Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton had a stern warning for Memphis Shelby County School Board Members: get it together or we will run your local public schools.
MSCS school board members are days away from a final vote that would fire MSCS Superintendent Dr. Marie Feagins.
Sexton (R – Crossville) told reporters: “If the school system, or the school board, goes through with this, there are options that we have. There are nuclear options. We could come in and start running the schools ourselves.”Gov. Bill Lee (R) and other Tennessee lawmakers have voiced their support for Feagins, encouraging the school district to work together for the future of students in the state’s largest school district.
“We need to move forward in every school district in this state, we don’t need to be stagnant, we certainly don’t need to go backwards. So, I’m hopeful that she will be given the opportunity to continue the work,” Lee said.
Rep. Mark White (R – Germantown), who chairs the education committee in Nashville, told KWAM “all options are on the table” if the drama surrounding Feagins continues. White described the Superintendent as the “change” needed to fix the broken school district.
“At some point, the state and the community has to say what is best for these students. We cannot accept, anymore, the lowest-performing school system in our state is in Shelby County,” Sexton said.