MEMPHIS, Tenn. —
A group of frustrated Shelby County educators are taking a trip to the State Capitol.
The Memphis-Shelby County Education Association oppose several bills making their way through the Tennessee General Assembly and want to make sure their voices are heard by state lawmakers.
The Memphis-Shelby County Education Association is joining efforts to stop the expansion of school vouchers, which use taxpayer money to send kids to private schools.
Since public school funding is based on enrollment, educators like Charlotte Fields worry about what this could mean for the future of public schools in Tennessee.
"We still have to do the same services with less people, with less funds," Fields said. "You're looking at the voucher only taking away the child... . We're looking at it taking away a whole experience they missed in public schools.”
Another proposal that has caused controversy since the 2023 legislative session is in response to the deadly shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville in March 2023. Tennessee Democratic Party State Executive Committeewoman Rosemary Winters is a long-time educator that wants to keep children safe but disagrees with a bill held on the desk in 2023 that would allow faculty to carry a gun.
"It's putting our teachers, our staff and students in an unsafe environment,” Winters said.
Another bill that would only impact Shelby County would allow the state to appoint six new Memphis-Shelby County School Board members. This is the last bill that the group of local educators wants to make sure lawmakers know they are strongly against.
"Our citizens go to the polls to vote, and our citizens in Shelby County are capable of selecting qualified, professional members of the school board,” Winters said.
The educators hope to make their voices heard before any legislation potentially heads to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk to be signed into law. In the future, Sarah Harper, who has been teaching for 28 years, hopes lawmakers will come to them first before drafting education-related bills.
"Ask us what we want that will improve systems, because we're there every day in the trenches working with those children, and yet they still don't ask us,” Harper said.
The Memphis-Shelby County Education Association will leave for Nashville on Monday, Feb. 26.
