6 days ago
Knox County School Board will discuss what happens if federal K-12 money gets frozen again
The Trump administration is releasing the $6 billion in education funding it froze June 30, but uncertainty remains for the Knox County Board of Education moving forward.
School Board member Katherine Bike is leading an effort to ask the state to make sure that, if federal money gets frozen again, the state can offset the loss for its public schools.
What the freeze meant for Knox County Schools: KCS stood to lose $3.8 million for Title II, III and IV grants, Superintendent Jon Rysewyk told Knox News, before the Trump administration released the nearly $6 billion it had frozen nationwide. The county made its budget assuming it would get the money July 1 (the start of the fiscal year).
Damage to KCS was still done: After KCS found out June 30 the money was being frozen, it terminated 27.5 positions:
13.5 regional content facilitator positions in academic areas including math, English language arts, science and social studies
11 student support staffers
3 Welcome Center family liaisons
What Bike wants the school board to ask the state: The resolution from Bike "respectfully urges the Tennessee General Assembly to take immediate action to ensure that any future loss, reduction or freeze of federal funding - particularly under IDEA and Titles I, II, III and IV - is fully offset by state funding."
State lawmakers are talking about federal education dollars: Earlier this year, lawmakers created the Tennessee Joint Federal Education Deregulation Cooperation Task Force to explore how much the state relies on federal dollars for education. For the 2025-26 school year, the state reported to task force members July 29 it expects $106,353,503 in federal funding to be available.
"I think it's important that we look at what could happen in Tennessee because the Department of Education from the federal level is somewhat in a state of flux," state Sen. Bill Powers of Clarksville said.
Unanswered questions about how the state could step in: When state Sen. Dawn White of Murfreesboro asked budget analyst Alan Hampton if the state could replace lost funds for programs currently funded by the federal government, he didn't know.
"I would have to get back to you on that," Hampton said.
Attend the meetings:
The school board will discuss the resolution at its meeting at 5 p.m. Aug. 4 in the boardroom of Summer Place, 500 W. Summit Hill Drive.
The board will have its voting meeting at 5 p.m. Aug. 7 in the boardroom of Summer Place, 500 W. Summit Hill Drive.
Study up: You can check out the proposal from Bike at Click "Board agendas/minutes."
Want an update on plans for Knoxville parks?
What's the plan? Knoxville is working on a master plan to guide prorities for its parks, sports facilities, programs and senior activities over the next 10+ years. The process kicked off in January.
What's happening this week: Representatives from the firm making the plan will give an update on their findings from community engagement over the course of 2025. They'll also detail what's next.
The final product: The city expects the final verion of the master plan to be ready "later this fall."
When's the meeting?
Council members will hear about the master plan at 5 p.m. Aug. 5 in room 461 of the City-County Building, 400 Main St.
Council members will have their regular meeting at 6 p.m. in the main assembly room of the City-County Building, 400 Main St.
Learn more about the master plan: You can find more infomration about the parks and recreation master plan at
Study up on the rest of the agenda: You can find the agenda for the city council's meeting by clicking the "agendas" link on the city council's webpage at Choose the "HTML" option for Aug. 5.
Knoxville's violence reduction leadership committee
The violence reduction leadership committee will meet at 1:30 p.m. Aug. 7 at the city's public works service center, 311 Morris Ave. The committee does not share agendas.
Closing the loop
I wrote about Knox County Commissioners considering an effort to raise the mineral service tax paid by companies that use the county's quarries from 15 cents per ton to 20 cents per ton.
The effort passed July 28. The only commissioner to vote against it was Larsen Jay, who represents the whole county.
"Minutes before (the vote), we had a report on housing and it outlined how materials costs in housing were continuing to rise and I didn't want to add to more expense to build a home," Jay said in the text.
The county expects to make an extra $150,000-$160,000 a year for road work from the mineral service tax increase.
5 things you might have missed
Here are some news highlights from last week:
Hayden Dunbar highlighted how SNAP federal funding cuts could change free lunch at Knox County Schools
I reported that Knox County Commission chair Gina Oster, a Republican, has a challenger from the right
Joanna Hayes wrote about the Knoxville bar that was named one of USA TODAY's best of the year
Keenan Thomas exclusively reported U.S. Rep. Fleischmann wants Tennessee to fill an empty TVA seat, and to lead in nuclear
Devarrick Turner reported Great Smoky Mountains National Park is cracking down on speeding after fatal crashes
Allie Feinberg is the politics reporter for Knox News. Email: Reddit: u/KnoxNewsAllie
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knox County Board of Education will discuss federal dollars
Solve the daily Crossword
