By Chris Taylor
Nashville, TN – Tennessee lawmakers previewed Governor Phil Bredesen's education proposals yesterday ahead of a special legislative session slated to begin today. Bredesen is urging lawmakers to approve a series of changes he says are needed to strengthen the state's application for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal "Race to the Top" money. The Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle reports a key change in the proposal would include using some student testing data to evaluate teachers and determining tenure. Some legislators are scrutinizing how many of those evaluations will be based on the data, raising concerns the change could hamper hiring and retaining teachers in rural areas.