Senator Lamar Alexander: The Message is Clear – Children Need to Be in School

Comments from the Senate floor by Senator Lamar Alexander: Data from Governor Bill Lee and the Tennessee Department of Education projects a dramatic decrease in proficiency— 65 percent in math, 50 percent in reading— among third-graders as a result of COVID-19 school closures in March through this summer. The message is clear: children need to be in school. 

The good news is that, according to the governor, 1,800 schools in Tennessee are open, in person, and as of today only seven of those schools have any sort of closure incident. So this problem hopefully won't be as pronounced this semester in Tennessee, because—except in Memphis and Nashville—almost all of our schools are open in-person to some degree.

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