Today at 12:00 p.m.
by Shannon Coan
As the ball dropped to welcome in the new year, the change in calendar also marked the halfway point of the school year and the imminent start of the legislative session in Tennessee, where education issues are likely to be a key focus.
From voters electing five new school board members to several new academic programs launching, a lot happened at local schools and in the world of education across Tennessee in 2024. That’s likely to continue in the new year.
Here are five topics to watch in 2025:
A NEW CHANCELLOR
Chancellor Steve Angle stepped down from his leadership role at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and joined the school’s faculty at the start of this year.
Angle, who led the university for 11 years, announced his planned transition in November. UTC College of Business Dean Robert Dooley was named interim chancellor later that month.
He took over the role Wednesday.
This month, a 15-member search committee will launch its search for the university’s next chancellor. The committee – which includes faculty, staff, students, alumni and representatives from the UT board of trustees – hopes to name a chancellor in June.
TUITION SUBSIDIES
When the Tennessee legislature reconvenes later this month, it will wrestle for the second year in a row with whether to use tax money to give grants to families across the state to pay for private school tuition. Such grants are available under a pilot program in Hamilton, Shelby and Davidson counties.
In November, Tennessee house and senate Republican leaders introduced identical bills to give up to 20,000 students $7,075 to enroll in private schools, starting next fall. Half of those grants would be reserved for students with disabilities, those eligible for the pilot program and families at or below 300% of the income limit to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches – roughly $175,000 for a family of four.
The bills were the first legislation introduced for this year’s Tennessee General Assembly session, signaling Gov. Bill Lee’s intention to make the issue a top priority.
But whether the legislation passes remains uncertain.
(READ MORE: Hamilton County divided on whether to provide public funding for private school tuition)
A similar proposal died in 2024 after Republican lawmakers failed to agree on the details, and public school advocates have mobilized in opposition to the bill.
In Southeast Tennessee, school boards have already begun voicing their concerns, renewing efforts from last school year when roughly 70 school boards across the state passed resolutions opposing the governor’s proposal to expand tuition grants statewide.
In December, the Bradley County school board sent a letter asking the lawmakers who represent the district to consider certain safeguards. The Hamilton County school board urged lawmakers not to expand the state’s education savings account program in any way later that month. And on Monday, the Cleveland Board of Education is expected to vote on a resolution calling for an expansion of the program to be deferred until its outcomes and funding impact can be thoroughly reviewed.
FACILITIES
After more than a year of discussions around improving school facilities, the Hamilton County school board voted to move forward with five school projects in November.
The five projects – which the district intends to work on at the same time – will impact at least seven school communities and lead to three campus closures.
Among those projects are plans to renovate the former BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Golden Gateway site into a career and technical center serving students from multiple high schools, renovate Brainerd High to create a campus that includes Dalewood Middle students, and combine Alpine Crest, Rivermont and DuPont elementary schools into a new building at the DuPont Elementary site.
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Together, the projects are estimated to cost $168 million, but those numbers could change. Hamilton County commissioners dedicated $187 million to major school projects in their August bond issue.
Moving forward, the school board will have to approve architects, construction bids and zoning changes related to the projects.
SUMMER LEARNING
Tennessee is going to have a challenging budget in 2025, state Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, said in a December interview.
One of the big difficulties, he said, will be in the education space where the state has used a lot of federal COVID-19 relief funds to help schools recover. Those funds expired in September.
Lawmakers are going to have to decide whether to continue to fund those things or not, and they’re going to be hard decisions, he said.
He pointed to the summer learning camps hosted by school districts as one of the programs that could be affected.
Hamilton County Schools has been able to serve any student who wants to attend summer programming with the help of federal relief funds for the past four years.
Historically, students who attended at least 80% of the program have started the school year ahead of their peers who did not in both reading and math, district officials previously said. The program serves rising kindergarten through rising ninth grade students.
NATIONAL POLITICS
As President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House, he has repeatedly pledged to close the U.S. Department of Education, an idea Tennessee’s governor and other lawmakers have backed. But the details and ramifications of that plan remain unclear.
The department provides some funding to public schools, administers federal student loan and grant programs and ensures compliance with civil rights laws. It does not dictate curriculum.
(READ MORE: Some Tennessee lawmakers back plan to close US Education Department but likelihood, impact remains uncertain)
Efforts in the past to eliminate the department have repeatedly failed, and closing it would require congressional approval – something for which there’s probably not enough votes.
But there are actions the Trump administration could take to cut funding or eliminate certain programs without getting rid of the department. Investigations of civil rights claims could also change.
Trump has also said he would roll back the changes the Biden administration made to extend the protections preventing sex discrimination to LGBTQ+ students and staff on the first day of his presidency. Lawsuits currently prevent those rules from being implemented in 26 states – including Tennessee and Georgia.
Many of the department’s functions are mandated by federal laws, meaning even if it were to be eliminated, those laws and the funding attached would still be in effect unless Congress separately acted to change them.
Locally, Hamilton County Schools received around $35.8 million of its $663 million budget from the federal Education Department this school year. The largest portions of that funding support providing services to students with disabilities and improving academic outcomes for economically disadvantaged students.
UTC also receives grants from the department to support educational outreach for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, and all students applying for financial aid need to fill out the federal student aid application managed by the department.
Contact Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.
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