Once Tennessee secured $500 million in federal money to turn around its education system, it was up to individual school districts to decide how to spend their money.
The largest five of the 136 school districts in the state – Memphis City, Metro Nashville and Hamilton, Shelby and Knox counties, which enroll about 39 percent of the state’s students – received one-quarter of the money, or about $129 million.
Assuming each district makes progress on the goals it outlined, officials will receive money over the course of four years.
The bulk of the money in each system will be spent on various forms of professional development for teachers and principals, as well as stipends for teachers who do extra work such as summer programs and model teaching.
Officials with the U.S. Department of Education now are looking over all of Tennessee’s plans, along with the total statewide budget. State officials hope both will be approved in the next several weeks so districts can start receiving funds right before school starts.