In the News

Former police officer Debbie Pace recently announced the kickoff to her campaign for the District 6 seat on the Williamson County Schools Board of Education.

Will Tennessee’s legislature and Governor Lee sell our children’s future to the highest bidder by expanding our already failing and corrupt privatized charter system?

Longtime Brentwood resident Kristi Bidinger has kicked off her campaign for the District 6 seat on the Williamson County Schools Board of Education.

Bidinger, an executive assistant for a Nashville-based health care company with more than 190,000 employees, also serves as an at-large member of the Brentwood Environmental Advisory Board. She said she’s running because she’s passionate about public-school education.

Conservative political action committee Williamson Families kicked off the local election season with an event attended by hundreds at The Factory in Franklin Tuesday.

The PAC presented their 19 County Commission and Board of Education candidate endorsements. Along with 15 Republicans, the group endorsed four independents. Three of their picks are incumbents.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Should Tennessee children be taught that civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination were a bad thing? On Wednesday, Gov. Bill Lee dodged those questions.

A key instigator in the fights over the teaching of race in classrooms is now promoting the idea of "curriculum transparency," an innocuous-sounding premise that's become the latest battleground in education culture wars.

The Williamson County Schools Board of Education Policy Committee discussed altering Policy 4.043, "Reconsideration of Instructional Materials and Textbooks," at a meeting Monday night.

At the end of last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new guidance on wearing masks, significantly easing recommendations for most of the country, including in schools. In response to the CDC’s new rules, many blue states that still mandated masks in schools announced they would end the requirement, including New York, California, Oregon, and Washington. Now, the only state not planning to end its school mask mandate by mid-march is Hawaii.

NewsChannel5’s Phil Williams has been following the money to find out who is behind efforts to privatize Tennessee’s public schools. It’s no surprise that Lee’s longtime friend Betsy DeVos is among the key backers of privatization.

Last week, the nonprofit College Board, which oversees things like SAT exams and Advanced Placement courses, tentatively waded into the school wars. The board published a new set of principles opposing censorship, supporting academic freedom and, most potently, noting that school bans that affect required subjects for AP courses could result in those classes losing their AP credits. As bans on teaching anything from systemic racism to LGBTQ issues to basic history proliferate around the country, the College Board's statement represents just one way that institutions of higher education are beginning to take a stand.

I’ve got a soft spot for librarians. As a kid, my mom hauled us to the downtown Franklin library every week as far back as I can remember. Even before I could read, I went along as she and my older brother checked out books. After I, too, could read, I got to know all the librarians and I’m still friends with my favorite, who at the time was a college student working part time at the library.

Nashville education blogger TC Weber has a couple of pieces out that break down Gov. Lee’s proposed school funding reform.