Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) detailed several education proposals for the upcoming legislative session of the Tennessee General Assembly, including expanding school choice, creating a new teacher preparation pathway, and revising how K–8 instruction is structured.
On Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Sexton outlined several initiatives he believes will strengthen Tennessee’s public education system, including his primary area of focus of expanding the state’s school choice program.
Sexton noted that more than 40,000 families applied for education freedom scholarships this year, despite only 20,000 being available, indicating significant demand for the program.
“There’s definitely a need there and a demand for it. So hopefully we can get that increase to another 20,000 to get to 40,000, which would be very beneficial to meet that need,” Sexton said.
Sexton also discussed a proposed new pathway to help address the state’s teacher shortage, particularly in early grades.
Explaining how Tennessee is currently short at roughly 2,000 teachers, Sexton argued that a specialized, accelerated two-year teaching degree offered through community colleges could help fill the gap.
He said such a program would focus on preparing teachers for Pre-K through fifth grade, emphasizing practical classroom skills in reading, writing, and math.
“We’re 2,000 teachers short, we need more teachers, but we also need them to be specialized and accelerated for those grades, for reading, writing, and math, and really teach them what to do in a classroom,” Sexton explained.
“I think a lot of times, a four year degree is great, but sometimes they’re not prepared when they come out of that four year degree to teach. So with a two-year community college that’s a blank slate that we can create, I think would be very beneficial for our state,” he added.
Sexton emphasized how individuals pursuing the two-year option would still be required to meet academic standards such as internships and the Praxis exam, and they would retain the option to pursue a bachelor’s degree later.
He said the structure would mirror tiered training models used in healthcare and would allow prospective teachers to enter the profession with little or no debt through Tennessee Promise.
“I think it’s a very good possibility to use our community colleges which would keep people home and with Tennessee Promise, they would come out owing no debt. Whereas at a four-year college, you come out owing debt, which is not great for teachers,” Sexton said.
Another component of Sexton’s framework in strengthening Tennessee public education involves restructuring how students are grouped for core subjects in K–8.
Instead of placing children strictly by age or grade level, Sexton said he supports organizing reading and math instruction by ability.
“When you’re in college, you don’t move on to your sophomore, junior year until you accumulate more credits. So just because this is my second year in college doesn’t mean that it’s my sophomore year. I could still be a freshman based on how many classes I took and whatever. But also in college and also in high school, you’re in classes with people who are older and younger than you,” Sexton noted.
He went on to describe a model in which all students take core subjects at the same time each day but attend classes aligned to their skill level, saying such approach would allow teachers to focus instruction more effectively and help students progress at an appropriate pace
“Whatever you define as your core classes…you’re in it based upon your ability. So, for example, you could be in a sixth grade reading class, but you could also be in a fourth grade math class. You’re in with the people that have the same ability, so the teacher can teach to those people of those abilities and you’ll see much more success,” Sexton said.
Sexton agreed that if these changes were to be implemented, Tennessee would “absolutely be leading the way in education.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
