New Tennessee Bill Would Benefit Students Forced to Learn Remotely Due to COVID-19
January 18, 2022 | Tennessee
Members of the Tennessee Senate Education Committee are scheduled to consider a bill this week that would, if enacted into law, expand Educational Savings Accounts, also known as ESAs.
Senator Mike Bell (R-Riceville) said Monday that at least one school district in Tennessee, in Collierville, moved students to remote learning this month, as Chalkbeat Tennessee reported.
Tennessee law mandates that students take 180 days of in-person learning.
“This bill [SB 1674] expands ESA’s to be offered to any parent whose child goes to a school or attends a school that is within a district and that district chooses not to offer 180 days of in-person learning,” Bell told The Tennessee Star on Monday.
“Our school districts are there to serve and educate our children and if they choose not to offer 180 days in-person learning, which state law requires them to do, then I think it is important that those parents be offered a choice to take money that would go to educate their child within that school district and use it in a school of their choice.”
Recent studies reveal that students do not perform well when they stay home and learn remotely, Bell said. The senator did not cite any of those studies… (Excerpts from the Tennessee Star)
