Florida’s “Schools of Hope” program offers a warning to other states about the rapid advancement of charter schools.
Schools of Hope co-location shifts costs, concentrates disruption in vulnerable communities, and strips local school boards of authority, all while insulating the neighborhoods and families with the most resources. That’s not innovation. It’s the extraction of resources from public schools for the benefit of charter corporations.
The Trump Administration is ending a Biden-era effort to provide some relief for low-income student loan borrowers.
NewsChannel5 reports:
The U.S. Department of Education on Tuesday announced a proposed agreement with Missouri that would shutter a Biden-era student loan repayment program and require millions of loan holders to immediately begin repaying their student debt.
The proposal would end the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan, which the Biden administration launched in 2023.
Nearly eight million student loan borrowers on SAVE plans began accruing interest on their debt again in August after the Education Department restarted the charges.
The Student Borrower Protection Center said it projects that the typical borrower will be forced to pay more than $3,500 per year or $300 per month in interest charges.
Candidates are emerging for the 2026 Memphis-Shelby County School Board race.
Chalkbeat reports:
Five incumbent Memphis-Shelby County Schools board members — Michelle McKissack, Natalie McKinney, Tamarques Porter, Sable Otey and Towanna Murphy — confirmed with Chalkbeat that they’re running for reelection.
Sonia Partick-Warr filed campaign documents with the election commission but did not list a party affiliation.
Toshina Williams-Webb posted her intention to run on Facebook.
Jon Carroll confirmed to Chalkbeat that he will run as a Democrat.
Mark White and other legislative Republicans want to dictate how Memphis runs its schools.
Chalkbeat reports:
Tennessee House Republican leaders will push forward a plan in 2026 to install a Memphis-Shelby County schools oversight panel that would seize significant decision-making authority from the locally elected school board.
House Speaker Cameron Sexton and education committee Chairman Mark White confirmed this month they are committed to working with the Senate to pass a form of takeover legislation in the 2026 legislative session.
Gov. Bill Lee took Tennessee out of the Sun Bucks program in 2025.
Sun Bucks is a Summer EBT program through SNAP that provides extra funds ($120) to help bridge the summer gap while kids are not getting meals at school.
Now, Lee must once again decide what to do about Sun Bucks – will he take the money in 2026 and feed as many as 700,000 kids? Or, will he return to his failed 2025 model that only helped a few thousand?
From pastors to County Mayors, people around the state are asking: Will Bill Lee do the right thing?
We respectfully write to you to implore you to take immediate action to address the nutrition needs of Tennessee’s most vulnerable children. We write not merely as constituents, but as people of faith. We recognize and appreciate your public commitment to leading our state with a heart for the “least of these,” and it is in this spirit of shared moral responsibility that we—314 faith leaders from across the state—petition you to intervene for the 700,000 children in Tennessee whose health and future depend on a decision that must be made before January 1.
The Knoxville News-Sentinel reports on letter grades assigned to Knox County Schools:
Knox County Schools has made significant improvements on the individual school level, with 42 schools earning high marks in the “school letter grades” announced by the Tennessee Department of Education.
The department released the grades Dec. 19 in its 2024-2025 State Report Card. Twenty of Knox County’s schools received an “A,” and 22 schools received a “B,” which together represent more than half of the 81 schools graded in the county.
MNPS is piloting a program to give teachers real-time feedback on their performance – something tells me this won’t be well-received.
MNPS has entered into a contract with Eduservice, Inc., doing business as CT3, to pilot a program in which teachers receive real-time instructional feedback via an earpiece while teaching. According to contract language approved in May, the program is framed as a “comprehensive professional development” initiative focused on instructional practice and classroom management.
Lifting income caps and expanding voucher access are on the menu in 2026:
House Speaker Cameron Sexton has expressed interest in removing income caps and enrollment limits from Tennessee’s Education Savings Account program.
“Whether you’re making $30,000 or $140,000, you should have the opportunity,” Sexton said.
This comes as lawmakers also discuss expanding Education Freedom Scholarships, which launched last year with a cap of 20,000 students.
TC Weber takes a look at ACT data:
Average composite scores for selected Middle Tennessee public school districts were as follows:
Cheatham County School District: 19.3 Clarksville–Montgomery County School System: 19.3 Dickson County School District: 19.0 Maury County Public Schools: 18.0 Metro Nashville Public Schools: 17.5 Robertson County Schools: 18.3 Rutherford County Schools: 19.8 Sumner County Schools: 20.8 Williamson County Schools: 25.3 Wilson County Schools: 20.4
These figures are frequently contextualized by differences in student demographics, including poverty rates, mobility, and the proportion of English Learners. Those factors are relevant and should be acknowledged.
They do not, however, alter the practical reality that students across districts compete for the same postsecondary opportunities. Colleges and employers evaluate individual applicants, not district-level explanations.
Nashville education blogger TC Weber takes a look at some well-intentioned legislation that may end up presenting more problems than it solves.
State Senator Bill Powers (R–Clarksville) has announced plans to sponsor legislation requiring school districts and public charter schools to implement a computer system for documenting what the bill describes as “early warning signs” related to student health, safety, and behavior. According to public statements, these signs would include bullying, harassment, intimidation, mental health concerns, substance abuse, and self-harm.
At first glance, the intent appears straightforward: identify concerns earlier and intervene before harm occurs. The difficulty lies in the details.
As Weber notes, information documented about students tends to remain in databases – traveling with the student, creating a profile, opening or closing options.
From a family perspective, the stakes are equally high. Students do not reset each academic year. Behavioral records can follow them for years, shaping perceptions long after the original incident has passed. Any system that formalizes behavioral data must grapple with the possibility of long-term impact based on short-term judgment.
More fundamentally, this proposal reflects a recurring pattern in education policy: diagnosing relational problems as data deficits.
Schools do not struggle because they lack information about students. They struggle because time, staffing, and structural support for meaningful relationships have been systematically reduced.