Despite Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s speech this past Tuesday about the Department of Education’s “final mission” and leaked memo, the timing of issuing an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education continues to be delayed. 

The impending executive order’s sole purpose is to destroy the guardrails that have long served to open up educational opportunities for all students — particularly students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, students with disabilities, and multilingual learners. Moreover, this is designed to erode the public’s trust in an institution that currently serves more than 50 million K-12 students and 15 million students in post-secondary education. EdTrust firmly believes that gutting the Department of Education will cause irreparable damage to our nation’s students. 

In Tennessee, education advocates' attention was focused on the Senate Education Committee’s debate over SB836, presented by Sen. Watson (R-Hixson). The night before the hearing, an amendment with a new fiscal note transformed the bill to require all districts and charter schools to collect and store information about every student’s citizen or immigration status to enroll them in public school. Additionally, students' access can be made conditional on paying tuition. Learn more in EdTrust-Tennessee’s updated memo: Protecting Undocumented Student Access to K-12 Public School.

After heated debate and moving testimonies - including a Tennessee public school educator, a proud DACA recipient who attended Tennessee public school, andAll4Ed - SB836 narrowly passed out of the Senate Education Committee in a 5-4 final vote, instigating widespread emotional protest. Senators voting no included Sen. Akbari (D-Memphis), Sen. Haile (R-Gallatin), Sen. Pody (R-Lebanon), and Sen. Roberts (R-Springfield). Next, SB836 is referred to the Senate Finance, Ways, and Means Committee, but it is not placed on calendar next week. 

However, SB836’s companion bill HB793, sponsored by Leader Lamberth (R-Portland) is placed on the K-12 Subcommittee for this Tuesday, 3/11 at 9 AM CT, at the top of the agenda. Additionally, HB746 is #8 on the agenda, which would require parents or guardians to provide specific forms of documentation, such as a birth certificate listing a place of birth in the United States or its territories, or be charged the amount of funding the student generates in order to enroll their child. To take action to protect public school education for all children, join EdTrust-Tennessee and over 50 partners in Education for All - Tennessee by contacting the K-12 subcommittee, emailing your legislator, and calling your legislator. Join our campaign here.

Finally, other education bill movement advocates should be aware of include:

• In the House K-12 Subcommittee, HB1322, sponsored by Leader Lamberth (R-Portland), passed 5-0, which would allow in certain circumstances, a public charter school sponsor to apply directly to the TN Charter School Commission to open a new charter school.
• In the Senate Education Committee, SB158, sponsored by Sen. Hensley (R-Hohenwald) passed 8-1 with an amendment, which would increase from 130 minutes per school week to 40 minutes per school day, the minimum amount of physical activity required for elementary school students. In the House Administration Subcommittee, the companion bill HB85, sponsored by Rep Cepicky (R-Culleoka) passed 6-0 with the same amendment.
• In the Senate Education Committee, SB172, sponsored by Sen. Massey (R-Knoxville) passed out of committee 8-0 which would establish the hunger-free campus grant program to address a recent report by the TN Higher Education Commission highlighting about 30% of Tennessee higher education students experience food insecurity.

Next week, in addition to HB793, we will be closely following HB675/SB415, which would reduce both the number of state assessments for students and annual teacher evaluations for Tennessee teachers. EdTrust-Tennessee is concerned about reducing the information we have about how students are performing, particularly in high school, and about removing valuable opportunities to get feedback to improve their teaching.