KINGSPORT, Tenn. (WJHL) — Local Tennessee state senator Jon Lundberg proposed a bill last week to give power back to the local school districts when deciding their class sizes.
He says he proposed the change after hearing a need from school districts.
Lundberg, who chairs the Tennessee Senate Education Committee, says he has gotten a lot of concern about growing class sizes and thinks the matter should be decided by local school districts.
“[The] expectation is if a locality, wherever the state decided to say, ‘hey, we’re going to have 75 kids in this 5th grade class,'” Lundberg said. “Your local school board is going to have every parent in town at your doorstep the next day saying this is inappropriate.”
Kingsport City Schools Assistant Superintendent Dr. Andy True said a good learning environment for students is the goal.
“That has been, I think historically, something where yes we look at those class size maximums and the requirements that the law states and also what can we do internally to get those class sizes as small as possible to provide the learning environments that we really wish to provide for our community,” True said.
Lundberg specified that issues such as funding to schools and the 3rd grade retention law are completely separate from his proposed bill.
The bill is still in its early stages and needs to be assigned to a committee in both the Senate and House before any discussions will take place.
