Latest news with #StateofMetroAddress
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
LPRs not listed in Nashville Mayor's proposed budget
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — For the second year in a row, Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell has not included funding specifically for license plate recognition technology in his proposed budget. Although O'Connell told News 2 he believes there is room in the numbers to include LPRs, not everyone agrees. Two weeks ago, Metro Councilmember for District 26, Courtney Johnston, was eager to see whether O'Connell would fund LPRs in his 2026 budget after no funding for the technology was proposed for the 2025 fiscal year. Highlights from Mayor Freddie O'Connell's State of Metro Address and proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 'That shows you his intent,' Johnston told News 2 on April 18. If he fails to fund, he has no intention of moving forward the contracts.' In his proposed budget, O'Connell set aside $24.7 million dollars for the Metro Nashville Police Department. However, it didn't mention LPRs specifically. O'Connell told News 2 that doesn't necessarily mean the technology is entirely out of the question. 'If we can get our proposed LPR policy framework through the Metro Council, we believe we could fund that initiative,' O'Connell said. 'And I think there would be many different opportunities. You're not going to see a line item in there for it, but I think the capacity is there.' Yet Johnston said she thinks the omission sends a different message. 'The police department asked for $2.8 million in this year's budget in order to fund the LPR program and that is peanuts in a $3.8 billion budget,' Johnston said. 'And I think there's no better way to spend money — taxpayer dollars — than to improve safety.' Johnston added that Metro Council had previously passed an LPR policy. She said the next step is waiting on vendor contracts from the mayor's office. Metro Councilmember for District 32, Joy Styles, was also frustrated to see another year of LPRs not mentioned in the budget. ⏩ 'Representing a district that is majority-minority — I have minority constituents that are begging for it; I have minority business owners that are begging for it,' Styles told News 2. 'To have to explain our mayor is just basically playing games and not valuing what Nashvillians want — it's a horrible place to be put in.' A recent Vanderbilt University poll found more than 80% of Nashville residents polled were for LPRs — as long as there were restrictions on how the data was used. Both Styles and Johnston hope to see amendments to the budget, specifically funding for LPRs, before it passes. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
More MNPS students are graduating, but are they future ready? Data says 'No'
Just how good was Metro Nashville Public Schools' graduation rate last year? Well, it depends on who you ask. For Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell, the 85.7% rate—the highest since the district has been keeping track of how many students end their careers with a diploma — was so good he felt the need to mention it several times during his State of Metro Address on May 1. And there's the MNPS administration — masters as they are at cherry picking data to support a narrative focusing on 'improvements' and 'level 5 status' and 'every child being known.' But if you ask anyone who's paying attention — who knows, perhaps, how to navigate the dashboard for the Tennessee Department of Education's State Report Card — they know that, while MNPS's graduation rate certainly isn't bad, it isn't exactly good either. If nothing else, it's misleading. Understand: Tennessee doesn't just track graduation rates. The Department of Education also tracks a statistic called 'ready graduate,' which 'reflects the percentage of graduating students who demonstrated readiness for postsecondary education and/or a career after high school.' The graduation rate cited by O'Connell during his address is from the 2023-24 school year, but because the State Report Card's data lags a year, the 'ready graduate' rates from 2023-24 are not yet available. But we do have data from the year before. And even if we assume a slight bump in 'ready graduate' rates to account for the 4.5-percentage point increase in graduation rate over the same period, the numbers would still be abysmal. That's because the "ready graduate" rate for the 2022-23 school year is 34.2%, meaning barely a third of graduating students were adequately prepared for the future. For Black, Hispanic and Native American students, the rate drops to 23.8%. For the economically disadvantaged, it's 20.6%. 'I want all of us to have more of the things we need,' O'Connell said during the address, including 'schools we're proud of.' As a Nashvillian who cares about all children in the city, including those who are not my own, I can appreciate O'Connell's sentiment. I also understand that the kind of progress MNPS needs to make can't happen overnight, and that O'Connell's 2025-26 proposed budget includes an increase in MNPS funding meant to directly address issues like student achievement. But to paint MNPS as an overall success for graduating 85.7% of students in the interim, or to even tout the district's record-high graduation rate without acknowledging how few of those students are on track to become economically independent adults, is to engage in the dissemination of propaganda and willful manipulation. That wasn't the approach O'Connell took when he addressed the hike in Nashville property values (an average increase of 45%), which will naturally result in higher property taxes. For the blessed residents who own their homes in this booming market, he still managed to addressed the pro and the con, speaking directly to homeowners' greatest concerns. Opinion: Tennessee student athletes deserve better, but state takeover isn't the answer Yet the same cannot be said for the people for whom Nashville, and MNPS, are less effective. These are the people who need the schools to work for them — and, perhaps more importantly, need to know when they're not. After all, the trouble with the Tuskegee Experiment wasn't just that doctors denied treatment to the men suffering with syphilis. It was that those doctors led those poor Black men to believe they were, in fact, being treated. During his address, O'Connell mentioned that Nashville has been called a beacon by other cities because thousands of us came together to pass the transit bill last November. It's a moment O'Connell is clearly proud of, and one that will likely define his legacy for years to come. But for the sake of students across the city, my prayer is that Nashville will one day become a beacon because our city chose to buck the status quo that large, urban school districts will disproportionately fail the Black, Brown, and poor among them. I pray that thousands of us can come together to ensure the educational and vocational futures of the students who don't attend Nashville's excellent academic magnet schools, who don't have access to after-school tutors, and who don't have white collar parents with college degrees who can easily assist their children with their homework in the evenings. But that's only possible if we demand, collectively, that all 85.7% of our graduating high schoolers be prepared to attend college or pursue a post-secondary certification that will position them for well-paying careers and financial stability. And that's only possible when we know that, right now, only a third of them are. Andrea Williams is an opinion columnist for The Tennessean and curator of the Black Tennessee Voices initiative. She has an extensive background covering country music, sports, race and society. Email her at adwilliams@ or follow her on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @AndreaWillWrite and BlueSky at @ This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: MNPS graduation rates hide truth of student unpreparedness | Opinion
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Highlights from Mayor Freddie O'Connell's State of Metro Address and proposed budget for fiscal year 2026
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — In the State of Metro Address, Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell is dedicating millions across several areas, including resources for first responders and public schools. O'Connell mentioned allocations in his recommended budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which includes a $49.6 million investment in resources for first responders. The Metro Nashville Police Department will receive $24.7 million. RELATED | 'I'm not your piggy bank': Some Davidson County residents protest property tax rate A portion of that will help fund 35 officers for the recently-formed D-Detail flex unit, which goes where they're most needed. Since February, D-Detail officers have responded to hundreds of calls across Metro. Additionally, the Nashville Fire Department will receive $15.3 million. A new EMS Unit staffed by 12 employees will be funded by $1.5 million. License plate recognition technology has been a top-of-mind issue for many across Metro Nashville. While O'Connell did not specifically touch on the technology in his address, he told News 2 there is a framework ready to offer Metro Council when the Council is ready to vote. 'You've probably seen recently they can't even pass a resolution right now asking us to bring it to Council,' O'Connell. 'So, right now every decision about anything related to surveillance is in the hands of Metro Council.' ⏩ Aside from first responders and public safety, Metro Nashville Public Schools make up 37.2% of the recommended budget. That's 13% higher than the budget from fiscal year 2025. 'The budget we're recommending today is about providing stability, resilience and a baseline of normal in abnormal times,' O'Connell said. '…If we value their work and our students' futures, we do everything in our power to keep them safe. If anyone feels unsafe in our city, we know we still have work to do. For them [and] for all of us, we must stay focused on the process of safety.' With $3.2 million, the MNPD will add 23 new School Resource Officers across the district. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
