A Tennessee commission in charge of approving textbooks is also getting the final say on what library books get banned. WPLN News obtained a draft copy of how they’ll handle those challenges.
From a new school funding formula to the battle over charter schools, here are Tennessee’s top education stories from 2022
Tennessee saw major changes in 2022 to how it pays for education and who gets to administer and regulate it. These are some of the top developments in education this year.
From redistricting to anti-LGBTQ bills: WPLN’s top political stories of 2022
From voting to abortion to LGBTQ issues, Republican lawmakers left no stone unturned in 2022.
A Tennessee commission will issue guidance to school districts fielding calls for book bans
A controversial new law gave Tennessee’s textbook commission more power over school library materials. But their first action item about libraries isn’t a hard-and-fast rule, and largely reinforces what schools are already doing.
Sumner County School Board votes to keep a children’s book on shelves, despite calls for a ban
The Sumner County School Board voted this week not to ban the book “A Place Inside of Me.” The book has a poem and illustrations showing a Black child navigating his emotions in the aftermath of a police shooting.
Critical race theory was one of the hottest topics in Tennessee’s legislative session, but only one complaint made it to the state’s education chief
Tennessee lawmakers have been smack dab in the middle of the national hoopla about bans limiting what can be discussed about race and gender in public schools. But during the most recent school years, only one complaint was filed, and it was denied.
What’s the Tennessee textbook commission? A new law could empower the board to ban books statewide.
Conservative parents have complained that some districts are allowing material that isn’t age appropriate. So, Republican lawmakers are creating a new pathway to give a handpicked commission power over what books are allowed.
When McMinn County banned ‘Maus,’ one Franklin mom and her kid started reading it for book club
When Catie Fein and her eighth-grader, AJ, heard that the McMinn County school board had voted to ban Maus, they decided to fight back. So, they founded their own book club to read the Pulitzer Prize-winning Holocaust memoir together in Catie’s home in Franklin.
At the statehouse: Republican lawmakers move to erase LGBTQ issues from schools, slap librarians with misdemeanors and threaten felonies for abortion pill providers
The General Assembly has kicked into high gear as we cross the halfway mark of session. This week featured hours-long debates, increasingly punitive bills and protests outside the capitol.
Williamson County is removing one book from its curriculum. But some parents want to see more texts banned.
Williamson County Schools will not be banning more books — at least not for now.
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