Live from Music Row, Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed State Representative Scott Cepicky (R-Maury County) to the newsmaker line to talk about the need for classroom supply funding and making the teaching profession more attractive to college-bound students.
Leahy: We welcome to our newsmaker line now by a very good friend, State Representative Scott Cepicky, who represents Maury County. Good morning, Representative Cepicky.
Cepicky: Hey. Good morning, Michael. I just wanted to say thanks for allowing me to come on here and make sure we keep that football player for the Buffalo Bills in everybody’s prayers.
Leahy: Yes, we are praying for Damar Hamlin. We sure are. Thanks so much for that comment. And of course, you played professional sports, you played AAA baseball, almost had a shot at the big leagues, and we’re a punter in NCAA Big Ten for Wisconsin. So you’ve experienced hits on the field, and we’re praying for Damar Hamlin.
Let’s talk about your bill. It’s shocking to me that apparently K-12 public school teachers in Tennessee, there’s not enough money in most classrooms to provide basic classroom supplies. Were you shocked when you found that out?
Cepicky: Yes, Michael, you’re right. I’ve been traveling all over the state talking to teachers and talking to educators, and one of the things they kept coming back to me with was if they had more money for classroom supplies to help these kids learn, that they think they could move the needle even further than what it started.
And so we got to thinking about this, and we looked at it and started talking to teachers about how much they actually spend on their classrooms. And it ranges all over, but it kind of settles into about the $500 to $600 range. And so that’s why we raised it up from $200 to $500.
Leahy: In the bill that was passed before this new Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement bill, that bill included $200 for classroom supplies for each teacher that’s going to begin in the 2023-2024 school year. The upcoming school year. But before that, they were paying out of their own pocket often, is that right?
Cepicky: That’s correct. That $200 has been set in stone I believe, for over a decade. And you and I both know, just at the pump, $200 doesn’t buy what it used to buy. And so trying to adjust for that a little bit and trying to be more trusting and more behind our teachers and what they’re trying to invest in their classrooms to make them the best learning environment possible, we thought that this was a step in the right direction.
Leahy: So you’ve talked to a lot of teachers about this, right?
Cepicky: Yes.
Leahy: And I’ve talked to some as well, and I’ve heard often that they pay for these classroom supplies out of their own pocket. And really the right thing to do is to have it paid for by the taxpayers, it seems to me. What do they use these funds for, typically in their classrooms?
Cepicky: Sometimes what will happen is they’ll find something unique that they want to use for their classroom. All classrooms are different, Michael, depending on urban, rural, and suburban. And so some of the classrooms, if you’ve been to them, they’ll be different.
According to the region they are. And teachers want to use that money to buy classroom-specific things, maybe having extra pencils, extra crayons, and extra markers for the kids that can’t afford them, that have them available for them so that they can do the work just like all the other kids.
But it’s basically trying to give the teachers the ability to assess their classroom and purchase things that they need for their classroom as an individual classroom, to give them the autonomy and freedom that they need.
Leahy: Going forward, do the teachers spend the money out of their own pockets and then get reimbursed, or is there a $500 check they get at the beginning of the school year and they have to account for that expenditure? How is that going to work?
Cepicky: It’s very simple, Michael. What they do is the teacher will be allotted an account of $500. And they can do it either way at the local education level, the school board level, or at the school level, that they can have an account set up with the money just sitting there that they can use. And the school accountant will keep track of that. Or they can do it at the district level, where they just send in their receipts, and they get reimbursed automatically.
Leahy: Either way.
Cepicky: Yes. That’s the whole thing. It was to leave it open so that the LEAs can make the decision they want.
Leahy: LEA is the local education agency in most cases that’s the county school district. But we have what, 147 LEAs in the state, 95 counties, is that right?
Cepicky: That’s correct. And that’s why I want to leave them the flexibility to choose what’s the best way to administer that. You’re in Davidson County right now. With the number of schools that they have, they’re going to need to be a little bit more flexible than maybe Wayne County or something.
Leahy: It seems to me this probably is going to help teacher morale.
Cepicky: Yes. Well, one of the things we’re struggling with, Michael, and I don’t know if you’re aware of this, over the next five years, out of our 87,000 teachers, there are 20,000 that are eligible for retirement. If that happens, Michael, we’ve got a crisis in education.
We just don’t have enough teachers to fill the ranks. And so one of the things we’re trying to do in the General Assembly is to make education as a teacher more attractive to more people when they go to college.
And one of the things we can do is take a burden off their wallet and make sure that they have everything they need in the classroom to do what they’ve signed up to do, and that’s teach kids.
Leahy: When is the Tennessee General Assembly going to convene and what’s the what are the big agenda items beyond this bill that you have?
Cepicky: We’re going to convene on January 10tg, coming up this Tuesday. And then we will break for what the Speaker said roughly about two weeks for organization. Then we’ll get back to work. The bill filing deadline is now January 31st.
It used to be the middle of February, but he’s moved it up two weeks. In education, some of the things we’re working on is the discipline in the classrooms. We’re working on kindergarten and the start age.
Possibly an assessment for kindergarteners to see where they are for our teachers. And then the big one everybody’s talking about, Michael, is the retention bill for third grade. What’s the issue there?
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Scott Cepicky” by State Representative Scott Cepicky. Background Photo “Classroom” by Wokandapix.
