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Editor’s Note: The following is the first of a two-part series detailing the events at the annual Legislative Breakfast held this past week, featuring several local leaders. The story has been broken into installments due to its length.

Tennessee legislators made themselves available to local leaders to answer questions and hear concerns on a local level at their annual legislative breakfast, held at Lakeview Country Club.

The event, sponsored by Rogers Group, saw members of the Tullahoma Utilities Authority (TUA), Tullahoma Area Chamber of Commerce (TACC) and Tullahoma City School system (TCS), as well as Coffee County mayor Judd Matheny and Tullahoma aldermen, seated together to deliver their opinions on what the city needs from state representatives going into the new year.

State Representative Rush Bricken and State Senator Janice Bowling were in attendance, with Bowling returning after her absence at last year’s breakfast due to contracting COVID-19. Representative Iris Rudder, who represents Moore County and parts of Franklin and Marion counties in the Tennessee General Assembly, was again not in attendance. No reason was given for her absence.

Dr. Michael Torrence, president of Motlow State Community College, spoke on his appreciation of state and local support for the school’s endeavors, as well as beseeching the legislators to continue financial support for initiatives to expand hands-on and technical learning opportunities for students.

Dr. Catherine Stephens, TCS director of schools, offered her thanks to the legislators on behalf of the school system for their support of the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA), as well as requesting that they continue to support licensure flexibility, which is combatting the current teacher shortage.

She went on to request that the legislators take a closer look at the requirements of the  Tennessee Learning Loss Remediation and Student Acceleration Act, which was approved in 2021 and has gone into effect in 2023. The bill requires that a third grader pass the reading portion of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) or be retained to repeat the grade in the next school year.

“It really needs to be a local decision,” she said. “The preponderance of research says that retention isn’t an intervention that bears out all the time; however, for unique individuals, it can have a positive effect. Those decisions should be local, with the teachers, the parents, the administrator.”

She additionally recommended that the legislators consider requiring multiple points of data to determine potential retention, rather than relying on the TCAP alone.

“One simple point of data that a child had a few hours to participate in might not be the most appropriate measure to determine whether a child can read,” she offered. “Our current third graders, whom this law is connected to, are the students who, in kindergarten, had their school year interrupted by COVID. They are the same students who, in first grade, were either virtual or in-person or back and forth. Now they are third graders, and I would say this year is the closest thing to normal that they have experienced in their school career.”

She suggested that the law should go into effect with the current kindergarteners, to allow parents and educators the time to prepare for the requirements.

Speaking on the educational bills, Bowling confirmed that she voted against the retention bill but additionally said that she had voted against TISA.

“There were too many unanswered questions there,” she said. “There are things that could’ve been done to tweak [it], but I saw no substantive benefit of changing the whole thing. I saw the potential for some control coming from the Department of Education rather than from the funding.”

When speaking on the retention bill, Bowling shared her views on the positives and negatives of the approach taken.

“Obviously we want all kids to be reading by the third grade,” she said. “Those kids have gone through a lot. Right now, if they’re saying if these children do not pass this one particular test, that is a stressful test for little ones, then they would be retained. You say retaining, but we know what that word is: fail. They failed third grade. That has a totally different connotation. There should not be that stress on any child as they go into that test. The child right now is the victim, and if you’ve got two-thirds of the children that aren’t reading, there’s something bigger than the child’s ability to read at play.”

She confirmed that she had been discussing the bill with others in the Tennessee capitol building and that she opposed the bill at its face.

Bricken expressed his agreement that basing retention on one test score is not enough data, but he did not agree that the entire bill needed to be revised.

“I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater,” he said. “I think some criteria for the advancement of our children is needed. You can have a couple of tests and some kind of a matrix that will make it reasonable that the right children are being advanced and not all of them are being categorized as failures based on one test.”

Stephen Worsham, city attorney, spoke on the importance of allowing local leadership and government to make decisions for their communities, over increased control by state or national leadership. He additionally expressed his support for Stephens’ comments on the retention bill.

“I’m a home rule fella’,” he said. “I think the more we can allow local people and local governments to control their destiny, the better off we are in this country. We know what’s best for Tullahoma. We’ve got a lot of good citizens in this town that are dedicated to the betterment of our community.”

Alderman Daniel Berry expressed his agreement with the sentiments shared by Stephens and Worsham.

“The only time that you’ll really hear me gripe is when you get into our business a little too much,” he remarked. “I understand that there is some framework. Give us a sandbox, but let us make some of those decisions. If you are going to dictate, be a little more specific. Sometimes the state will dictate some things that have gray areas.”

He additionally requested that the legislators consider providing funding to encourage cooperation between municipality and county governments.

Winston Brooks, executive director of the Tullahoma Area Economic Development Corporation (TAEDC), offered his thanks for the legislators’ past and continuing support of the city, allowing investors to promote businesses in the area.

“As you know, it is very difficult to be able to grow on this scale, and we need these advantages,” he said. “Fortunately, in Tullahoma, we are experiencing a boom, and most commercial and industrial sites are full. We are working to develop new sites and retail centers.”

He further said that the cooperation with the Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC) and the air force base provides a unique benefit to the community. He referenced a conversation with base commander Col. Randel J. Gordon, emphasizing the importance of research and development of technology at AEDC.

“Everyone knows the importance of the work that is being done out there in the field of hypersonics,” he said. “We are working to create an innovation center and provide more support to entrepreneurs that live in our area. We know that our next growth will come to us from existing companies, their expansions and startups.”

He requested that the legislators invest in expanding Tennessee and Tullahoma’s budget in national defense research and development.

Col. Beverly Lee, chair of Dream Tullahoma, Inc. and member of the Tullahoma Economic Development Board, spoke about the concept for an innovation center referenced by Brooks.

“Not only would it help us with innovative ideas from all of the scientists and engineers that are working in the center, as well as companies in the area, but it would also inspire the local region with what we can do, have done and are capable of,” she said. “Anybody who comes through Tennessee thinks we have the best distillery in the world, but we also have the best testing and research and development center in the world. People just don’t know it.”

Alderman Jenna Amacher seconded sentiments about increased independence in local government decisions, as well as supporting requests for local infrastructure improvements. She additionally recommended that the city and local area leaders hold a tourism summit to determine how Tullahoma might support new industry and innovators.