Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey speaks to reporters in his office in Nashville, Tenn., on Tuesday, March 22, 2011. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)SCHOOL CHANGESTennessee, with some of the nation's worst student achievement scores, has enacted ambitious reforms that helped win a $500 million federal Race to the Top grant and put the state on the national stage. They include:• Tougher teacher tenure laws• More-rigorous curriculum• New teacher evaluation system• Putting consistently failing schools in a special district• Abolishing collective bargaining• Expanding charter schoolsSource: Tennessee Legislature
NASHVILLE -- Tennessee's House and Senate Republican leaders could be at odds next year over legislation requiring school voucher programs in Hamilton County and Tennessee's three other largest school systems.
Republican Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey says he is fired up about new legislation that retools a bill to let children from lower-income families use taxpayer dollars to attend private and religious schools.
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