Member-only story
Guns and Lies
Just another week in Tennessee education policy
It’s been an exciting week in Tennessee education policy.
While Gov. Lee’s signature legislative initiative, school vouchers, saw another committee vote delay, other news items trickled to the top of the agenda.
First, Commissioner of Education Lizzette Reynolds continues to make headlines for all the wrong reasons.
This time, it’s for accepting a tuition waiver she didn’t qualify for.
What’s most interesting is that she used the tuition waiver to take classes toward a teaching certificate. Yes, the state requires its Commissioner of Education to have a teaching certificate. No, Reynolds does not have one and also had zero K-12 teaching experience.
To make up for this shortcoming, Reynolds sought to have taxpayers cover the cost of her missing credential.
Then, there’s the issue of guns. In schools.
Some suggest that having guns in schools will actually prevent violence from guns in schools.
This despite years of armed SROs (school resource officers) and numerous incidents where SROs were present and yet horrific shootings happened anyway.
The Tennessee State Senate passed a bill that would allow teachers who receive specified training and approval from district leaders to carry guns while at school.
The bill is pending in the House. The vote in the Senate was overwhelmingly in favor (All “yes” votes from Republicans, all “no” votes from Democrats).
The bill received almost immediate pushback from, among others, candidates for local school board seats.
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