New legislation continues to be introduced in advance of the start of committee work this week. We anticipate that education legislation will begin to be placed on calendars for consideration in the next week. Below are several newly proposed bills with potential impacts on music education:

HB 97, sponsored by Rep. Harry Brooks (Knoxville), would require the State Board of Education to contract a national non-profit (not specified) to provide a wide range of efforts to increase the earning of college credits in high school. This includes a provision that the state would pay for all examination fees associated with such courses.

HB 111, sponsored by Rep. Joe Pitts (Clarksville), would allow the commissioner of education to waive licensure requirements for individual teachers at a school district's request. This is likely intended to help rural districts fill hard-to-staff positions. However, there is no language in the bill that would require the district to demonstrate a good-faith effort to fill positions with licensed personnel.

HB 112, sponsored by Rep. John Forgety (Athens), would require every district to offer a "soft skills" course as part of their career and technical education curriculum. Additional mandated course offerings could have impacts on staffing and scheduling that could negatively affect arts supports.

From Christopher Dye, TMEA Advocacy/Government Relations Chair:

TMEA is taking steps to become more involved in actively advocating for music education in the state through monitoring proposed legislation and developing relationships with state representatives and senators.

TMEA, with support from the regional music education associations, the Tennessee Arts Academy, and the National Association of Music Merchants, has contracted the firm Millsaps Gowan Government Relations to monitor proposed legislation for potential impacts on music education and to provide opportunities for TMEA leadership to meet with legislators and hopefully influence the language of bills as they are being considered. As part of this effort, TMEA leadership is receiving regular updates on pertinent proposed legislation and participating in weekly conference calls with Millsaps Gowan. Following these calls, we will be updating this blog to keep the membership informed, scheduling meetings to advocate on behalf of music educators, and encouraging members to contact their legislators and parent groups, as appropriate.

At this stage in the legislative process, a number of bills have been proposed, but no schedules for committee hearings have yet been set. Please note that it is not yet clear which, if any, of the below bills will be moved forward for full consideration. However, these initial proposals may still provide insight into the kinds of initiatives and priorities being considered by the legislators.

Currently proposed:

HB 22, sponsored by Rep. Brooks (Cleveland), would require districts to offer at least six courses that lead to college credit, which could incentivize the creation of more AP or dual credit music offerings.

HB 45, sponsored by Rep. Dunn (Knoxville), would repeal last year's legislation requiring specific time periods of physical activity at each grade level, which in some cases has led to shortening of music instruction, particularly at the elementary level.

HB 67, sponsored by Rep. Smith (Knoxville), would require the state to establish valid individual student growth models for all non-tested subjects and grades by 2018-2019.

SB 14, sponsored by Sen. Green (Clarksville), would implement a wide ranging set of rights of teachers. Among these include the right to physically defend themselves and students from physical violence. Of particular impact to current policy would be provisions c.2 and c.3, which would prohibit teachers from being evaluated by "professionals who do not have the same subject matter expertise as the educator being evaluated" or on the basis of "the performance of students whom the educator has never taught."

We look forward to having a more active role in working with the legislature in implementing education policy and in keeping TMEA's membership aware of pending changes. Please engage with your local representatives as issues emerge during the legislative session and contact me or any other TMEA leadership if there are issues of music education policy you wish to see raised at the state level.