Senate advances Shelby County "challenged school district" bill after hours of debate

The Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee on April 16 recommended passage to the calendar of Senate Bill 7/14 as amended, a measure that defines a "challenged school district" and creates a nine-member oversight or advisory board and other interventions for districts that meet specified poverty and academic-performance criteria.

Sponsor Senator Jon Taylor, explaining the amended bill to the committee, said the legislation "is not a takeover bill" but rather "an advisory bill to help them get the school district back in shape." He told the committee the measure is aimed at districts with sustained low performance and significant economic disadvantage and would give the commissioner of education and the State Board of Education a set of limited intervention tools.

Under the bill as explained in committee, a district qualifies as a challenged district if at least 50% of students are economically disadvantaged, the district fails to meet expectations in math and English, and the district has at least one school placed on the state's priority list in each of the last five priority lists issued by the Department of Education. Once a district meets those criteria the commissioner of education may, with the consent of the State Board of…