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Friday, October 30, 2026Oct 30

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Cooper: The future is here for students

Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson, right, and Chattanooga 2.0 executive director Dr. Jared Bigham were among those instrumental in launching the district's Future Ready Institutes.
Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson, right, and Chattanooga 2.0 executive director Dr. Jared Bigham were among those instrumental in launching the district's Future Ready Institutes. Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson, right, and Chattanooga 2.0 executive director Dr. Jared Bigham were among those instrumental in launching the district's Future Ready Institutes.

The future of education has arrived in Hamilton County.

It’s not a moment too soon.

Starting this fall, rising freshmen students in Hamilton County will have the opportunity to enroll in one of 17 school-within-a-school settings in 11 high schools that can help align them for success in future careers.

“We have evolved as a society,” Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson told editors and reporters at the Times Free Press Thursday. “Education has to change.”

Future Ready Institutes will allow students, beginning in ninth grade, to lean into career fields – from aviation to web design – that interest them. And while their new learning communities will concentrate on specific career themes, their core content areas of English, math, science and social studies will be taught through the lens of those themes.