchases, or expected them to pay up front and request reimbursement — a significant obstacle for families on a tight budget.

ESA vendors, he said, give families the “agency to get what they need but also the ease of knowing that what they’re doing and what they’re buying [complies with] program rules.”

Adding more than one vendor to the mix could make the companies work harder to reach lower-income and minority families who are less likely to use the programs, said Lisa Snell, a senior fellow at Stand Together Trust, which funds school choice initiatives.

“Family outreach and satisfaction become the goal rather than the government as the customer to one vendor,” she said.

Texas had the option to choose multiple vendors for its new ESA program, which launches next fall. allows the comptroller’s office to contract with up to five companies. But officials opted against it and awarded a two-year, $26 million contract to New York-based Odyssey, which currently runs programs in four other states. 

Joe Connor, Odyssey’s CEO declined to comment on the state’s decision and referred ����Ӱ�� to the state comptroller’s office. The office did not respond, but Amar Kumar, CEO of KaiPod Learning, a large national network of microschools, said the state likely felt multiple vendors would further complicate the process.

“There was this huge question of the complexity of doing that,” he said. “How do you tell families which portal to go to or how will they decide who manages which part of the program?”

‘Send a quarterly check’

The vendor platforms include built-in tools to prevent misuse. Student First Technologies has an AI feature, , that reviews each expense, “assigns a confidence score” and flags anything that’s new or that the state hasn’t approved in the past. 

But Katie Switzer, a West Virginia parent using the state’s Hope Scholarship to homeschool her children, said it’s unreliable, sometimes approving purchases for some families and rejecting the same items for others. She thinks states should focus more on monitoring students’ academic progress than tracking every purchase. 

“It’s stupid in my opinion to micromanage down to like the $20 workbook level,” she said. “Honestly, I think it would be more cost effective to send a quarterly check to families.”

That’s unlikely with such programs constantly under the microscope, and critics, especially in Arizona, pointing to high-end purchases, like , as examples of misuse. The state education department says it takes steps to prevent fraud and has to the attorney general’s office that have . 

West Virginia officials said they’re pleased with Student First’s progress since October, when that delayed orders caused students to fall behind on lessons. Orders are now “generally” processed within two business days, said Assistant Treasurer Carrie Hodousek, and the company has added and trained staff to prepare for peak order times.

Providers like Kaipod have their own concerns. School founders in the network have sometimes gone to the brink of eviction from their leased space because of late tuition payments, said CEO Kumar. 

“There should be a predictable schedule, but sometimes it can take weeks extra to get paid,” he said. “If you’re running a small business and you owe rent, you owe payroll and your state payment is delayed, that creates a huge amount of stress for founders.”

For now, rebidding contracts for vendors is the strongest form of accountability, he said.

“They ought to not feel safe once they’ve won a contract,” he said.

Disclosure: Stand Together Trust provides financial support to ����Ӱ��. 

They were right.

In Tennessee, the nonprofit Wilberforce Academy is suing the Knox County Schools in federal court because the district refuses to allow a Christian charter school. Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is on the school’s side. He issued last month that the state’s ban on religious charter schools likely violates the First Amendment. 

“Tennessee’s public charter schools are not government entities for constitutional purposes and may assert free exercise rights,” he wrote to Rep. Michele Carringer, the Knoxville Republican who requested the opinion. 

The legal challenge in Tennessee comes as a Florida-based charter school network prepares to submit an application to the Oklahoma Charter School Board for a Jewish virtual charter high school. Peter Deutsch, the former Democratic congressman who founded the Ben Gamla charter schools, began working on the idea long before the case over St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School even went to court. The 4-4 tie in May means that an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision blocking the school from receiving state funds still stands. 

“The prior decision shows that there’s an open question here that needs to be resolved,” said Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel at Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a law firm representing the National Ben Gamla Jewish Charter School Foundation. “We hope the court will get it right this time. We hope the federal courts get it right without having to go to the Supreme Court.”

Idaho also confronted the issue earlier this year. The state’s first charter, Brabeion Academy, initially the school as Christian. But it in August as a nonreligious school and will open as such next fall. 

Deutsch, Skrmetti and other supporters of faith-based charter schools base their argument on three earlier Supreme Court rulings allowing public funds to support sectarian schools. They say that excluding religious organizations from operating faith-based charter schools is discrimination and violates the Constitution. But leaders of the charter sector and public school advocates argue that classifying charter schools as private would threaten funding and civil rights protections for 3.7 million students nationwide.

“Unless and until the U.S. Supreme Court takes up a future case and rules otherwise, we advise all charter school associations and public charter schools to adhere to the letter and spirit of the law in their respective states,” Starlee Coleman, president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, said in a statement.

‘Not on our watch’

When the Supreme Court considered St. Isidore, Deutsch, was prepared to advocate for Jewish congregations to open schools that not only teach their language, but also their faith. He called the case “a historic opportunity” to bring Jewish education to thousands of children.

To Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, the debate is settled, for now. In November, he said his office would “oppose any attempts to undermine the rule of law.” 

Americans United, which advocates for maintaining church-state separation, has also issued a warning over the new school. The organization represented parents and advocates in a separate case over the school. 

“Religious extremists once again are trying to undermine our country’s promise of church-state separation by forcing Oklahoma taxpayers to fund a religious public school. Not on our watch,” Rachel Laser, president and CEO, said in a press release.

The legal fight over religious charter schools began in 2023, when the Oklahoma Virtual Charter School Board voted 3-2 to approve a charter for St. Isidore, setting off a closely watched case that spanned two years. At the time, the Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City, a nonreligious group, called the charter board’s decision unconstitutional. Rachel Johnson, the group’s executive director, didn’t return calls or emails requesting a comment on Ben Gamla’s proposal.

None of the members who originally voted on St. Isidore serves on the state’s new Oklahoma Charter School Board. But for one person involved with Ben Gamla’s application, this is familiar territory. Brett Farley is on the proposed school’s board, according to a letter of intent the foundation submitted to the charter board in November.

Farley once held a top position with the and is also executive director of the Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, which focuses on public policy issues involving the church. While preparing the St. Isidore application, with Notre Dame law Professor Nicole Stelle Garnett, whose scholarly work formed the basis of the legal argument for the school.

�Ҳ����Ա�ٳ�’s is that nonprofits running charter schools are like private contractors, and as with other publicly funded programs, can’t be excluded just because they are religious. She’s also close friends with Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who recused herself from the St. Isidore case. Experts speculated that Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the three liberals on the court, resulting in the 4-4 tie.

‘Passion for religious freedom’

The virtual school, the intent letter says, would initially enroll about 40 students, focusing on “college readiness, while developing deep Jewish knowledge, faith and values within a supportive learning community.”

But some are surprised Deutsch isn’t making his bid for a Jewish charter school in Florida, where his existing, non-religious charter schools have thrived.

“I think Florida could be a good option given the new attorney general’s passion for ,” said Daniel Aqua, the director of special projects at Teach Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for Jewish education

The demand for a Jewish charter school would be much higher in Florida, which has Jewish population of nearly 762,000, compared with about 9,000 in Oklahoma. 

Charter founders in Florida submit their applications to local school districts first. The state recently added as authorizers, but Oklahoma, where organizers directly with the state charter board, offers a more streamlined process. 

‘Public Christian school’

But efforts to create publicly-funded religious schools are not limited to the charter sector. A new school in Colorado, Riverstone Academy, calls itself the state’s “first public Christian school.” Now serving 30 students in Pueblo, south of Colorado Springs, Riverstone is what is sometimes referred to as a “contract” school because districts sign agreements with private organizations to provide education services. In this case, Education reEnvisioned, one of the state’s 21 boards of cooperative educational services, or BOCES, authorized the school. 

In October, the Colorado Department of Education warned Ken Witt, the BOCES’ executive director, that the school’s per-student funding is at risk because it is “not operating in a nonsectarian nature.” The letter also went to District 49, near Colorado Springs, one of Education reEnvisioned’s member districts. 

In a response, Witt wrote that he was “alarmed at the threat” that the school might not receive funding. “We did not and legally cannot discriminate against this school on account of its religious affiliation,” he wrote. Examining Riverstone’s curriculum to determine if the school is truly sectarian, he said, would be “unconstitutionally entangling and discriminatory against different forms of religion.”

Witt told ����Ӱ�� that funding usually doesn’t flow from the state to a new school until January, so it’s too soon to know whether officials will withhold funds.

‘Keep coming back’ 

“You’re going to see those within the charter sector and outside of it basically taking the same approach” — arguing that private groups delivering religious instruction can’t be denied public funds, said Preston Green, an education professor at the University of Connecticut. 

To Green, Riverstone’s identity as a “contract” school calls to mind a 1982 case, one that Garnett and other proponents of religious charter schools often highlight when they say that charters are not “state actors.” In , the Supreme Court said a Massachusetts private school that received public funds for educating teens with behavior problems did not act under the “color of state law” when it fired six employees. 

The question, experts say, is not if, but when the Supreme Court will eventually see another case about religious public schools Justice Barrett won’t have the same reason to recuse herself, Green said, and he’s not convinced that Roberts would side with the liberals a second time.

The advocates, he said, “keep coming back at this because they think that they’ll get the votes.”

The 61-year-old retiree and former cop — who had a penchant for posting provocative progressive memes that made him stand out in his deeply conservative community southwest of Nashville — was to shoot up a local school. 

The evidence, which the county’s elected sheriff used to hold Bushart in a cell on a $2 million bond until last week, is a meme accusing President Donald Trump of dismissing the lives lost in a 2024 school shooting in Perry, Iowa, while pushing punishment for critics of slain right-wing pundit Charlie Kirk.

The charges were dropped and Bushart was released from the Perry County Jail in Linden, Tennessee, only after Sheriff Nick Weems acknowledged in a TV interview that Weems initially claimed that Bushart’s post set off “mass hysteria” that he was plotting a shooting at the local Perry County High School. 

The high-profile arrest appears to be part of a broader crackdown by Republican lawmakers — including the Trump administration — on Americans whose social media posts about Kirk’s killing they found to be offensive. Among them are in violation of the First Amendment for online posts about Kirk’s Sept. 10 death. Bushart’s case is an extreme example, civil rights advocates said, and may be the only one where someone has wound up in handcuffs. He

“This guy should never have been arrested in the first place, but the second that there was real scrutiny of the meme that he posted — and it was very apparent that he was not in any way suggesting that he intended to commit a school shooting or anything like that — he should have been released immediately,” said Brian Hauss, an American Civil Liberties Union senior staff attorney who focuses on free speech issues and called Bushart’s arrest “an absolute travesty.” 

Bushart’s arrest calls attention to applying strict penalties for school shooting threats and mandating police officer involvement in campus threat assessments intended to ferret out students with violent plans before they act. The bipartisan laws, passed in the wake of the 2023 mass school shooting at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, have led to a wave of student arrests and have similarly become the subject of . 

The state’s new and “incredibly broad” laws can be used as a “convenient tool,” Hauss said, for law enforcement officials with “political grudges to settle.” 

Weems, himself an avid Facebook user who warned after Kirk’s death that “evil could be standing right beside you in the grocery store,” didn’t respond to interview requests. Neither did Bushart nor the local school district. 

While Bushart’s school days are long behind him, his case is a prime example of why police shouldn’t be “part of the broader role of educators” in scrutinizing students’ behaviors to distinguish an “off-the-cuff remark of a frustrated student” from a threat of violence, said Dan Losen, a senior director at the National Center for Youth Law who has spent more than two decades researching school discipline policies and the so-called school-to-prison pipeline.  

“Once the police are involved, they’re entrenched,” Losen said, adding that officers can make arrests even without the support of educators on threat assessment teams. While law enforcement should be called in threatening circumstances, he said there’s a greater risk for “law enforcement to abuse their authority” if they’re regularly asked to evaluate student conduct through a policing mindset. 

“They can, at any point, decide that a student is a threat,” Losen said. “They can go after people that they don’t like — they can go after their kids.”

Losen said he initially saw value in school-based threat assessments as “a clear process” to evaluate students’ conduct and react appropriately. In recent years, however, he’s come to believe the research supporting the model lacks rigor and that it’s led to a surge in unjust suspensions and arrests —

‘I don’t care, I want him arrested’

In states across the country, police officers have become routinely involved in evaluating students’ behaviors and motives as members of formal campus-based behavioral threat assessment teams. School-based threat assessments have become mainstream, particularly in the aftermath of the 2018 mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Schools nationally have assembled teams of teachers, mental health officials, police and other campus adults to identify students who pose safety threats and intervene with counseling and other services — and sometimes arrests — before anyone commits violence. 

Such teams are used in 85% of schools across the U.S., by the nonprofit Learning Policy Institute. Forty-five states have policies that establish the teams in public schools, the report states, and 20 have laws requiring them. 

District leaders have also turned to technology for school safety, using artificial intelligence-powered surveillance tools to scan social media websites in search of posts that could spell danger. 

Threat assessments have prompted concerns from civil rights groups that the method could misidentify struggling students as future gunmen and unnecessarily push them into the juvenile justice system. School shootings are statistically rare yet student behaviors that are often factors in threat assessments — like alcohol use and a history of mental health issues — are exceedingly common.

In 2023, Tennessee lawmakers passed rules requiring every school to have threat assessment teams that included police officers. That same year, lawmakers established mandatory yearlong expulsions for students who make violent threats against schools. In 2024, lawmakers increased the penalty for threats against schools from a misdemeanor to a felony. Georgia and New Mexico have since . 

The changes have led to , according to reporting by The Tennessean. Last year, 518 students statewide were arrested under the new law, 71 of them between the ages of 7 and 11. Some of the arrests were preceded, the outlet reported, by ill-advised jokes and statements erroneously perceived as threats. 

In one case, a high school student was arrested for allegedly making a “Hitler salute” and, despite a lack of evidence, the principal said “I don’t care, I want him arrested.” The teen was reportedly taken into custody, strip-searched and placed in solitary confinement at the local juvenile jail. 

When speech becomes a ‘true threat’

The rate of school shootings has surged in recent years, yet early interventions have received credit for saving lives in several instances. 

In September, the nonprofit Sandy Hook Promise — which was formed in the wake of the 2012 mass school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 20 first graders and six school staffers dead — boasted of .

A high school student reported to the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System “detailed threats on social media,” to shoot up a local school complete with images of ammunition, a mapped-out attack plan and access to a gun, according to the nonprofit, which notified a local school district response team. The student who made the alleged threats was ultimately detained by the police. 

Sandy Hook Promise claims the incident is the 19th planned school shooting they’ve prevented since 2018. School shootings are , a majority of whom leak their violent plans to people around them in advance, offering officials a window to act. 

Mo Canady, the executive director of the nonprofit National Association of School Resource Officers, said the police play a critical role in assessing school threats and preventing campus violence. Canady acknowledged that social media, in particular, “is not an easy environment to navigate” when trying to decipher whether someone’s speech constitutes a threat.

But the focus needs to be placed on keeping campuses safe, he said, rather than “being hyperfocused on, ‘Oh my gosh, am I violating someone’s First Amendment rights?” 

“People have a right to say what they want to say, but there are also consequences at times to what they say,” Canady said. “From a behavioral threat assessment standpoint, I don’t think there’s ever an intent there to try to squish anyone’s First Amendment rights. That’s not what this is about.”

In its new report on school-based threat assessments, the Learning Policy Institute concluded that the approach appears effective in preventing violence at schools where it’s implemented with high fidelity and where educators receive instruction from expert trainers. In the absence of adequate staff and training, educators often turn to suspensions, expulsions and arrests to handle students who are viewed as problematic. 

Poorly designed assessments have led to concerns they “may target and potentially traumatize the most vulnerable students, including through the exclusion and criminalization of historically marginalized students.” 

It also called for additional research into threat assessments, noting that much of the existing evidence supporting them comes from a team of University of Virginia researchers who developed a model used in schools nationwide. In one 2021 study, resulted in low student disciplinary rates and didn’t exhibit racial disparities in outcomes. 

Psychologist Dewey Cornell, the principal author of the university’s Comprehensive School Threat Assessment Guidelines, declined an interview request, but argued that First Amendment implications were rare.

“Free speech objections to threat assessment don’t come up very often in school threat settings,” Cornell wrote ����Ӱ�� in an email. “There is case law on how threats are excluded from free speech protections.” 

The Supreme Court has set a high bar for what constitutes a “true threat,” and the Cato Institute, the libertarian think tank, said Bushart’s Facebook post fell . In a 1969 Supreme Court opinion, the group noted, the nation’s top court “made it crystal clear that only true threats are exempt from the freedom of speech — not hyperbole and political bombast.”

 In 2023, the Supreme Court further strengthened First Amendment protections, finding someone can only make a “true threat” if they knowingly disregard a “substantial risk” that their speech would cause harm. 

In Bushart’s case, it doesn’t matter whether the sheriff’s actions were the result of a misunderstanding about the intent behind the Facebook post or an effort to censor speech he found objectionable, the ACLU’s Hauss said. The monthlong confinement violated the Tennessee citizen’s constitutional rights. 

Hauss said he understands “the very serious security concerns when it comes to school shootings.” But campus safety matters, he said, “should not be left up to people who can’t distinguish political speech from threats of violence.”

Memphis students with dyslexia will start receiving targeted reading support this school year through the district’s first universal intervention program in an effort to increase state test scores.

Under a nearly $540,000 contract approved by the Memphis-Shelby County school board last month, an outside literacy company will boost support for nearly 5,000 students who show characteristics of dyslexia. But one local reading expert noted that many students struggle with comprehension, which needs intervention beyond foundational skills.

MSCS is required by state law to screen every student for signs of dyslexia, such as difficulty connecting letters with sounds. But Tennessee allows only to students, in order to trigger state and federal disability services.

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Jo Anna McCall, an education consultant for Utah-based Reading Horizons, the literacy company contracted by the district, said the end goal of the program is to increase MSCS scores on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, or TCAP. .

McCall said students with characteristics of dyslexia often get “lost in the shuffle” of general classroom instruction.

“Many have fallen through the cracks, and it’s going too fast for them, and so we have to slow down,” she said.

In an Aug. 26 board meeting, MSCS leaders said Reading Horizons will train at least one district staff member per school building to run small group tutoring sessions using the company’s dyslexia-focused curriculum by the end of the school year.

It’s unclear who exactly will receive that training or when they will run the 30-minute intervention sessions recommended by the company.

Reading Horizons’ method is based in the science of reading, a literacy strategy focused on phonics and fluency that has gained traction in education systems in recent years. Laura Kelly, a Rhodes College education professor who specializes in elementary literacy, said MSCS already uses the science of reading in its classroom curriculum.

“So my question is, what is this adding that their existing curriculum doesn’t already have?” she said.

Focusing on foundational phonics skills will help students with dyslexia, Kelly said. But she worries that won’t translate into improvement on comprehension skills – which means it’s unlikely to boost TCAP scores.

“TCAP is not a phonics test; it’s a comprehension test,” Kelly said. “And there is a good chunk of kids that master foundational skills, and then they still don’t comprehend what they’re reading.”

McCall said Reading Horizons’ method does go beyond phonics skills, including time in each lesson to read and write sentences or passages of text.

The company’s method is unique, she said, because of a “marking system” that helps students sound out words. Students mark vowels with x’s, break words into syllables, and follow simple pronunciation rules that McCall says guide about 75% of English words.

“I think of this as training wheels on a bicycle,” McCall said. “As students are learning the patterns to the word, they’re going to have these markings. And then when they read passages, the marks won’t be there, but they can apply them when they come to an unfamiliar word.”

According to Reading Horizons’ contract, the company will provide scripted manuals, flashcards, and longer texts targeted to skills students are learning. There will also be one six-hour training for chosen MSCS staff and one-day targeted coaching budgeted at $3,000 each for 30 sessions.

MSCS Director of Curriculum Amy Maples said the district is investing the “bare minimum” funding level for Reading Horizons’ program, which company leaders said cuts out additional training and coaching sessions for school staff.

But Maples said MSCS could invest more in the program after the first year depending on results. The contract with Reading Horizons has the option for renewal through 2030.

District leaders will also be screening more students for characteristics of dyslexia this year, according to an emailed statement sent to Chalkbeat.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at .

With only a week until school starts, local early childhood education nonprofit Porter-Leath needs to fill 250 staff positions and nearly 3,000 student seats as Memphis’ new sole Head Start provider.

Porter-Leath announced last Monday that it’s taking over the five-year contract and the nearly $30 million annual federal grant from Memphis-Shelby County Schools. The district lost the contract after repeated safety violations.

The changeup leaves Porter-Leath with only a week to transition before the school year starts on Aug. 4. And families who previously signed up with MSCS for the upcoming school year need to apply again, said Vice President of Development Robert Hughes. The district didn’t explain how it plans to communicate that to parents.

“Time is a huge challenge,” Hughes said.

Over 700 families applied for acceptance last week, he said, and the organization is throughout the month of August.

Hughes also said Porter-Leath is expanding partnerships with other community organizations like First 8 Memphis to open new Head Start sites “for space reasons.” The nonprofit currently operates five centers of its own.

During the first enrollment event Friday, Family Services Manager Tracy Jackson said over 100 families showed up to Porter-Leath’s American Way center for support before 11 a.m.

For the past four years, MSCS has run the free federal pre-K program for low-income families. But funding from the federal Administration for Children and Families went up for grabs this spring because , according to The Daily Memphian. The district received including teachers who “hit, pulled and grabbed children by the neck.”

In an email to Chalkbeat, MSCS confirmed that it will not receive any Head Start funding this school year.

But the district will still provide “high-quality early learning opportunities” to 3,340 students, the email said, primarily four-year-olds, through funding from the .

MSCS did not say whether it would need to lay off any staff. In an earlier press release, district officials said the transition will affect 23 childcare providers.

“While the loss of Head Start funding has required adjustments to our staffing model, we are working diligently to retain as many team members as possible through reassignment and redeployment into roles supported by [the] Early Childhood Department,” the recent email said.

Last year, Porter-Leath served around 1,500 children in its Early Head Start program for children up to 3 years old and other pre-K models. And until , the district paid the nonprofit around two-thirds of its grant award to serve as a partner in offering Head Start services.

Porter-Leath was one of 13 providers nationwide to be in 2023. Hughes credits most of the organization’s success to its early education staff, and the focus on professional development.

“​​We’re not just like, ‘Hey, you’re hired. Go for it,’” he said. “We’re not asking somebody to rely on what they learned in school 25 years ago with no additional support. And that pays off in the classroom.”

Hughes said Porter-Leath also puts additional adults in its classrooms and centers through outside partnerships with AmeriCorps, including its “foster grandparents” program.

“Having extra adults in the classroom and in the centers makes a huge difference obviously, for our teachers, knowing that there’s a third set of eyes,” he said.

Starting Friday, Porter-Leath will begin hosting job fairs specifically for former MSCS Head Start employees, which will run every Wednesday and Friday through August.

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at .

Penny Schwinn, in line to serve as second in command of the U.S. Department of Education, has withdrawn from the nomination, Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced Thursday.

Instead, the former Tennessee education commissioner will take on a different role for the department.

“I am grateful to Dr. Schwinn for her commitment to serving students, families, and educators across the nation,” McMahon said in a statement. “Penny is a brilliant education mind and I look forward to continuing working with her as my chief strategist to make education great again.”

Schwinn, in a statement, said she gave the decision “thoughtful consideration” and said she will  “remain committed to protecting kids, raising achievement and expanding opportunity  —  my lifelong mission and north star.”

Considered a champion for improving reading outcomes and high-dosage tutoring, Schwinn was among President Donald Trump’s early picks for department posts. Many perceived her as a more bipartisan choice than others joining the administration, but among Tennessee conservatives, many who felt she was too liberal, opposition to her nomination was strong.

The timing of Schwinn’s withdrawal couldn’t be worse, according to some conservatives. 

“Her decision to remove herself from consideration to become deputy secretary hurts students, educators, and the Trump administration,” said Jim Blew, co-founder of the Defense of Freedom Institute, a think tank. “Secretary McMahon has been charged by Congress and the president with huge tasks under the One Big Beautiful Bill and several urgent executive orders.”

As head of the Education Department, McMahon is striving to turn more authority over education to the states. It’s now unclear who will step into the deputy position and take the lead on the state’s requests for more flexibility over education funding. At least two states, Iowa and Oklahoma, have already submitted requests for block grants, and is currently gathering comments from the public in preparation for a similar proposal. Kirsten Baesler, North Dakota’s long-time education chief, is currently awaiting confirmation to be assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education at the department. In February, she joined 11 other GOP chiefs in asking McMahon for greater freedom to direct education funds toward state-level needs.

Controversies and questions over Schwinn’s conservative qualifications have followed her for years. Far-right groups, including Moms for Liberty, said her past support for equity initiatives, like hiring more , was evidence that she was not a good fit for an administration determined to eliminate such programs. Others remained angry over Schwinn’s pandemic-era plan to conduct “well-being” . Even though she scrapped the plan, parents and members of the legislature considered it an example of government overreach.

More recently, Steve Gill, a conservative commentator in Tennessee, that while she was deputy superintendent of the Texas Education Agency, Schwinn recommended individuals who advocate for comprehensive sex education, including , to advise the state on health curriculum. 

Gill told ����Ӱ�� he shared his TriStar Daily about her stance on these issues with Tennessee Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, as well as the state’s congressional delegation. Blackburn, who is expected to run for governor next year, was considered a possible no vote for Schwinn.

According to Gill, Blackburn’s office “has been working tirelessly behind the scenes with the White House, Secretary Linda McMahon and Majority Leader [John] Thune to block the confirmation.”

But Madi Biedermann, spokeswoman for the department, said the agency “strongly disagrees with that characterization.”

Blew said it’s unfortunate that politics got in the way, noting that Schwinn’s experience in both blue and red states would have brought valuable expertise to the Ed Department role. In addition to her jobs in Tennessee and Texas, Schwinn founded a charter school in Sacramento and also served in the Delaware Department of Education.

“It’s sad that a handful of demagogues are standing in the way of giving Secretary McMahon the team she needs to succeed,” he said.

Others praised Schwinn’s record of prioritizing the science of reading in Tennessee schools and directing COVID relief funds toward tutoring.

“This is a setback for all who want to see Washington slashing red tape, advancing literacy and fighting for common sense values,” said Rick Hess, director of education policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

For some critics, Schwinn’s business ventures since leaving the top spot in Tennessee two years ago raised questions as she waited to appear before the Senate education committee. 

In June, a day ahead of her joint hearing with three other nominees, ����Ӱ�� reported that shortly after Trump tapped her for the job, she registered a new education consulting business in Florida, New Horizon BluePrint Group, with a longtime colleague. Before Schwinn filed ethics paperwork with the federal government, her sister replaced her as a manager on the business. 

When a reporter from ����Ӱ�� asked questions about the new project, Donald Fennoy, her colleague and a former superintendent of the Palm Beach County School District, dissolved the business.

Ethics experts say candidates for an administration post often distance themselves from new business entanglements to avoid any appearance of a conflict, but Schwinn has faced accusations of poor judgment before.

While she was in Texas, the state agency signed a $4.4 million in 2017 with a software company where she had a “professional relationship” with a subcontractor, according to a state audit. And in Tennessee, the education agency made an in 2021 , a teacher training organization where her husband was employed at the time. Lawmakers considered the deal a “”

“Ethics was a crucial concern,” said J.C. Bowman, executive director and CEO of Professional Educators of Tennessee, a non-union organization. He was among those who sent letters to the Senate, asking them to remove her from consideration. “Her personal business interests and possible conflicts could potentially influence educational decisions in ways that many found difficult to overlook.”

Clarification: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized the role Penny Schwinn will take on in lieu of serving as the deputy education secretary. Schwinn will be taking on an advisory role at the Education Department.

The committee also voted to move the nomination of Kimberly Richey to lead the Office for Civil Rights. A conservative civil rights lawyer, Richey served in the second Bush and first Trump administrations.

The votes for both nominees fell along strict party lines, 12 to 11. 

“These nominees are crucial to enacting President Trump’s pro-America agenda,” Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chairs the committee, said in a statement.

With the Senate focused on passing President Donald Trump’s tax bill and roughly 200 nominations awaiting a vote, it could be several weeks before both are confirmed.

Schwinn would oversee K-12 policy. During a June confirmation hearing, she expressed support for a more hands-off approach from Washington while also strengthening reading instruction based on science.

A week after the hearing, she participated in at a Nashville charter school with Education Secretary Linda McMahon to promote one of the Trump administration’s top priorities — school choice. The visit came as the department has increased funding for charters while proposing over $4 billion in cuts to other programs. 

If confirmed, Richey would take over a civil rights office with a much leaner staff following mass firings in March and recommendations from McMahon for further reductions. She vowed to continue the department’s actions against schools that permit antisemitic demonstrations and allow trans students to use facilities or compete in sports consistent with their gender identity. 

Those views have drawn opposition to her nomination from civil rights groups that advocate for LGBTQ students. In advance of Thursday’s vote, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, along with 45 other organizations, sent senators saying Richey “has not demonstrated a willingness and ability to enforce civil rights law and protect all students in our country from discrimination.”

Some hope she’ll prioritize disability complaints. As acting assistant secretary for civil rights during the pandemic, she into districts that failed to provide students with disabilities services written into their individual education programs.  

“She was responsive during the first Trump term and pushed through the COVID complaints,” said Callie Oettinger, a special education advocate in Fairfax County, Virginia.

‘She has Linda McMahon’s ear’

While Richey’s track record fits squarely within the Trump administration’s ultra-conservative agenda, many education insiders view Schwinn as a moderate who largely avoided culture war clashes while holding schools and students accountable for progress in reading. 

Unlike McMahon, Schwinn has always worked in education. The California native founded a charter school in Sacramento in 2011 and held top positions in Delaware and Texas before Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee appointed her commissioner in 2019. 

“Penny has the strongest literacy chops of any state supe I’ve known, and she has Linda McMahon’s ear and trust,” said Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. 

But tends to follow her. Under her leadership in Tennessee, was higher than normal. Conservatives who calling on senators not to confirm Schwinn argue that she holds progressive views on educational equity and proposed an unpopular effort to conduct “well-being” checks on students during the pandemic. 

Others question her judgement, pointing to incidents in which and directed no-bid contracts to companies where Schwinn had personal connections, including her husband, Paul Schwinn.

But those complaints didn’t sway Republicans on the committee, and Pondiscio dismissed the backlash to Schwinn as “B.S.” In a February commentary, he that her “conservative critics want a culture warrior, not an administrator focused on competent governance and delivering results.”

���’s who hope her confirmation brings more attention to core education issues.
“If you see the secretary spending her time on curriculum and instruction,” he said, “that will be Penny’s thumbprint.”

“My mind was blown,” said Fagerburg. “I had no idea education could be this good.”

She applied to open her own Acton Academy, and was accepted into the fast-growing network of approximately 300 independently-operated schools, emphasizing learner-driven education. Fagerburg launched last fall with 13 students, including four of her own children. Today, she has 26 K-6 students enrolled in her secular microschool, with plans to add a middle school and high school program in the coming years. “Parents want this. They love it,” said Fagerburg, adding that some families drive up to 45 minutes each way for their children to attend her program. 

She says she sees enormous demand for the Acton Academy model, and hopes to open more locations in Tennessee, but access is a key concern. “I grew up poor,” said Fagerburg. “I never would have been able to attend a school like this.” 

With the current expansion of school choice programs, such as Tennessee’s new universal education savings accounts (ESA), many more families are able to access innovative schools and learning models. “It’s a complete game changer,” said Fagerburg, explaining how the ESA program enables Tennessee families who previously had limited education choices to now use a portion of state-allocated education funding to select the school or learning space that is best for their child. 

But there’s a catch. In order to participate in Tennessee’s ESA program, Fagerburg’s school must be accredited, and its current accreditation by the , isn’t recognized by the state. 

That is why Fagerburg jumped at the opportunity to participate in a fledgling program offered through the (MSA), one of the four major K-12 accreditation entities, with 3,200 member schools worldwide. In with Stand Together Trust, MSA’s Next Generation Accreditation pilot program seeks to offer a faster, more affordable, and more flexible route toward accreditation for today’s emerging schools. 

“We created this flexible protocol around how a school actually works,” said Christian Talbot, President and CEO of MSA. “That gives mostly microschools, but really any innovative school, the opportunity to tell their story with the production of evidence that makes the most sense to them.” 

Talbot offered the example of a hypothetical urban “place-based” learning environment, with no designated school building and students taking classes at various museums, public parks, and historic sites throughout a city. “That school is going to have the opportunity to describe the learning environment in ways that existing accreditation protocols really don’t allow because you have to have a certificate of occupancy, or a lease, or some other thing that is tied to this mental model we have that school has to be in a building,” said Talbot. 

He emphasized that these innovative schools are “meeting all of the exact same standards of accreditation” as conventional schools, but they are able to demonstrate these standards in ways that reflect the ingenuity of their models. 

MSA is the world’s second-oldest accrediting agency. It launched more than a century ago, as interest grew from schools and colleges for independent, third-party verifiers of quality. For higher education, accreditation eventually became a requirement for U.S. colleges and universities to participate in federal student financial aid programs, but at the K-12 level, mandatory accreditation is less common. 

Most states don’t require schools — public or private — to be accredited, but some schools choose to become accredited to earn an external “seal of approval,” which may help them to attract and retain students and educators. With the expansion of school-choice programs nationwide in recent years, certain states, such as Tennessee and Texas, require accreditation in order for a school to participate in these programs.

Cammy Herrera had been exploring the possibility of accreditation for her secular microschool , in Mansfield, Texas, well before the state introduced a new universal school-choice program this spring. A former public school teacher, Herrera had been running a licensed in-home preschool for more than a decade when she decided in 2021 to add a Montessori-inspired school-age program. She now serves over 50 students through middle school, with plans to open a high school if she can find a larger space to accommodate more students.

For Herrera, accreditation was appealing as a signal of quality, but she felt that most existing accrediting organizations took a traditional view of education that didn’t reflect her personalized, flexible approach. 

“Our school is so different. We are not trying to fit into a one-size-fits-all box when it comes to schooling,” said Herrera, whose students are technically considered homeschoolers. They can attend her school full-time at an annual tuition of $10,250, or customize their enrollment based on their own learning needs. Tuition for Herrera’s two-day-a-week option is about $4,000 annually. “Whoever we get accredited through has to believe in our vision and has to be on board with what makes our school special because we don’t want our school to lose that special part that makes us different from a traditional school,” she said. 

When Herrera learned about the MSA’s pilot accreditation program for microschools, she eagerly applied. Next Generation Accreditation would offer Herrera that third-party validation she has been seeking while retaining her program’s originality. It would also enable her to participate in Texas’s new school choice program, should she choose. 

MSA hopes to run the Next Generation Accreditation pilot with 10 to 15 innovative schools over the next several months to learn more about these schools’ distinct needs and structures, and then iterate and adapt protocols to provide a valuable accreditation pathway for today’s creative schooling models. 

As the creator of the Facebook group, Herrera sees mounting interest in microschooling and the diverse educational models and methods that the movement fosters. She thinks that accreditation options that reflect this diversity can be beneficial to founders and families who value that credential, or who need it to participate in certain school-choice programs. But she also warns of potential drawbacks: “There are all these special schools, and if everybody has to follow the same standards to be accredited, then I think they’ll be more alike than different. That’s the only thing I could see being a downfall.”

Disclosure: Stand Together Trust provides financial support to ����Ӱ��.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a potential landmark decision, upheld Tennessee’s law prohibiting gender affirming care for minors, saying children who seek the treatment don’t qualify as a protected class.

In United States v. Skrmetti, the high court overturning a lower court’s finding that the restrictions violate the constitutional rights of children seeking puberty blockers and hormones to treat gender dysphoria. The U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the district court’s decision and sent it to the high court.

The court’s three liberal justices dissented, writing that the court had abandoned transgender children and their families to “political whims.”

Tennessee lawmakers passed the legislation in 2023, leading to a lawsuit argued before the Supreme Court last December. The federal government, under the Biden administration, took up the case for the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and three transgender teens, their families and a Memphis doctor who challenged the law, but the U.S. Department of Justice under President Donald Trump dropped its opposition.

In its ruling, the court said that the plaintiffs argued that Senate Bill 1 “warrants heightened scrutiny because it relies on sex-based classifications.” But the court found that neither of the classifications considered, those based on age and medical use, are determined on sex.

“Rather, SB1 prohibits healthcare providers from administering puberty blockers or hormones to minors for certain medical uses, regardless of a minor’s sex,” the ruling states.

The ruling says the application of the law “does not turn on sex,” either, because it doesn’t prohibit certain medical treatments for minors of one sex while allowing it for minors of the opposite sex.

The House Republican Caucus issued a statement saying, “This is a proud day for the Volunteer State and for all who believe in protecting the innocence and well-being of America’s children. Tennessee House Republicans are pleased by the court’s courage to stand firm against ideology that denies biological reality. The sterilization and disfigurement of children will no longer be normalized. As we celebrate the precedent set by this decision, we remain committed to leading the nation in safeguarding the health, safety and future of all children.”

Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, who sponsored the bill, said he is grateful the court ruled that states hold the authority to protect children from “irreversible medical procedures.”

“The simple message the Supreme Court has sent the world is ‘enough is enough,’” Johnson said in a statement.

The Tennessee Equality Project, an LGBTQ advocacy group, expressed dismay at the decision: “We are profoundly disappointed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to side with the Tennessee legislature’s anti-transgender ideology and further erode the rights of transgender children and their families and doctors. We are grateful to the plaintiffs, families, and the ACLU for fighting on behalf of more than across the nation.”

The group said gender-affirming care saves lives and is supported by medical groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association.

The court also rejected plaintiffs’ argument that the law enforces “a government preference that people conform to expectations about their sex.” 

The court found that laws that classify people on the basis of sex require closer scrutiny if they involve “impermissible stereotypes.” But if the law’s classifications aren’t covertly or overtly based on sex, heightened review by the court isn’t required unless the law is motivated by “invidious discriminatory purpose.”

“And regardless, the statutory findings on which SB1 is premised do not themselves evince sex-based stereotyping,” the ruling says.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.

Not likely. Yet in Republican-dominated states, that’s exactly what the future holds. This is arguably the most profound change in American education since the development of universal public education over a century ago.

Over the past five years, 14 states have passed laws creating , often known as Education Savings Accounts — public money families can use to pay private school tuition. All are Republican states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. Two more, , have passed refundable tax credits available to all families.

Every family in those states is eligible, or will be within a few years, for somewhere between per student. Counting programs limited to low-income students, more than half of all K-12 students in the U.S. .

This will accelerate the process of the rich getting richer while the poor fall further behind. And now, Republicans in Congress have quietly slipped worth $5,000 per child into their “one big beautiful bill.”

Equal opportunity has always been a fundamental principle of public education: the idea that every child, no matter how poor, would have access to the same quality school. This has long been more an ideal than a reality, but after decades of legal battles, in poor and affluent districts.

States could preserve equal opportunity in a voucher system if parents were barred from topping up vouchers with their own money. But telling Americans they can’t help fund their child’s private school would never fly. So families will add to the value of their vouchers and buy the best education they can afford — because they love their children. 

Other parents will have no money to add. Their kids will attend public schools or the least expensive private schools. And equal opportunity will fly out the window.

Vouchers will segregate students by income, since private school tuition varies widely. Hence, they will no doubt increase segregation by race as well.

Over time, as more and more people use vouchers, the education market in Republican states will stratify by income far more than it does today. It will come to resemble any other market: for housing, automobiles or anything else. The affluent will buy schools that are the equivalent of BMWs and Mercedes; the merely comfortable will choose Toyotas and Acuras; the scraping-by middle class will buy Fords and Chevrolets; and the majority, lacking spare cash, will settle for the equivalent of used cars — mostly public schools.

Meanwhile, the billions spent on vouchers will be subtracted from public school budgets, and the political constituency for public education will atrophy, leading to further cuts.

It’s obvious why vouchers appeal to people who already send their kids to private school, or would like to. But pro-voucher referenda have never won a majority. They have on state ballots, and three of those defeats occurred last fall, even in red states — in .

Yet, GOP funders donate millions to state legislators to support vouchers. And Republican lawmakers are heeding their wishes.

So far, studies have shown in private schools that accept vouchers. This is just common sense: Expensive private schools are often excellent, but cheap private schools are often worse than neighboring public schools.

Yet only one state, Louisiana, denies schools voucher money if their students perform poorly on state standardized tests. In West Virginia, voucher students who fail state tests lose their eligibility for the program. Most states , not even publishing test scores for schools that receive voucher money.

Private schools have the right to select their students, and some will no doubt discriminate — against gay students, transgender students, Muslim students or all of the above. State voucher laws often do not have comprehensive prohibitions against discrimination, and there are reports of bias in Wisconsin’s program, which is only for low-income students.

Finally, recent research suggests another common-sense reality: Heightened demand fueled by vouchers leads schools to .

None of these outcomes would draw support from a majority of Americans. Yet they are happening, and they will surely deepen the growing divide between rich and poor.

Is there an alternative, other than the status quo of struggling public school systems? Indeed there is. States and school districts could reduce bureaucratic controls, empower educators and increase choice, competition and accountability for performance within the public school system, through the spread of charter schools. Cities that have done so, including , have produced some of the nation’s most rapid improvements in student performance.

Voucher advocates are right, in my opinion, to want more choice, more competition, more diversity of school models and more accountability for performance in the nation’s education system. Traditional districts are operating with a centralized, standardized model that emerged more than a century ago, which makes creating quality public schools an uphill battle, particularly in low-income areas.

I also have no problem with vouchers for low-income students who are now trapped in failing public schools. But for too long, American society has been divided — economically, socially and politically — between those fortunate enough to have earned college degrees and those for whom college was out of reach. Turning the K-12 education system into a marketplace, in which the quality of a child’s school depends upon how much their parents can afford to pay, will only widen the gaps between haves and have-nots. Sadly, 16 Republican states have taken a huge step down that path.

Though Democrats probed where she stands on President Donald Trump’s plan to shutter the department, the former Tennessee education commissioner appeared to answer questions to their satisfaction. 

Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire homed in on the administration’s move to end grants to train and hire K-12 school mental health professionals — part of a that passed with bipartisan support. 

“Do you think that what the department did helps or hurts the communities that were counting on the funding that they were promised?” she asked. “If confirmed, do you commit to reigning in the chaos and operational failures that we are seeing at the department?” 

Schwinn said the department will open a new competition for those grants and promised to “have an efficient, effective and outcomes-oriented department.”

She voiced support for Trump’s ultimate goal to eliminate the department and repeatedly said states and local communities are in the best position to make decisions about education. As a charter school founder who served in the Delaware and Texas education agencies before leading Tennessee’s for four years, Schwinn has a reputation for working . She pushed for and using pandemic relief funds to implement a statewide tutoring program. A vote on her confirmation is expected in the coming days.

“What we need to do is ensure that we’ve created a system that is going to drive outcomes,” she told GOP Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana. “That is not going to happen from the federal government, whether there’s a Department of Education or not.”

At the same time, Schwinn implied that there is a role for the department in ensuring states intervene in their lowest-performing schools. 

“There must be a commitment to ensuring that our most struggling schools improve because our students deserve that,” she said.  

A from the Government Accountability Office found that less than half of states are meeting those requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act. Schwinn’s tenure in Tennessee, for example, included overseeing a state turnaround effort known as the Achievement School District. Considering it a failure, the state legislature and will try another approach. 

“There’s real tension there,” Thomas Toch, director of FutureEd, a think tank at Georgetown University, told ����Ӱ��. “Will the Trump administration make a meaningful commitment to school improvement? Or will [Education Secretary Linda] McMahon and her team dodge that responsibility in the name of local control?”

Some observers have called Schwinn a smart pick for her focus on and her attempts to avoid some of the more divisive culture war debates of the post-pandemic era. But to others she has a troubled track record that includes contracts with vendors that gave the of interest. On Wednesday, ����Ӱ�� reported that after Trump nominated her, she registered a new business in Florida with a longtime colleague. While the venture was ultimately dissolved, Schwinn’s sister replaced her as a manager a few weeks before the nominee submitted her financial disclosure documents. 

Some parent groups have vehemently opposed her nomination, viewing her as more left-leaning than most Trump nominees. 

“It amazes me that President Trump would consider Penny Schwinn conservative,” said Tiffany Boyd, a homeschool advocate who opposed Schwinn’s plan to conduct well-being checks on students during the pandemic. Schwinn nixed the idea after strong backlash. Boyd also cited a that focused, in part, on attracting more teachers of color — efforts that the department now says push “illegal diversity, equity and inclusion.”

But none of that surfaced during the hearing. Even Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who has the “left’s indoctrination of students,” opted to skip direct questions to Schwinn and said he would submit them in writing. 

The committee interviewed Schwinn as part of a panel, along with Kimberly Richey, Trump’s choice to lead the Office for Civil Rights, and two Department of Labor nominees. In that format, the senators focused on issues most important to them — for example, Chairman Bill Cassidy emphasized better serving students with dyslexia.

“As the Department of Education streamlines educational funding, how can we ensure that resources are there to identify and address an issue, specifically speaking of dyslexia?” he asked.

Schwinn touted Tennessee’s move to include “characteristics of dyslexia” as a disability category in its state education funding formula and ramp up screening of students’ early reading skills. The federal government, she said, could do a better job of guiding states on this issue and sharing lessons from states that have posted the greatest gains in literacy, like and Louisiana.

Some advocates are eager to have an educator who prioritized reading instruction at the department. 

“We love her track record of improving student outcomes in Tennessee and talking a bit more technically about literacy and the science of reading — which we think having leadership on the federal level around is going to be key,” said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Foundation. 

But she stressed that it was , now at risk under the Trump administration, that informed those improvements.

“The research and the funding for all these ‘state miracles,’ ” she said, “come from regional and federal efforts — which I think a lot of folks are forgetting.” 

The business venture never got off the ground, but the arrangement could raise ethical issues for Schwinn as she heads before the Senate education committee for confirmation Thursday.

The colleague with whom she co-founded the business, Donald Fennoy, told ����Ӱ�� in an interview that the enterprise, named New Horizon BluePrint Group, was intended to combine their expertise as education leaders. Fennoy, the former superintendent of the Palm Beach County School District, was to consult with districts, while Schwinn, who has experience in Delaware, Texas and most recently as Tennessee’s education commissioner, would focus on state leadership. The pair have known each other for a decade, Fennoy said, meeting when they were part of the 2015-16 class of the Broad Academy, an education leadership program.

But the business does not appear among financial ties outlined in mandatory disclosure documents Schwinn submitted to the Office of Government Ethics on March 24. One reason could be that three weeks earlier, Schwinn’s sister, , replaced her as manager of the business, according to state documents. Sully, a former assistant principal at a Texas charter school, has far less educational experience than Schwinn or Fennoy.

On Friday, as ����Ӱ�� began asking Schwinn and the department questions about the venture, Fennoy dissolved the company, documents show, listing “business never started” as the reason.

“Right when we were securing the name, she got a phone call,” Fennoy told ����Ӱ��, referring to the nomination. The plan, he said, was to bring in at least one more leader with district experience and build a team to do work “nationally and internationally.”

On Jan. 18, Trump announced his pick of Schwinn to be the department’s deputy secretary, citing her “strong record of delivering results for children and families.” The LLC wasn’t registered until Feb. 18. 

But pressed for details about why Schwinn registered the business after her nomination, Fennoy appeared confused about the timeline. “This is on what day?” he asked in response to a reporter’s question. He did not respond to additional questions sent by email.

Contacted by ����Ӱ��, Schwinn referred the matter to the Education Department. Madison Bidermann, a department spokesman, declined to address why Schwinn moved forward with a business venture after her nomination and said the nominee “​​worked with the relevant ethics officials and resolved any conflicts.”

Sully did not respond to attempts to contact her over email.

The Florida LLC would have been just one of Schwinn’s many business interests, detailed in the disclosure filed with the federal government. She stated in May that if confirmed, she would divest or resign her positions at multiple companies. 

Historically, potential business conflicts could raise red flags for senators vetting a potential nominee. As deputy secretary, Schwinn would be tasked with overseeing federal policy and a vast network of K-12 programs — the same policy and programs that districts might seek help from a consulting firm to navigate. 

She would also enter the department at a crisis point, as Education Secretary Linda McMahon drastically cuts staff and cancels funding to reach Trump’s goal of eliminating the department. The proposed 2026 budget slashes over $4 billion from K-12 programs, raising concerns that officials won’t be able to carry out their congressionally mandated duties 

‘This administration is unique’

The period between nomination and confirmation is typically a time when candidates distance themselves from financial entanglements and potential conflicts of interest. 

“Once you’re nominated, the typical rule of thumb would be that you kind of slow down,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, interim vice president for policy and government affairs at the Project On Government Oversight, a nonprofit focused on government accountability. “You probably wouldn’t establish a new LLC, for example” 

But Schwinn is not a typical nominee, and this is not a typical administration.

Trump reportedly held an exclusive dinner on May 22 for investors in his , a form of cryptocurrency. As president, he of his business empire. In the midst of negotiations with over punishing U.S. tariffs, for example, the country approved the development of Trump hotels and golf courses. Previous reporting revealed that FBI Director Kash Patel from a Chinese “fast fashion” company, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s wife in companies that contract with that department.

It’s not unusual for administrations to run into trouble with officials who have close ties to the industries they oversee, Hedtler-Gaudette said. In 2022, his group filed a complaint about a in charge of digital services who had investments in the tech industry.

“But this administration is unique,” he said, “and just doesn’t seem to take any of that into consideration.”

Schwinn is also an unusual choice. She has fans among GOP moderates and Democrats. The former and earned respect for toward academic recovery in Tennessee and implementing far-reaching instruction. 

For a Trump nominee, she has also faced a high degree of conservative ire. Some of that is due to her past support for the kind of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives the Trump administration wants to eliminate from schools, like . But accusations of conflicts of interest and other ethical lapses have followed her for years.

They include a $4.4 million that the Texas Education Agency signed in 2017 with SPEDx, a Georgia software startup, despite what a state audit called Schwinn’s “professional relationship” with a subcontractor for the company. At the time, she was a deputy superintendent of the state agency.

Critics also point to an in 2021 that the Tennessee Department of Education signed with TNTP, a teacher training organization where her husband was employed at the time. The state’s procurement office approved the contract and Schwinn agreed to distance herself from the project, but some lawmakers still considered the deal a “”

“ ‘Drain the swamp’ is a phrase coined by President Trump, signifying the removal of corruption and special interests from government,” said J.C. Bowman, executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, a non-union association. “Many conservatives oppose Penny Schwinn’s nomination as deputy secretary of education, believing she embodies the interests they want to eliminate from the agency.” 

Others say she left the state better off. She pushed requirements that districts screen students for reading difficulties and use a phonics-based curriculum. After the state passed a in 2021, roughly 30,000 teachers received in the science of reading. The investments paid off. Tennessee was among the first to see test scores bounce back after the pandemic. Results from show students continue to make gains. 

To many education advocates, she represents the best chance to shift the national department’s focus away from culture war issues and toward bipartisan priorities like improving literacy and maintaining accountability. 

“I certainly wholeheartedly hope she gets approved, and think members on both sides would be gratified by her performance in office,” said Rick Hess, director of education policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. 

Yet dozens of have sent senators letters outlining why they think she’s wrong for the job. They list, for example, her affiliation with Chiefs for Change, made up of left-leaning district and state officials, and cite about her support for they say has elements of critical race theory, which holds that racism in America is systemic.  

Several that Ruby Bridges’ children’s book about being the first Black child to integrate a white elementary school referenced “a large crowd of angry white people.” a first grade book about seahorses was inappropriate because it explains how males carry the eggs.

While never implemented, her plan to conduct “well-being” home visits during the pandemic parents who consider it an example of government overreach.

If the committee advances Schwinn’s nomination, Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican who is running for governor, is expected to vote against her, multiple sources told ����Ӱ��. 

“She’s a Democrat, through and through,” said Elizabeth Story, legislative chair for the Tennessee chapter of Moms for Liberty, the conservative advocacy group that opposes progressive ideas in school about race, sex and gender. “We need President Trump to withdraw her.”

Just after her nomination, she met with anti-DEI activist Chris Rufo in an apparent effort to reassure the Trump administration she would be a good fit. According to on X, she promised to “shut down the terrible programs at the Department of Education, fight critical race theory, gender cultism, and DEI in America’s schools, and support new initiatives on school choice and classical education.”

If she loses the support of some conservatives, she may have to lean on Democrats to secure her nomination.

To Leslie Finger, an assistant political science professor at the University of North Texas, that would be an appropriate finale to a nomination that has veered far from the typical Trump playbook.

“In many ways, she seems opposed to the Trump administration’s education agenda,” she said. “One might think it was meant to show that they want to reach across the aisle on education issues, since she would be supported by bipartisan education reform types. But when has the Trump administration taken actions to signal bipartisanship?”

Since leaving her post as Tennessee commissioner, Schwinn has invested in and been involved with companies at the forefront of education, her disclosure forms show. Those include , an AI reading curriculum program; , a vendor that manages education savings accounts in multiple states; and , an online curriculum and assessment company. She’s also a board member for Really Great Reading, a literacy program used in , and a consultant for , a lobbying firm.

Blake Harris, former communications director for Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, founded BHA, where Schwinn served as chief operating officer until February. Two other LLCs she owns would cease operations, she wrote in a letter to the Education Department. 

John Pelissero, a government ethics expert at Santa Clara University in California, said her financial ties deserve a closer look.

“What she puts down on her disclosure form for her confirmation is always kind of an important starting point for how transparent she will be,” he said. “Scrutiny should be given to whether she has the capacity to demonstrate that she’ll act in the public interest.” 

‘A pragmatist’

Schwinn isn’t the first Trump nominee to face opposition from Republicans. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former majority leader from Kentucky, Hegseth and Health and Human Services Secretary But those objections focused more on the nominees’ qualifications, said Jonathan Collins, an assistant professor of education and political science at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Conservatives’ concerns about Schwinn, “seem like more of a test — or critique — of her loyalty to the new Republican culture war coalition,” he said. “She’s as moderate as it gets. She’s a pragmatist who in no way pushes far-left progressive policies.” 

Under McMahon, the department required states to sign a certification saying they wouldn’t implement DEI programs. The Office for Civil Rights has also prioritized investigations into state and district policies allowing transgender students to in school sports. 

Not all parental rights advocates are opposed to her nomination. 

Moms for America, founded in 2004, is a conservative, Christian organization that shares many of the same values as Moms for Liberty. Last year, the group presented Trump with its .

The organization, however, said Schwinn would make “an excellent choice” for deputy secretary, citing her “extensive experience as an educator, innovator and state leader.”

As the department’s number two, she would oversee K-12 initiatives, which McMahon has said will prioritize the science of reading, school choice and giving states more control over education. 

“She has a proven ability to improve student outcomes, champion school choice, and navigate crises like the pandemic,” the organization said in a statement to ����Ӱ��. “We stand by her candidacy for nomination as deputy education secretary and wish her the best in that role.” 

Disclosure: According to financial disclosure documents filed with the Office of Government Ethics, Penny Schwinn earned $250,000 as a consultant and adviser to the Walton Family Foundation. The foundation provides financial support to ����Ӱ��.

“Even if the feds decide that they’re not going to require statewide assessments, that is not something that I’m going to buy into,” she said. “The moment you lower standards, you do kids a disservice.”

With President Donald Trump on a path to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education and revert power back to the states, Wright’s words gave urgency to a burning issue state leaders have been wrestling with for months.

While Education Secretary Linda McMahon has declared it’s “absolutely” necessary to continue the National Assessment of Educational Progress — which allows the public to compare student performance across states — she’s so far been silent on federal requirements for state testing and the need to identify low-performing schools for extra support. The lack of a plan has left some wondering if sending education “back to the states,” as Trump is fond of saying, means abandoning what has been a mainstay of education policy for more than 20 years.  

“This is one of the discussions that the department, the administration, the Senate and House need to talk through,” said Jim Blew, co-founder of the Defense of Freedom Institute, a right leaning think tank that supports Trump’s agenda. 

A department official during the president’s first term, he argues that the Every Student Succeeds Act, the law that spells out federal requirements for testing and accountability, has had little impact on holding students to high standards. 

“States that do not want to be transparent about their testing results simply aren’t,” he said. “If you don’t believe me, just go and try and find the results for any state.”

As the president’s plan takes shape, some Republicans are trying to remove those annual testing and accountability requirements altogether. Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota reintroduced last week that would not only eliminate the education department, but also repeal ESSA. In exchange for a federal block grant, states would be required to submit student data to the Treasury Department, complete an annual audit and follow civil rights laws — but not conduct annual tests.

The rationale is clear, said Charles Barone, senior director of the Center for Innovation at the National Parents Union: Maintaining some federal authority over testing and accountability could imply there’s still a role for the department.

“Sen. Rounds’ bill simply has federal programs as money streams,” he said. “No policy attached.”

Since the pandemic, a handful of states, like Oklahoma, and , have rolled back expectations for passing state tests. The changes are likely to result in more students reaching grade-level targets even if they haven’t learned more. The trend has revived debate over the “honesty gap” — the discrepancy between NAEP’s higher standard for proficiency and the often lower bar set by states. 

Others, like and education Secretary Aimee Guidera are phasing in tougher assessment and accountability systems. To Blew, that shows the federal government should just stay out of the way. 

“At the end of the day, states are going to determine this,” he said. “Let’s give them the freedom to do that.”

Passed a decade ago, ESSA requires states to test all students in third through eighth grades in reading and math, to assess students once in high school and to ensure at least 95% of students participate in testing. States also have to break down results by race and for different student groups, including those in poverty, English learners and students with disabilities. 

The major components meet the threshold of what Barone describes as the “” for accountability. 

Testing every student allows parents to get assessment results for their own children, which can then be used to determine where students are struggling or if they need more challenging work. 

Disaggregating the results shines a light on how districts serve historically marginalized students — data that is especially important to policymakers and advocacy groups. Finally, a common test allows for apples-to-apples comparisons across schools and districts. 

“Over the years, a consensus has formed that you want certain guardrails in place,” Barone said.  

‘A federal backstop’

Observers don’t expect Rounds’ bill to get very far. But some call it a harbinger of a return to the days , the strict accountability law that preceded ESSA. In the 1990s, just a fraction of states tested students every year and many imposed no consequences for failing schools. 

“I think accountability is already at a pretty low point,” said Cory Koedel, an economics and public policy professor at the University of Missouri. “If things go back to the states even more formally, I would just expect that unwinding to complete itself.”

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who chairs the education committee, is expected to introduce another proposal to eliminate the education department and revamp the role of the federal government in education. Blew said that bill could be weeks away. 

Democrats and some state leaders warn that dumping federal testing and accountability requirements and issuing block grants would allow states to turn their backs on the neediest students.

“If you get rid of accountability, you’re just essentially giving [states] a blank check,” said Stephanie Lalle, communications director for the Democrats on the House education committee. Federal mandates, she said, are how you push them to “not discriminate and incentivize them to close the achievement gap.”

At a February conference on assessment and accountability in Dallas, Virginia ed secretary Guidera shared data showing how her state’s performance on NAEP steadily improved between 2003 and 2013 — the NCLB years. 

The landmark education law, which set strict testing and accountability requirements in exchange for Title I funds, passed in 2002. Data shows the policy led to nationally, but it quickly became highly unpopular. The law set ambitious goals for all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014, but drew considerable pushback from critics who said it led schools to teach to the test. But even if states continue their own testing and accountability systems, Guidera doesn’t want Washington out of the picture.

“We need the federal backstop,” she told ����Ӱ��. “We have to have high standards, and we need to be honest with ourselves about where every child is.” 

‘A rallying cry’

Opposition to standardized testing comes from both the left and the right. Educators grumble that it eats up too much class time and that results from spring tests come back too late to help students or make adjustments for the fall. Others, , say state tests offer a narrow view of student learning. 

The question is what states would do if the federal government were no longer in the picture. In his conversation with Wright and other experts earlier this month, Scott Marion, executive director of the Center for Assessment, leaned on a handy metaphor: a motorcycle cop holding a radar gun. 

“What if nobody was checking your speed?” he asked.

State leaders have been thinking about the possibilities.

Rep. Robert Behning, an Indiana state legislator, said he “would be willing to look at other options, like sampling” — giving tests to a random, representative group of students instead of everyone. can be less of a drain on teachers’ and students’ time and still give the public district and school-level results. But the tradeoff is that most parents would be left in the dark about their children’s performance.  

Other state leaders like the idea of spreading assessments rather than building up toward one big test.

“We’ve got better assessments that tell us more about our students,” Eric Mackey, Alabama state superintendent, said during a in March.  

But research shows there are with arriving at a final score for the year and the model might not reduce testing time.

Marion giving state exams every other year, which would allow more time in the intervening years to employ innovative methods like asking students to complete a project to demonstrate their learning.

Marianne Perie, an assessment expert who advises states on test design, said she wouldn’t be surprised if Oklahoma completely stopped giving statewide assessments. In March, state Superintendent Ryan Walters questioned the integrity of the 2024 results, even though they were included in for districts and schools.

But in other states like Tennessee and Mississippi, annual tests have been “a rallying cry” for parents and policymakers, said Emily Oster, a Brown University economist who tracks states’ . 

Such states “have championed their gains in the last few years,” especially in English language arts, she said. 

Tennessee, for example, was among the first to bounce back from pandemic-era learning loss. At the same time, the fact that roughly 60% of third graders still scored below grade level in reading was worrisome enough to lawmakers that they passed a law requiring students to be retained or get extra help over the summer and retake the test. 

Remote learning during the pandemic and in-depth reporting on poor literacy instruction has also motivated more parents to push for improvements.

“Parents are increasingly demanding accountability from their educational system, which will make sunsetting these assessments more complex,” Oster said.

Roughly value state assessments and think they should be used to guide support for struggling schools and students, according to a National Parents Union poll.

‘Come up with something better’ 

If the federal government does hand more control over assessment and accountability to states, Barone said it’s far more likely to happen through waivers from McMahon than legislation. 

ESSA allows the secretary to excuse states from annual assessments. That’s what former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos did in 2020 during the pandemic. She waived the accountability provisions for both 2020 and 2021. Barone sees no reason why McMahon wouldn’t do the same. 

A former Democratic staffer in the House, he thinks it would be hard to improve on the existing testing regimen. But even he agrees that the accountability side of the equation hasn’t led to measurable progress in how states support — and attempt to turn around — their most troubled schools. 

The law requires states to identify the lowest-performing 5% of schools, analyze why they’re struggling and adopt a proven , like coaching teachers or changing leadership. But a report found that less than half of states were complying with those requirements.

“There’s not a lot of evidence that even those that are doing it are doing it well,” Barone said. Maybe Trump’s planned overhaul of the federal role in education, he said, is an opportunity to “come up with something better.”

More than two dozen Chattanooga business owners are condemning a bill to require student immigration background checks in Tennessee’s public schools as “economically reckless.”

The Tennessee Small Business Alliance represents restaurants, real estate firms, retail stores and other local employers operating within the district represented by Sen. Bo Watson.

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Watson, a Republican, is cosponsoring the legislation to require proof of legal residence to enroll in public K-12 and charter schools.  The bill would also give public schools the option of charging tuition to the families of children unable to prove they legally reside in the United States – or to deny them the right to a public education altogether.

House Leader William Lamberth of Gallatin is a co-sponsor of the bill, which has drawn significant — but not unanimous — support from fellow Tennessee Republicans. Lamberth’s version of the bill differs from Watson’s in that it would make it optional — rather than mandatory — to check students’ immigration status in all of Tennessee’s more than 1700 public schools.

The bill, one of the most controversial being considered during the 2025 Legislative session, has significant momentum as the Legislature winds down for the year even as it has drawn raucous protests at times.  The legislation will next be debated on Monday in a House committee.

A statement released by the business alliance described the legislation as a “political stunt that’s cruel, economically reckless, and completely out of step with local values.”

Citing estimates compiled by the nonprofit advocacy organization, American Immigration Council, the statement noted that more than 430,000 immigrants in Tennessee paid $4.4 billion in taxes – more than $10,000 per immigrant.

Watson, in an emailed statement from Chattanooga public relations firm Waterhouse Public Relations, said his bill “raises important questions about the financial responsibility of educating undocumented students in Tennessee—questions that have long gone unaddressed.”

The statement said the Supreme Court’s 1982 decision in Plyler v. Doe, which established the right to a public school education for all children regardless of immigration status, has “never been re-examined in the context of today’s challenges.” The statement said Watson is committed to a “transparent, fact-driven discussion about how Tennessee allocates its educational resources and how federal mandates impact our state’s budget and priorities.”

Watson has previously also said the legislation was prompted, in part, by the rising costs of English-language instruction in the state’s public schools.

Democrats have criticized that argument as based on inaccurate assumptions that English language learners lack legal immigration status.

Kelly Fitzgerald, founder of a Chattanooga co-working business and one of 27 employers that signed onto the statement of condemnation, criticized lawmakers.

“Do our representatives believe that undocumented children — who had no say in their immigration status — should be denied a public education, even though their families already pay taxes that fund our schools?” said Fitzgerald, whose own children attend Hamilton County Public schools

“My children are receiving a great education in our public schools, and I want every child to have the same rights and opportunities as mine do,” she said.

“In my opinion, this is not something our legislators should be spending their resources on when there are much larger issues at hand in the current environment,” she said. “We should leave children out of the conversation.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.

As , the department told 41 states and the District of Columbia they had another year to spend down the rest of the $122 billion for schools awarded in the 2021 American Rescue Plan. Among the biggest potential losers from McMahon’s move are Texas and Pennsylvania, which have well over $200 million in unspent funds, according to a department spreadsheet shared by a source close to the department. The source asked not to be named to protect former staff members from retaliation. Several more states, including Ohio, New York and Tennessee, have over $100 million left over.

In a letter to state chiefs, Education Secretary Linda McMahon called it “unreasonable” for them to rely on those earlier decisions. She said she might reconsider if states can make a stronger case for how their projects continue to address COVID’s impact.

“We’ve seen a lot of receipts and reimbursement requests coming in that just aren’t aligned with what students need in this moment,” a senior department official told ����Ӱ��. The official asked to remain anonymous to speak freely about the department’s decision. The administration wants to “make sure that funds are still being spent to fix student learning loss.”

The official cited a $1 million window replacement and an order of “glow balls” as examples, but declined to name the district that ordered the balls and offered no additional information on their price or how schools planned to use them. 

The department, however, will pay any invoices that were submitted before Friday at 5 p.m. Most of those are tied to extensions from the second COVID relief package, which included $58 billion in education spending, the official said. The deadline to spend those funds was Monday. 

In total, Congress approved about $200 billion in school relief funds. While states and districts spent the vast majority — — by the end of January, they asked for more time to deal with supply chain delays, labor shortages and the fact that student performance has largely not recovered from the pandemic. McMahon’s action, some experts say, should not have come as a complete shock given by many Republicans that districts failed to make the most of the unprecedented infusion of money. 

But the action leaves states and districts in the lurch, having spent millions of dollars of their own funds and signed contracts with vendors tied to the promise of reimbursement from the education department. 

Some leaders are pleading with McMahon to reconsider.

“This abrupt change in course will slow efforts and, in many cases, grind them to a halt,” Maryland state Superintendent Carey Wright said in a statement. Her state risks losing over $400 million in funding for K-12 schools. The funds, she said, are paying for science of reading materials, teacher training and a variety of facility upgrades. “State and local budgets will be impacted. Maryland students deserve for the federal government to uphold its agreements.” 

McMahon said the extensions offered by both the Biden and Trump administrations were merely “a matter of administrative grace,” and that the department has the authority to hold states to the original spending deadline in the law — Jan. 28. But as with other decisions the department has made to cut off funding Congress already approved, Friday’s announcement is likely to spark legal challenges.

“We are exploring all legal options at this time given the severity of this action,” Joshua Michael, president of the Maryland State Board of Education, told reporters Monday. The funding, he said, is supporting ongoing tutoring programs. “That tutor will probably not be there next week.”

‘Unpaid invoices’

Other states say the department’s decision will have an immediate impact on students. Illinois, for example, is using its remaining relief funds on transportation to school for homeless students, afterschool tutoring and technology for students with disabilities, said Jackie Matthews, spokeswoman for the Illinois State Board of Education. 

Last week, the state was still waiting on a $720,000 reimbursement from the department and had yet to submit another $8 million in expenses. 

“The unpaid invoices continue to stack up,” she said.

In Tennessee, education officials received an extension for nearly $131 million for expenditures like tutoring, nursing services and computers, according to state education department spokesman Brian Blackley. Staff members, he said, were preparing to submit a reimbursement request. 

The American Rescue Plan — the third and largest round of funding — also included $800 million earmarked for homeless students. Extensions on those funds are paying for summer learning programs, mental health services and “” who help homeless families with housing, food and transportation needs, said Barbara Duffield, executive director of SchoolHouse Connection, which advocates for homeless students. 

An released just before former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona left office showed the program was effective at helping districts identify homeless students and reduce chronic absenteeism.

Canceling the extension, Duffield said, “pulls the rug out from underneath school district efforts to stabilize and support homeless children and youth.”

David DeSchryver, senior vice president at Whiteboard Advisors, a consulting firm, said states should not have been caught off guard by the department’s latest move, but emphasized that the “door is still open” for further extensions. 

“This is another invitation for state and local leaders to tell better stories about the impact of federal funding on their schools and communities,” he said. 

‘The people’s bank account’

Districts began asking the department for extensions back in 2022 when supply chain delays and escalating construction costs prohibited them from finishing projects on time.

To get reimbursed, the department required to submit funding requests describing how the expenditures related to the pandemic. The department didn’t ask for purchase orders or contracts, but told states to keep those on hand if needed later. 

The department tightened the process in February, states to submit detailed receipts for every purchase in order to get reimbursed. Then on March 11, McMahon fired all 16 staff members in the office responsible for processing payments.

By that point, state education leaders had grown impatient. On March 15, a Pennsylvania official emailed the department, saying “I’m reaching out again to find out the status of these approvals,” according to a copy of the message shared with ����Ӱ��.

“It makes me incredibly angry,” said Laura Jimenez, a Biden administration appointee who led the relief payment office until January. “We very carefully administered $200 billion, and they’re completely destroying that with the last couple of billion.”

In a statement Friday, department spokeswoman Madi Biedermann said it was “past time for the money to be returned to the people’s bank account” and referred to “numerous documented examples of misuse” of relief funds. She declined to offer examples.

The GOP has consistently criticized how districts used the money, focusing on expenditures that appeared removed from helping students recover lost learning, like . They argue that sharp declines in achievement and spending on what they dismiss as like LGBTQ-inclusive efforts and social-emotional learning offer evidence of misspent funds. 

Georgetown University school finance expert pointed to “eyebrow-raising spending decisions,” like contracts to family members, in a teachers lounge in Montana and six-figure salaries for district leaders in Stockton, California. 

But compared to other COVID aid, like the Paycheck Protection Program — which from theft — there’s been little evidence of actual fraud in school relief funds, Roza said. The department took steps to prevent it. In 2023, the found that the agency had taken “significant actions” to improve monitoring of the funds. 

Even so, researchers largely agree that despite many bright spots, districts missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to prioritize academic recovery in the aftermath of the COVID emergency. Tutoring is one example. While most districts offered it — and still are — they didn’t always use methods backed by research, experts say.

Some districts initially demonstrated a lack of urgency and were slow to spend the money, according to Roza created to follow relief funds. Then they had to pick up the pace as deadlines approached. Many went on a hiring spree, quickly adding classroom aides, counselors and other support staff, but showed that those positions weren’t always targeted to schools that needed them most.

“You don’t want to force school systems to spend money more quickly than they are wanting to,” said Dan Goldhaber, director of the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research.

shows that while the money contributed to significant recovery in math, students continue to lose ground in reading. But as a one-time school board member, he sympathizes with districts that pushed to spread funds out as long as possible. 

“That rush to get a lot of money out the door,” he said, “may have led to some of it not being spent very well.”

A bill giving public school districts the right to refuse enrollment to children without legal immigration status advanced in the Tennessee House Wednesday as a packed audience disrupted debate by standing and singing spiritual music in protest.

The panel of lawmakers swiftly cast their votes 11-7 in favor of the measure and exited the room as people rose to sing “Jesus Loves the Little Children,” ending a contentious hour-and-a-half hearing. Three Republicans joined the committee’s four Democrats in casting a “no” vote.

The bill () by Sen. Bo Watson of Hixson and House Majority Leader William Lamberth of Portland — both Republicans — would give public school districts the option of verifying student immigration status and charging tuition of students who cannot prove they are legal residents. 

Alternatively, school districts could refuse to enroll children without proof of legal residency.

The bill has drawn large protests for weeks as it has wound through the legislative process. It was significantly amended Wednesday, stripping an initial requirement that all Tennessee public schools must verify the immigration status of every student and, instead, making checks optional for public school districts. The amended version of the bill would also exempt students refused admission by their local public school as a result of their immigration status from the state’s truancy laws.

Both of the bill’s sponsors have said they hope the measure could serve as a test case for the Supreme Court to revisit its 1982 Plyler v. Doe decision that established that all children in the United States have the right to a public education regardless of their immigration status.

“What we’re allowing (schools) to do is what Plyler prohibited them from doing,” Lamberth said Wednesday. 

Citing increasing numbers of English language learners in Tennessee schools, Lamberth said the measure is necessary due to years of federal inaction in controlling the nation’s borders, leaving states to bear the burden of educating children whose parents “skipped the line.”

“The families that we are talking about, the parents we are talking about have absolutely gone around that process,” he said. 

The bill drew fierce pushback from Democrats on the House Education panel.

“I think we all heard it here today, what this bill is really about,” said Rep. Sam McKenzie, a Knoxville Democrat, who called the legislation a “bully bill to try to undo the law of the land.”

“We have for over 40 years abided by this decision… because it’s the right thing,” he said. “We should not put our children — the least of us, those that cannot do for themselves — in the middle of an adult battle.”

A fiscal analysis of the bill noted it could jeopardize over $1 billion in federal education funding to the state. The bill will next be heard April 1 in the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee. 

A that would have similarly required children without legal immigration status to pay public school tuition, and financial institutions to check immigration status of customers seeking to wire funds overseas, failed Wednesday in a House Banking and Consumer Affairs committee.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.

Midway between Nashville and Atlanta, the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee, makes original use of a resource that other communities possess in abundance but fail to capitalize on: empty classrooms in public schools. 

Arising two decades ago from one principal’s creative approach, micro-centers are child care centers for the children of school teachers and other staff. The city’s 12 micro-centers serve children 6 weeks old through 4 years old, when they can go to pre-kindergarten.

“It’s almost like a deconstructed child care center,” says Louise Stoney of , a nonprofit focused on improving child care business models. Stoney says she’s working with several states that are trying to replicate the model.

Origin Story

In the early 2000s, school principal Jill Levine noticed that she was losing a lot of her bright young teachers when they had children. So she converted an empty classroom into an informal child care space.

To make sure the center was not an insurance risk, Levine reached out to the late Phil Acord of , a social services organization with roots in the 19th century. Acord worked with Tennessee’s Department of Human Services, which handles licensing. The agency agreed to license these sites not as child care centers but as family child care “homes,” which has a specific legal definition. Acord also found an insurance agent to add an inexpensive rider to the schools’ existing policies.

Katie Harbison, who now runs the initiative for Chambliss, says, “We’re lucky that we’re one of the states that doesn’t have regulations that require that license to only be in a place where a person lives.” Her latest campaign involves expanding beyond schools into businesses, hospitals and other workplaces, a step that requires negotiating with state fire marshals about these nontraditional facilities.

“Licensing is rigid and unforgiving,” says Stoney. “States tend to license centers with a huge telephone book of standards, while licensing homes with this really thin folder of nothing. And micro-centers sit in between.”

Cost Savings and More

Even before the pandemic, . Micro-centers alleviate some of the biggest pain points. The host school gives them the space for free and covers utilities, maintenance and janitorial services. Chambliss pays for teachers, technology, supplies and insurance.

“Their wages are better and their parent fees are lower,” explains Stoney, “because they’re not padded by any facilities costs or overhead cost.”

The benefits of micro-centers go beyond the financial efficiencies, Harbison explains: “Parents working in the schools can drop off their children and pay visits during lunch breaks or for nursing. And the arrangement also fosters community within the school, with staff often helping each other with pickup duties.” And since the parents are school employees, their work schedules naturally harmonize with those of their child care providers.

Best of all, micro-centers are a vital employment benefit, supporting the school system’s recruitment and retention goals.

A Nationwide Opportunity

Aaron Lowenberg and Elliot Haspel the dynamics around the country that make the present moment ripe for solutions such as micro-centers, writing: 

“With districts looking to save costs by closing underutilized elementary school buildings yet still incurring the costs of maintaining those facilities, child care providers struggling to afford rising commercial rents, and families in dire need of more child care options, it makes sense to consider allowing child care providers to make use of these existing school buildings.”

Lowenberg and Haspel focus on Missoula, Montana, where population growth has stalled. In Chattanooga, Harbison notes, the situation is somewhat different, as the population is swelling, which leads to a shrinking pool of empty classrooms and long waitlists for infant and toddler spots.

“People are moving here for quality of life and affordability,” she says. “Some are remote workers.” When building a new school, the district tries to reserve one classroom for child care, but, increasingly, enrollment outpaces expectations. “We sometimes have to leave a school and go to another one,” she says.

Further, after weathering the pandemic with their workforce largely intact, Chambliss is now grappling with a low local unemployment rate, which means more job openings with less responsibility and higher pay.

The Network Behind Micro-Centers

Beyond economic and population fluctuations, it’s that fosters a project like micro-centers. “Chattanooga is known for public-private partnerships,” says Harbison. “Government, philanthropists and companies work together. We’ve had some pretty major projects through blending of public and private dollars, including redoing the waterfront and building a public aquarium.” 

In particular, Harbison singles out , a backbone organization for the community focused on literacy and career pathways, as well as an early childhood effort called that brings together 30 organizations. Chattanooga 2.0’s Smart City Venture Fund, a private social venture capital fund, helps direct local investments. She also credits the , the and .

Seeking viable workarounds. Remaining flexible. And enlisting collaborators. Every city is different, but these are the principles that generate and sustain solutions.

Correction: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized the process for opening a child care center in a Tennessee school. Principal Jill Levine had permission to open a center at her school, building on a process used by another school.

As an underlying technology, AI does seem different — more conversational, more flexible, more powerful. Most notably, past ed tech products have relied on multiple-choice tests that don’t always accurately assess a student’s understanding of different concepts. Now, AI can analyze and react to open-ended student responses, helping to boost critical thinking skills and deepen comprehension. In addition, AI provides real-time visibility into each student’s performance so teachers can be more strategic with classroom discussions.

Here are three guiding principles to help educators be rigorous when selecting AI tools to pilot and scale as they lean into this new chapter of teaching:

First, rather than look to develop an “AI strategy,” district leaders should create a strategy for teaching and learning and use AI to power specific aspects of it. They should start by identifying goals and priorities, then ask: What can AI do to help our district achieve them?

In both our districts, the most urgent focus was increasing student achievement. To help schools achieve this goal and narrow down potential tools from the on the market, district leaders centered objectives on implementing high-quality instructional materials, increasing teacher effectiveness and improving student engagement and well-being.

Our districts landed on that creates high-quality, interactive experiences for students with personalized feedback and support to deepen their understanding of the curriculum. It also directs educators’ attention in real time to the students who most need help. By combining the power of top-rated curricula and AI, teachers can embed intervention-type support into core instruction.

Second, ed tech providers should design their tools with teachers, students and district leaders, not just for them. Part of the reason educators have not gotten needed quality and usability out of products in their schools is that vendors exclude teachers and students from the development process.

A big part of why teachers and students in our districts are enthusiastic about this is that educators were able to offer feedback directly to ed tech company leaders who regularly visited our schools — and then implemented that feedback. This fall, Sumner County teachers asked to make the AI writing support more bite-sized, giving students an initial score, one piece of feedback at a time and the ability to revise their writing multiple times and update their grade. A Denver Public School leader asked whether AI could identify the most common misconceptions students were having in class, which led to an expanding suite of real-time analysis tools. Students asked for more clarity into their progress at each step, more celebrations and the ability to customize their experience.

Because every voice was valued and the solutions evolved to meet stakeholders’ needs, both student achievement in English Language Arts and teacher satisfaction have increased. In Sumner County, the six schools using the tool have shown significantly more progress on their English assessments than the six schools not using it, and 90% of teachers reported that the product made their jobs easier and more enjoyable.

Third, educators must break the ed tech habit of having students work silently on their own personalized pathways with headsets on and without interacting with their classmates. Instead, AI should emphasize the and foster connection, inclusion and discourse. 

At our districts, a top priority is the effective implementation of high-quality instructional materials. While various schools have chosen different, top-rated curricula, they share a vision of classrooms with rich and interesting texts, student writing and lots of discussion both in small groups and the full class. District leaders want AI products that bring schools closer to this vision. Rather than dedicating 20 minutes a day to a supplemental, skills-based tool that students work on silently, teachers should have tools that make collaboration easier and give students more confidence to bring their insights into full-class discussions. 

AI brings new possibilities for better ed tech, but schools will realize this potential only if district leaders lean into this moment, guided by their goals and values. If they do, they can create future-ready schools that prioritize transformative student outcomes and human connection.

Now, a new analysis, exclusive to ����Ӱ��, sheds light on why he’s had so much trouble. While it’s common knowledge that in the state House have been standing in his way, homeschool parents opposed to education savings accounts have also been part of the resistance. 

Leslie Finger, a political science professor at the University of North Texas, analyzed roll call votes on 13 private school choice bills that reached the floor of either the state House or the Senate between 2013 and 2023. She found that lawmakers were more likely to vote against private school choice not only if they represented a rural area, but also if they had more homeschoolers in their districts.

“We specifically opted out of this system,” Faith Howe, president of Texans for Homeschool Freedom, said about public schools. While proponents of the voucher plan say it will be optional for families, that doesn’t satisfy Howe. “I don’t think they’re going to have a problem coming back and saying ‘Well we need more regulations on these homeschoolers.’”

Texas voters ousted the Republican holdouts in last year’s primary election after Abbott campaigned against them. He is counting on their replacements to deliver a victory this session. But even if that happens, Finger’s results point to a segment of parents who have been getting louder in recent years as ESAs, which parents can spend on tuition or homeschooling costs, have spread across red states. Many traditional homeschoolers fought for the right to educate their children at home and fear that ESA laws could erode some of those protections — even if they don’t take the funds. 

While voucher advocates dismiss many of the homeschoolers’ concerns, Finger said her findings should serve as a warning.

“The presence of big homeschooling communities could make selling private school choice challenging,” Finger said.

‘Government control’

That was certainly the case in Colorado, one of three states last November where voters defeated school choice ballot measures. 

“Government money comes with government control,” said Carolyn Martin, who monitors state legislation for Christian Home Educators of Colorado. Her group viewed the measure as a potential infringement on parents’ rights to educate their children as they see fit.  

Two issues raised red flags for them. The measure said all children should be able to “access a quality education,” which they interpreted as an opportunity for the government to define quality for homeschoolers. It also gave students, as well as parents, the right to school choice. That could spell trouble if kids and parents aren’t on the same page when it comes to education, Martin said.

“At some point the state would probably have to step in and arbitrate between the parent and the child,” she said. “That is not our worldview.”

Other homeschoolers say ESAs contradict conservative values, such as smaller government and less regulation. Gary Humble, executive director of Tennessee Stands, a Christian organization, called the state’s recently passed voucher bill “wealth redistribution.”

“This is another Tennessee entitlement program,” he said. “It’s expensive. It’s irresponsible.” 

The state is expected to spend $1 billion on the program over the next five years. While opponents weren’t able to stop the Republicans from passing the law, Humble tells homeschoolers that if they participate, they could be giving up the freedom to educate their children the way they choose.

“All they hear from special interest groups is that they get seven grand and there are no strings attached,” he said. “They’re not policy wonks, so they don’t understand the trap doors that are laid out ahead of them.”  

ESA programs often require homeschooling families to reapply for funding every year, to take annual standardized tests and to only buy approved items from specific vendors. Homeschooling families who don’t participate want to ensure such restrictions don’t eventually extend to them. 

But those worries fall under what Jeremy Newman, vice president of policy and engagement for the Texas Homeschool Coalition, calls “free-floating anxiety.” 

“They’re concerned somebody is going to do something, sometime, but they’re not sure who or when or what,” he said. 

His organization is strongly in favor of passing a voucher bill in Texas, saying that tax-paying homeschoolers should have just as much access to state education funds as parents who send their kids to public school.

He points to on “regulatory creep” from Angela Watson, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and an expert on . She found that publicly funded school choice programs, like ESAs, don’t contribute to more government overreach. 

Not ‘a monolith’

But the fact that some homeschoolers are so opposed to them proves a point, Watson said. 

“The mistake that everyone makes when they talk about homeschooling is that they continue to think of it as a monolith,” she said. “Homeschooling is just so varied.”

Nationally, of the nation’s students are homeschooled, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Traditional homeschoolers often chose that path for ideological or religious reasons. 

But many new converts, who left public schools during the pandemic, show support for what former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos calls “” — allowing parents to spend education dollars on any type of schooling they choose. It’s a policy that polled high in a from the National Parents Union, with 71% of parents favoring such a system. 

The split among homeschoolers over ESAs, Watson said, has created some “interesting bedfellows” — conservative parents aligning with liberal teachers unions to oppose school choice ballot measures. That’s what happened, not only in Colorado, but also in , where two-thirds of voters rejected such a proposition last year.  

Howe in Texas has heard the criticism. “We’re being accused of being leftist, Marxist and supporting the teachers unions,” she said. 

Newman, with the Texas coalition, said his group is watching out for homeschoolers’ interests. Leaders maintain a “strong presence” at the state capitol in Austin to ensure legislation doesn’t interfere with homeschoolers’ freedom to choose their own curriculum and teaching methods, he said. 

Homeschooled himself as a child, Newman sympathizes with those who recall when it was to educate children at home and not unusual for child protective services to a family when a neighbor reported children not being in school.

But Howe notes that it was a state regulation in Texas — not legislation — that treated homeschooled students as truant. After a lengthy legal fight, the state that parents who homeschool are essentially small private schools.

In Idaho, it’s the state tax commission that will be writing some of the rules for a new that Gov. Brad Little signed into law last month, despite from the public. The state also has an existing grant program targeted toward lower-income families.

Audra Talley, a board member of Homeschool Idaho, said Republican lawmakers have assured her that as long as they control the legislature and the governor’s office, homeschoolers don’t have to worry about rules encroaching on their parental rights. But that’s what she finds disturbing.

“It’s an admission that the potential exists,” she said. “Now we are relying on a certain party or a certain group of individuals to keep those regulations from coming at some future date.”

‘Don’t want to go back’

She’s not exaggerating that some Democrats would prefer to increase monitoring of families who homeschool.

A , for example, would require families to notify their local school district if they intend to homeschool. Families would have to submit teaching materials and their children’s work if authorities are concerned about their education. Hundreds of at the state capitol against the bill earlier this month.

Under another , Michigan homeschoolers would have to register with the state. Superintendent Michael Rice argues that officials should have a count of students in all types of schooling — public, private, parochial and home. and neglect involving homeschool families led to his proposal for more oversight. 

Homeschoolers opposed to ESAs often point to West Virginia — a Republican-led state — as an example of how lawmakers sometimes forget that not everyone wants the government’s money.

The state passed its Hope Scholarship ESA program in 2021, which requires homeschooled students receiving the scholarship to take annual or have their work reviewed each year by a certified teacher.  The law specifically exempted homeschoolers not in the program from the requirements, but a 2023 bill would have erased what advocates call a “carve out” if they hadn’t stepped in. 

ESA proponents use the same example to say the homeschoolers’ fears were overblown and no harm was done. Colleen Hroncich, a policy analyst with the libertarian Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, thinks the division among homeschoolers over school choice will fade over time.

“As we get further past the generation of homeschoolers that fought for the right to homeschool, it seems like most homeschoolers support funding programs,” she said. “Hopefully the bigger numbers also help push back on additional regulations down the road.”

Last September, the CEO of a company handling online payments for West Virginia’s private school choice program promised not to seek additional business until he fixed technical glitches that led to a huge backlog of orders.

“Student First Technologies has assured us that they will not pursue contracts with additional states until the issues and challenges we’re experiencing here in West Virginia are resolved. That’s a commitment,” said former Treasurer Riley Moore. His comments came during a board meeting devoted to the state’s Hope Scholarship, an education savings account program that pays for private school tuition and homeschooling.

Well into the current school year, over 3,000 orders were unfulfilled, forcing parents to pay out of pocket for books, tech equipment and services that the state promised to provide. Some families couldn’t even download Theodore, the company’s payment platform. 

Four months later, some parents using the Hope Scholarship say not much has changed. They still complain of poor customer service and purchases that are approved for some families, but not others.

“From a parent perspective, performance has not improved significantly,” said Katie Switzer, a mother of five who shared concerns with the state last summer. 

In January, others posted complaints on Google’s webstore, where parents can access the payment platform. “Please go back to last year’s system. I still cannot access … TheoPay,” one parent wrote. Another said, “I’ve scanned the cart at least 100 times and the same sentence pops up every time, ‘Something unexpected happened, please resubmit your cart.’ ”

Despite its promise to West Virginia, ����Ӱ�� has learned that the Indiana-based company has been pushing to expand. In late fall, Student First submitted an unsuccessful proposal to handle expenditures for .

Now the company could be in the running to manage a statewide ESA program in Tennessee, a prize that would mark a turnaround for a newer player in what has become a . Student First already manages for about 2,000 students in the Memphis, Nashville and Chattanooga areas. passed last month would take the program statewide, where it would serve roughly 20,000 students. 

The potential for growth, however, raises questions over whether Student First, which lost a $15 million contract to run Arkansas’ ESA program because it failed to deliver on its promises, can meet the demand. 

‘Evolving very quickly’

The Tennessee governor’s office won’t say for sure whether it plans to hold a competitive bidding process. Elizabeth Lane Johnson, the governor’s press secretary, told ����Ӱ�� Tuesday that the state Board of Education will first have to write rules for the expanded program. 

She added that officials have “met with a number of experienced vendors to learn how other states have implemented universal school choice programs successfully.” 

Last November, Lee met with , a leader in the industry, at a conference in Oklahoma City, The Tennessean reported. But Mark Duran, Student First’s CEO, said the situation in Tennessee is “still unfolding” and that he hopes to continue serving the state. 

Some observers say it would be unusual for the education department not to open the process up to other bids.

“The technology is evolving very quickly,” said Jim Blew, a former U.S. Department of Education official and ESA advocate who later advised ClassWallet. “I would be really surprised if they don’t open it up to a new competition. They’re scaling up; they’re going universal.”

If get their way, red states won’t be the only ones with universal voucher programs. They’ve reintroduced a bill in Congress to create a nationwide tax credit scholarship program. And while details have yet to emerge, President Donald Trump directed the Department of Education to use grant funds to prioritize private school choice.

“We have millions of students right now who live under some sort of school choice program,” KellyAnne Conway, a counselor to the president in his first term, said . “We know it’s effective.” 

The West Virginia treasurer’s office did not answer questions about whether Student First has caught up with its backlog of orders. But Duran told ����Ӱ�� “a lot has changed” since last fall. 

That’s when Arkansas fined Student First over $500,000 because of delays in delivering a “fully operational” platform. In an canceling the contract, Education Secretary Jacob Oliva told Duran that processing delays meant that students, families and vendors were receiving “service below the standard to which they were entitled.” At the same time, homeschooling parents in West Virginia couldn’t order curriculum, equipment and school supplies for their kids because of problems with the company’s payment system. 

A hold-up in funding can be a major setback for small businesses trying to establish themselves in the market. 

When Student First still operated in Arkansas, Lauren McDaniel-Carter waited seven weeks after the school year started before her microschool ACRES received payments totaling about $23,000. All but three of the 26 students she serves at her home in northeast Arkansas participated in the state’s Education Freedom Account program. She had to take out a $50,000 loan to run the school and pay her small staff. 

‘Larger and more numerous’

The state replaced Student First with , which held the contract during the program’s first year.

Duran, Student First’s CEO, did not respond to specific questions about the status of orders in West Virginia, but said his team seeks to “constantly improve our operations.” 

“Momentum remains strong,” he said. “We’ve grown and are ready for even more growth.” 

The company now has over 35 staff members and recently hired Andrew Nelms, formerly with school choice advocacy group Yes. Every Kid, as its new head of government affairs. Other include a vice president of operations, a software engineer and a “customer success” director. 

The additional personnel, Duran said, will allow the company to “support larger and more numerous programs across the country.” 

An entrepreneur, Duran grew up in northern Michigan where his mother taught him while building a large network of homeschooling families. The flexibility, he said, allowed him to spend time with his dad, a homebuilder, and sparked his business career.

He got his start in the private school choice sector in Indiana when he teamed up with a friend who built a software platform for managing donations to tax credit scholarship programs. 

Indiana “education freedom policy folks” encouraged them to break into the ESA market, he said. He was further inspired after attending a 2020 ExcelinEd conference in Florida, where he mingled with voucher advocates who saw the pandemic’s disruption as an opportunity to expand private school choice. 

“We saw a bigger picture,” he said. Among lawmakers there was a “big push to unlock more money … to send to families through these different programs.” 

A state move to take over Memphis-Shelby County Schools is picking up steam after the district’s board dismissed its director eight months into the job.

State Rep. Mark White, chairman of the House Education Committee, said Monday he is putting together a bill that would enable the Department of Education to create a management group to run Memphis-Shelby County Schools without oversight by the school district’s board of education.

White, an East Memphis Republican, said the school board’s firing of Marie Feagins as director of schools on January 21, is one more reason the state should take over the district, in addition to poor student performance.

“I’m a believer that Memphis-Shelby County Schools can do a lot better than they’re doing,” White said.

Under the plan, which wasn’t filed in time for this week’s special session on private-school vouchers, the state would put together a group that would “supersede” the school board for at least two years “to right-size things,” White said. School board members would continue to be elected but would serve only in an advisory role, he said, adding he is working on the legislation to make sure it’s legal.

Senators from Memphis blasted the idea Monday, with Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari calling it an “attack on democracy.”

“Instead of punishing local decisions, we should focus on moving forward together,” Akbari said, to deal with funding inequity and invest in schools.

Likewise, Sen. London Lamar, chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus said she is concerned by House Speaker Cameron Sexton’s plan to draft a bill enabling the state to acquire control of the Memphis school district.

“Such a move represents significant government overreach and threatens the foundational principle of local governance,” Lamar said.

For instance, the Achievement School District that primarily targeted struggling schools in Memphis is being dissolved, and most of the schools under that district remain in the bottom 5% statewide for student performance, Lamar said.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris is lobbying lawmakers to drop the state takeover, hoping cooler heads will prevail.

“We’re doing the best we can to defuse the situation and turn down the temperature,” said Harris, a former state senator. “Everybody talks about the focus is on the kids. Well, if the focus is the kids, we can’t focus all of our energy on trying to punish the adults.”

White, who agreed to dissolution of the Achievement School District after keeping it afloat for several years, said it served a purpose in removing some schools from the state’s “priority” list for poor performance and pushing Shelby County Schools to set up iZone schools, which received more school district support until the district ran out of funds to keep the program going.

“We’re not moving the needle for our community with all the opportunity we have,” White said. He added that some schools in the district closed because they didn’t have enough students, then were trashed by thieves, making it impossible for charter school operators to buy or lease them.

The Memphis-Shelby County School Board fired Feagins over allegations dealing with overtime expenses, acceptance of a $45,000 donation, questions about federal funding and missed grant deadlines, and conduct detrimental to the district.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.

Tennessee House and Senate education committees passed the governor’s private-school voucher program Tuesday, speeding the $450 million first-year expense to final votes before week’s end.

Senators voted 8-1 to send the measure to the finance committee to be considered Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, a Franklin Republican carrying the bill for Gov. Bill Lee, told lawmakers the plan will “empower families to do something for their kid, fulfilling needs we’re not meeting with this public school system that we run together with our local folks.”

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Johnson claimed a mandate to pass the measure from President Donald Trump, who posted on his Truth Social platform earlier that he supports Tennessee lawmakers’ efforts to adopt “school choice.”

“It is our goal to bring education in the United States to the highest level, one that it has never attained before,” Trump said in his post.

Lee’s plan, which is zooming toward final votes in a special session this week, calls for providing more than $7,000 each to 20,000 students statewide and then expanding by about 5,000 annually. Half of those students in the first year could come from families with incomes at 300% of the federal poverty level, an estimated $175,000 for a family of four, while the rest would have no income limit. No maximum income would be placed on the program after the first year.

A financial analysis by the state’s Fiscal Review Committee determined K-12 schools will lose $45 million and that only $3.3 million would go toward 12 school districts most likely to lose students.

Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari of Memphis was the lone vote against the bill as she urged the committee to “exercise a bit more caution.” Akbari reminded senators that students participating in the state’s education savings account program, which provides vouchers to enroll in private schools in Davidson, Hamilton and Shelby counties, are performing worse academically than their peers.

In contrast, Republican Sen. Adam Lowe of Calhoun said standardized tests shouldn’t be the deciding factor in passing the bill. Lowe also told Hawkins County Schools Director Matt Hixson he shouldn’t be worried about talk that some local leaders in upper East Tennessee believe they have to support the voucher bill or the legislature could refuse to approve $420 million for Hurricane Helene disaster relief.

The House panel endorsed the plan on a 17-7 vote after Republican lawmakers used a procedural move to bypass debate on the bill. Rep. Jake McCalmon of Williamson County called for an immediate vote following public testimony, backed by Rep. William Slater of Sumner County. The move kept opponents from questioning the bill’s sponsor, House Majority Leader William Lamberth.

Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson of Knoxville called the move “ridiculous” afterward because of the impact the bill could have on public schools and the state’s budget.

In addition to complaining that the state will be running two school systems and likely hitting financial problems, Johnson challenged Lamberth’s assertion that the bill will make public schools “whole” when they lose students to the private-school voucher program.

Lamberth, though, said public schools would not lose “one red cent” as a result of the program.

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