A Tennessee lawmaker has postponed a bill that details a process for the state to take over school districts falling short of their academic goals.
Without comment and amid a flurry of other legislation, Sen. Joey Hensley delayed the measure in the Senate Education Committee until next year.
Staff for Hensley referred all questions to Rep. Scott Cepicky, the bill’s House sponsor. Cepicky said Friday that he supports the delay until January of 2022, when lawmakers will kick off the second year of the two-year legislative session.
The action backs off of a proposal that has escalated tension between GOP lawmakers and school systems in Memphis and Nashville over reopening school buildings during the pandemic.
Two Nashville Democrats, Reps. Mike Stewart and Bo Mitchell, said the bill is aimed at those districts, which also are in litigation with the state over school funding and vouchers. They warned of an impending “power grab” in Tennessee’s two largest cities, where the state already has taken over low-performing schools and assigned them to charter operators that mostly have struggled to improve them.