Tennessee Voices, Episode 248: Victor Evans, executive director, TennesseeCAN
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The topic of public education elicits a broad range of emotions and ideas about if it's working, if it is getting enough money and if the money is being invested in the right way.
Recently, Gov. Bill Lee and the Tennessee Department of Education agreed to start looking deeply into the state funding model with 18 subcommittees focused on a different aspect of the education equation and town hall meetings throughout the state.
Victor Evans, executive director of TennesseeCAN, is the chairman of the Economically Disadvantaged and Highly Mobile Students Subcommittee.
His nonprofit advocates for student-first policies in Tennessee and he spoke about his work on this episode of the Tennessee Voices podcast.
Evans, a former classroom teacher, recently wrote a guest essay about what he calls "student-focused school funding" and he supports parents being able to take public dollars and investing them in the best education option for their children.
Governor Lee's signature Education Savings Account, which passed by one vote in the Tennessee House of Representatives, has been challenged in court, and the state Supreme Court plans to hear arguments in February. So far, lower courts have sided against the governor.
The COVID-19 pandemic, however, severely disrupted schools and Evans discussed how it exacerbated the inequities that harm lower-income children.
Op-Ed by Victor Evans: It’s time for student-focused school funding in Tennessee
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The Tennessee Voices videocast is a 20-minute program, which started in March 2020 and invites leaders, thinkers and innovators who have written guest columns for a USA TODAY Network Tennessee publication to share their insights and wisdom with me and our viewers.
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David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee and an editorial board member of The Tennessean. Tweet to him at @davidplazas.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Voices with Victor Evans, executive director of TennesseeCAN
