Tennessee is in a golden age with Republican leadership, state Sen. Bo Watson, R-North Chattanooga, said Monday speaking to attendees of the Hamilton County Pachyderm Club meeting.
Republicans in the House and Senate, with the governor’s assistance, have made incredible gains for education, Watson said.
The state senator has served in the General Assembly since 2004 and said one of the reasons for the Volunteer State’s K-12 educational improvements is school choice.
Watson defines school choice as broader than just the Education Freedom Scholarship program, legislation passed at the beginning of the year that gives thousands of families across the state taxpayer funding to put toward private school tuition.
Hamilton County legislators were split on the scholarship program.
(READ MORE: In Hamilton County, public school students outperform tuition grant recipients)
School choice, Watson said, includes charter school growth and the availability to choose for families between academies, magnet schools and certain types of vocational training within traditional public schools. That is what has made an incredible difference in the state’s education, he said.
Tennessee’s first charter school opened in 2003. The state’s charter school sector now has 115 schools serving 44,000 students, 5% of the state’s total student population.
(READ MORE: Gov. Lee’s charter school expansion mission aims beyond Tennessee’s big cities)
Watson pointed to the Tennessee Literacy Success Act that went into effect in 2022 as another point of educational improvement for the state. The law requires school districts to hold back third-graders who do not score proficiently on the English language arts portion of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program test.
The law also allows someone who is approaching proficiency to participate in a summer bridge program to achieve proficiency or receive high-dosage tutoring throughout their fourth-grade year.
“If you cannot read, your world is so restricted … So if there’s one thing that our education system has to guarantee, is that when you leave our system, you will have, you will be able to read,” Watson said. “We have made incredible, a lot of progress to go, but we have made incredible progress in that so as Republicans, give yourself a hand, because you are responsible for this.”
Watson said people can’t just sit around and hope education will improve. It comes from electing Republicans who will work to pass legislation to improve education, he said.
Contact politics reporter Ruby Rayner at rrayner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6556.