A bill that would have required the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) to test all rape kits submitted to the law enforcement body within 30 days has died on the floor of the Tennessee House.
HB 0104 did not pass the House Finance, Ways and Means Subcommittee’s proposed budget bill.
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One Democratic leader in the Tennessee House is questioning the need for a special session to address education topics.
State Representative Vincent Dixie (D-Nashville), chairman of the Democratic House Caucus, is skeptical, Fox 17 News reported.
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Vice President Mike Pence is visiting Memphis on Sunday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
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Every time we see legislation that adds to the teacher workload, we look very cautiously at it. —JC Bowman
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A charter school in Memphis hired an interim principal knowing he had a felony conviction, reports WMC Action News 5 in Memphis. Koai Matthews of Lester Prep was convicted and sentenced to probation for conspiracy and counterfeiting in 2006, according to court documents from Missouri obtained by WMC. The school knew of the conviction, but didn’t report it to Tennessee’s Achievement School District, which they are not obligated to do under state law, according to WMC. The ASD, which learned of the felony conviction through an anonymous tip, is now reviewing its hiring policies for charter school operators. “We’re not disagreeing with the hiring of certain individuals, we just want to be informed on who those individuals are,” said Robert “Bobby” White, chief of external affairs for the ASD. Matthews is keeping his job and told WMC that he uses his past to teach students to make better choices than he did. The ASD was created by the state legislature in 2010 to turn around struggling schools as part of former President Obama’s Race to the Top program. After news broke of the interim principal with a felony conviction, state Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, wrote to state education commissioner Candice McQueen…
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