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A legislative proposal that could have led to larger class sizes in Tennessee died Tuesday in its first vote in the House.
The bill, which easily passed out of the full Senate earlier this month, would have eliminated the state’s average class size mandates and had appeared to have sufficient support for passage in the House’s K-12 subcommittee.
But Chairman Kirk Haston, a Lobelville Republican who works for Perry County Schools, declared the measure had failed on a close voice vote following spirited debate.
The bill’s abrupt ending means Tennessee will retain required classroom average sizes that essentially set the state’s goal for districts and charter schools to follow: 20 students per classroom for kindergarten through third grade, 25 for grades 4-6 and 30 for grades 7-12.