Senate Education Committee advances nominees, adopts policies and moves several education measures to calendar

The Tennessee Senate Education Committee met in session to consider nominations, standards-committee appointments, and a package of education bills and resolutions. Committee members heard brief testimony from nominees for the Public Charter School Commission and for English language arts standards committees, reviewed a textbook commission reappointment, and debated several bills before moving most to the committee calendar or next committee stop.

The meeting opened with confirmations for the Public Charter School Commission. Eddie Smith introduced his five years of service on the commission and said the body had worked to “stand up” the commission, hire an executive director and set academic and business operations policies. Terrence Patterson, chair of the commission’s academic accountability committee, said the commission’s priority is “to authorize more high-quality schools and school options across the state” and described his experience as a district chief of staff and parent.

The committee then considered nominations to the English language arts standards committee. Lucas Hillard and Brittany Singletary each described their classroom experience—Hillard as an AP and high-school English teacher and Singletary as a fifth-grade teacher who said she uses the standards daily in planning. Senators questioned nominees about standards wording, grade-level focus, and how the standards relate to curriculum and text selection; candidates emphasized that standards define expected skills while curriculum decisions (choice of texts) are separate.

Later the committe…