When Tennessee state lawmakers go back to work next month, among the bills they will consider is a measure to pay student teachers. The idea is backed by House Speaker Cameron Sexton.
Tennessee has a teacher shortage and this is seen as a way to make the profession more attractive. Nine other states already pay their student teachers and a tenth has a bill in the pipeline. Student teachers in neighboring Kentucky receive 5-thousand dollars to compensate them for the required 70-days of student teaching. Speaker Sexton, a Crossville Republican also wants to expand the new Education Freedom Scholarships. Twenty thousand Tennessee families received more than 7-thousand dollars in state funds this year to help pay for private school tuition. Sexton is on record as wanting to double that to 40-thousand. He also wants to remove the income cap to receive those scholarships. Can the state afford to do that and pay student teachers?
“The only reason this isn’t an obvious decision is because we’re funneling 144-million into a voucher program that already benefits families that can overwhelmingly afford private school and were sending their children to private school,” said Gracie Freeman, a Democratic Party Organizer from Nashville. Fellow Democrat Jasper Hendricks, who chairs the Nashville Fair Board, says there may be more substantial ways to make teaching more appealing. He points to neighboring Arkansas where a public private partnership uses a housing model to attract prospective teachers. “Where teachers can do a 15-hundred dollar a month lease for five years. And at the end of that time, they get a check for 50-thousand dollars for a down payment for a home,” Hendricks explained. Conservative political analyst Steve Gill thinks working to alleviate Tennessee’s teacher shortage is a step in the right direction, he fears we may be missing the big picture. “We need to get these teachers into the classroom but we have a bigger problem, they’re leaving. Why are they leaving? They’re getting beat up by students.” Other topics this week on Nashville in Focus include a new state audit outlining concerning issues at the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services and the latest on efforts to kill auto racing at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.
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