As we close out another school year in Tennessee, here's a note to all our teachers, principals, librarians and classroom support staff who help prepare our students for success:

Thank you. This year, you welcomed students back to school with the clear goal of making up for lost classroom time.

After two hard years marked by disruption, health scares and increased retirements, state lawmakers should have greeted you with new resources and a big increase in pay.

Tennessee ranks 2nd to last in the Southeast for student funding. For two years, our caucus has consistently called for a bigger investment in public schools.

Today, Gov. Bill Lee announced a new review the state's funding distribution formula.

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tnsenatedems.medium.com/senators-incre… The distribution formula—also called the Basic Education Program or BEP—determines the percentage of education funding the state sends to each of Tennessee's 146 school districts.

Gov. Bill Lee started budget hearings for 2021. First data point for discussion: the state has lost 158,000 jobs since March, according to economist Bill Fox. Every sector has fewer jobs today than in February — except finance (very small percentage of jobs). #TNBudget #tnpol —Leisure and hospitality down 53,900 jobs
—Manufacturing down 29,600 jobs
—Professional and business service down 22,300 jobs

Bill Fox says the recovery gets harder from here as many of these jobs just won't be coming back. #tnbudget #tnpol

It is impossible to keep #Covid19 out of schools, where the disease endangers students, staff and their families.

We know this because kids are already getting infected. 👇👇

A thread on the challenge of reopening schools and restarting school sports safely in Tennessee: July 25: Two days after reopening public schools in Alcoa, Tenn., city school officials notified parents they'd identified the first confirmed case of #Covid19 wate.com/health/coronav…