Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen has called a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly to address changes in Tennessee's education laws and standards so that Tennessee will be in a better position applying for federal "Race to the Top" education funding when the grant applications are due January 19th. The Governor has called the special session for January 12th:
The governor Tuesday said he would call a special session of the legislature to convene Jan. 12 to take up that issue and others needed to make Tennessee an attractive candidate for millions of dollars in federal grant money being awarded by the U.S. Department of Education.
The proposed changes include requiring teacher and principal performance evaluations to be based on data, to require tenure decisions to be made on those evaluations, and to mandate annual teacher assessments. The changes would also create a special “recovery school district” to allow state intervention sooner in failing schools. Those proposals must be signed into law before the grant application is due Jan. 19, Bredesen said.
I'm not against these proposals per se, but the idea of calling a special session to pass them seems a bit much when it is being called on a day when the General Assembly was scheduled to sit anyway-if memory serves me, January 12 was to be the first day of the new session. Is there any good reason why the General Assembly can't organize the calendar so that these reforms are the first item of business, even making sure that the Education and Calendar and Rules committees meet that day or the next in order to shepherd this legislation through?
Calling a special session seems to be a drastic step that is aimed at doing nothing more than insuring that the General Assembly does not use any of its 90 legislative days taking care of this educational grant question. The General Assembly is only constitutionally allowed to meet in session for 90 days in a two-year period, but days spent in a special session do not count against that total. Hence, a special session is being called in order to prevent the General Assembly from using part of their alloted business days to conduct business.
Perish the thought!
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