On the Fly presented by The TN Firefly

This week's Friday Flicker recaps an important update this week on the new Education Freedom Tax Credit. New research found it could raise more money for students than initially projected.

We are also taking a look at an innovative East Tennessee program to help bridge the gap between students facing economic disadvantages and the information they need to succeed after high school.

This week's edition of the Friday Flicker recaps a new concern for virtual schools, an important update on the appeal for what could be Dyer County's first public charter school, and the latest poll in the governor's race.

This week's Friday Flicker recaps our coverage of a possible disconnect between how schools value AI and how businesses value the technology.

We also look at a new study that found charter school students are outperforming their peers and why a proposed charter school is getting a big boost from community leaders.

Next month, the federal government is expected to unveil guidelines for a new program approved as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill that families can use to help with education expenses, including private school tuition.

It’s called the Education Freedom Tax Credit, and more than a million students in Tennessee could qualify for assistance through it. 

Shaka Mitchell with the American Federation for Children joins this week's On the Fly to explain how it will work.

This week's Friday Flicker looks at a key difference between gubernatorial candidates Jerri Green and Sen. Marsha Blackburn regarding AI in the classroom.

We also had positive news for choice schools in Tennessee. U.S. News & World Report named Rutherford County’s Central Magnet School the best high school in the country. 

We're also profiling a unique daycare center in Nashville that’s specifically designed to help keep teachers in the classroom. 

AI is becoming a more common tool in K-12 classrooms, and some universities are providing future educators with AI literacy.

On this episode of On the Fly, gubernatorial candidate Sen. Marsha Blackburn discusses how she'd approach the technology if elected and what guardrails she'd like to see schools place on it.

This week we profiled the new Jackson Museum School.  It became the first public charter school to open in Madison County when students walked through its doors earlier this month. Founder Dr. Jean Little tells us the first day was exciting and a little emotional.  The Museum School will serve students in grades K-6 under a museum model that includes weekly expeditions to cultural learning centers.

We also produced our second in a series of stories on AI in the classroom by taking a closer look at how colleges and universities are preparing future teachers to use the technology. Vanderbilt University, for example, is providing educators with AI literacy to make sure they understand the background of how AI works and how different models function. 

Finally, this week we announced the winners of the annual Tristar Reads contest. Students across the state combined to log more than 550-thousand minutes of reading, including the overall winner – sixth-grade homeschooler Wesley Martin from Hamblen County. He logged more than 33,000 minutes of reading, which amounts to nearly 8 hours a day.  

On this week's episode, we recap Thursday's Democratic and Republican gubernatorial primaries and take a look at a key issue that decided multiple House primaries and incumbents who lost.

Today, Tennessee voters will decide the primaries for every State House seat and odd-numbered Senate seats, along with the governor’s office.  

Obviously, the governor’s race is attracting the most attention, especially on the GOP side, where cash and polling have dominated headlines lately. U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn has outraised the field in the last four campaign filings, while her best-funded opponent, Congressman John Rose, has loaned his campaign $13 million to compete. 

Independent polls have shown Blackburn leading this race all year, though there have been some polls released lately with direct ties to Rose showing a closer race. Blackburn supporters have criticized the bias in those polls and questioned their accuracy.

Democrats have struggled to field well-funded candidates for state office in recent years, and only one candidate who’s held elected office qualified. Memphis City Councilmember Jerri Green has a commanding fundraising lead over her competitors and even reported more in contributions than Republican candidates other than Blackburn on the most recent two campaign filings.

Because of the political makeup of House and Senate districts, there are few truly competitive general elections in Tennessee, so tonight’s primary races will be decisive for who will be serving in the General Assembly. Notably, there are more open seats than usual this year, with 11 in the House and 1 in the Senate.

That seat, District 5, was left open when Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally retired. Former state representative Jimmy Matlock will be an early winner there as he’s running unopposed in GOP primary. 

On the House side, the Education Freedom Scholarship program has been a big issue…dividing candidates in several open GOP seats, including East Tennessee’s House District 31 and Middle Tennessee’s Districts 45 and 78.

On the Democrat side, Nashville’s House District 59 is one to watch with four well-funded candidates running.  Also keep an eye on Memphis House District 93.  No candidate qualified to be on the ballot for the seat formerly held by the late Representative G.A. Hardaway. County Commissioner Britney Thornton is running a write-in campaign, and if she gets 1100 write ins votes, she’ll be on the November ballot as the Democratic nominee, facing Hardaway’s son, who opted to skip the primary and run as a write-in candidate in November.

Tomorrow we may also be talking about multiple incumbent Representatives who were defeated. Political insiders say keep a close watch on Representative Dennis Powers in District 36 and Representative Todd Warner in House District 92. Warner opted to run for both his seat and Congress at the same time this year and is also facing criticism for his involvement in a controversial quarry lake project.

That will do it for this special edition of On the Fly.  Be sure and check the Firefly site tomorrow where we’ll have race results and analysis. I’m Sky Arnold

This week, we began a weekly series of stories on AI in the classroom by focusing on how some Tennessee schools are using the technology. 

In Nashville this summer, LEAD Public Schools held a three-week summer AI program for middle school students. They learned how to use AI as a useful thought partner on projects, and one student we talked to created an app for parking.

Also this week, the state’s two largest school districts voted on 8 proposed public charter schools. It’s safe to say leaders in Memphis and Nashville approached these decisions differently, as the Metro Nashville Public Schools Board of Education voted down every proposed charter school, while the Memphis-Shelby County School Board approved two, without opposition or even discussion.