A bill moving through the Tennessee legislature could prohibit schools from using public funds to sue the state over improvement directives.
On Thursday, the Tennessee Senate passed an amended bill prohibiting local education agencies (LEAs) from using public funds to pursue legal action against the state for imposing “accountability measures.” The bill is sponsored by Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Memphis.)
Taylor said accountability measures include things such as report cards, standardized tests, and performance ratings. He said the districts would be able to sue over the enforcement of these measures, but would have to use private funds.
“When we establish accountability measures for our local school districts, what we don’t want is for them to take public dollars which were intended for educating students in a classroom and use those dollars then to sue the state, only because we’ve established accountability measures in an effort to improve educational outcomes for those schools,” Taylor said.
Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) pointed to previous challenges that used public funds to make sure the state was complying with legal requirements regarding educational funding and said these were foundational in Tennessee.
Yarbro asked why would Taylor want to take away measures for schools to “make sure the law is followed.”
Taylor said the bill does not apply to suing the state over funding issues, however Yarbro said just because the bill is specific to accountability systems it doesn’t mean there won’t be financial consequences.
“What this does is effectively give the department free rein to disregard the laws we enact,” Yarbro said. “We’re giving the state a permission slip to not follow the law. It seems incredibly bizarre that we would make the accountability measures unaccountable to anyone.”
Sen. Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis) said the legislation seems to remedy a problem that doesn’t exist and asked Taylor what his motivation was for pursuing the bill.
Taylor said the state spends money on implementing accountability measures, and school districts may take issue with that. He said it doesn’t stop them from pursuing litigation but ensures that educational dollars are spent on “educating a child and not engaging in a lawsuit against the state.”
He added that constituents expect lawmakers to hold school districts accountable.
Akbari said she understood that the districts would be able to pursue litigation in these instances with private funds, but urged the Senate to think about smaller districts. She added that just because accountability measures are in place, doesn’t mean they’re right.
“When we send tax dollars to our school districts it’s for a host of things,” Akbari said. “If there are measures the district believes is punitive to their students in a way that’s not moving them forward, surely we would want them to be able to have the tools they need to fight.”
The bill passed the Senate with 25 ayes and 6 nays and is scheduled to be heard in the House Education committee on March 31.