The Knox County Board of Education has identified the following legislative priorities for 2024:
LOCAL CONTROL
Local boards of education are best equipped and informed to make decisions regarding the needs and challenges of their local schools. The Knox County Board of Education urges State legislative bodies and regulatory agencies to seek input from local boards and to determine the full impact on LEAs before acting on proposed legislation, regulations, and guidelines.
ACADEMIC AND RETENTION DECISIONS
The Knox County Board of Education urges the General Assembly to allow school districts the ability to make retention decisions for third and fourth grade students based on school district information on each individual student and clarify that the decisions regarding student retention or promotion shall be made by the professional staff of each school district in coordination with the student’s parents/guardians.
TISA/FUNDING
The Knox County Board of Education appreciates our legislator’s recent attention to funding needs and urges the General Assembly to ensure TISA includes sufficient funding in future growth models to allow for programmatic sustainability. The Board also urges the General Assembly to allocate funds for preschool special needs students and the required typical peers in the TISA funding formula.
TEACHER EVALUATION
The Knox County Board of Education embraces evaluations as a critical professional development and instructional improvement tool. The Board urges the General Assembly and State Board to develop guidelines and criteria for teacher evaluation models using local educator input and multiple measures that adequately represent performance and course content, including the use of benchmark assessments as an evaluation component.
STRENGTHEN AND SUPPORT SCHOOL PERSONNEL
The Knox County Board of Education urges the General Assembly to provide incentives for individuals to enter the teaching profession, such as:
- Fund PRAXIS tests for teacher candidates and for those adding endorsements or teachers who previously held an active license.
- Allow the Commissioner of Education to grant temporary permits for courses in which an end-of-course examination is required.
REVIEW AND CORRECT UNNECESSARY REQUIREMENTS
The Knox County Board of Education urges the Governor, General Assembly, and State Board of Education to establish a comprehensive, collaborative, and thoughtful review of Tennessee laws, rules, regulations, and policies governing teachers and to make improvements that will reduce workloads to facilitate teacher focus on the mission of educating Tennessee’s children.
Processes, procedures, reporting, and burdensome data collection should be streamlined and simplified (or eliminated, when possible) to allow more time for teaching and learning.
ABILITY TO CONDUCT LOTTERIES FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES
The Knox County Board of Education urges the General Assembly to enact an amendment to Article XI, Section 5, of the Tennessee Constitution to allow Boards of Education to conduct lotteries or lottery-type events to obtain funds that will be solely and exclusively used to supplement the educational and extracurricular programs officially recognized and approved by said Boards of Education.