Tennessee Gov. Bill HaslamNASHVILLE – Gov. Bill Haslam today acknowledged his plan to give local schools flexibility to increase average class sizes is getting pushback from educators and lawmakers, but he remained optimistic a workable agreement can be reached.
“It has met with mixed reviews,” the Republican said at a luncheon hosted by the Tennessee Press Association and The Associated Press. “I guess that’s the charitable way of putting it.”
He argued Tennessee is “the only state with a maximum class size and a maximum average class size.”
On Thursday, Republican Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey said officials haven’t done a good job selling the proposal to school administrators and parents, who fear systems will pack classrooms to the limit.
“I think the governor will agree with me we could have done a better job explaining this to the local school system,” Ramsey told reporters at the Tennessee Press Association’s annual winter meeting.