I believe that every child deserves the right to a good education. We need to put our children first, value our teachers, and ensure that every child in the Metro area has the opportunity to go a strong school, regardless of their neighborhood.
Education will boost the workforce, reduce crime, and improve healthy outcomes and quality of life in Nashville. We need to create incentives to attract and keep the best educators. As your mayor, I will be an adamant ambassador for our schools, helping to recruit the best and brightest educators to Nashville and making the city a place that our best current teachers want to stay and live in.
Too much of the conversation about Metro Nashville Public Schools has been dominated by the warring factions
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There are currently 150 languages spoken by students in Metro schools, nearly 13,000 students are English language learners, and 72% of our students are economically disadvantaged.
We must encourage innovation in the school system and create new solutions in addition to improving upon the existing system. Some of the ways we can work towards this goal are by:
Assessing Metro Public Schools cluster by cluster instead of one-size-fits-all. This will help us determine the best ways to allocate resources. Some schools’ greatest need is teachers; for others, it’s facility improvements or programs.
Re-evaluating the public schools’ percentage of the Metro budget to ensure that they are getting adequate funding.
Repairing and renovating older and crowded school facilities.
Working toward universal pre-kindergarten so that all of our kids get a strong early start in their cognitive development.
Expanding and implementing Community Schools, which would offer wraparound services for students. These schools would include before and after school programs, expanded meal services, and health care for students. These services are not just for the students, they are also offered for the students’ families and the entire