Up to 3,000 kids who receive needs-based prekindergarten in Memphis and Shelby County might not have pre-K centers to go to in January amid a funding crunch.

The decision ends a two-year period in which the Midtown university cut numerous faculty positions and programs and more than $4 million in expenses.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton has already said he wants to at least double the capacity of the Education Freedom Scholarships program, which launched this year with 20,000 seats.

Families at Lucy Elementary have known a change was coming. But MSCS officials recently proposed giving the school to Millington this summer, a year early. 

There are only six states that require a foreign language to graduate, and Tennessee is one of them. 

While it’s the second time for the Collierville school system to take the Principal of the Year honor, it’s the first time a Tennessee school district has had both principal and teacher of the year at the same time.

Educator advocates say unpaid student teaching requirements can be a barrier for aspiring teachers. The Tennessee House speaker wants to start providing state-funded stipends for those internships.

The criticism of DeSoto County School Board member Michele Henley continued Thursday as two speakers again called for her resignation at the board’s monthly meeting.

Board members said the company recommended by MSCS leaders has a history of poor service. It’s not the first time custodian contracts have caused issues.

MSCS board members directed the district to expand bus access to immigrant students who may be staying home from school to avoid interactions with the Memphis Safe Task Force. 

The changes could be an example of what’s to come for other families as Memphis-Shelby County Schools makes plans to close, consolidate, repurpose and build new campuses.

High school students can get a taste of higher education, expand their horizons and maybe shave off a semester of their college career with help from the Mississippi University for Women.

UMRF Ventures, a private, for-profit subsidiary of the University of Memphis Research Foundation, has been creating IT jobs and other service positions for college students since 2017. 

Students currently enrolled in the program can renew beginning on Dec. 9.

Lauren Rogers, head of the Upper School at St. Mary’s said the school has a “moral obligation” to staunch the widening gender gap in STEM education.

This move comes as board member Michele Henley faces sustained pressure for supporting convicted former youth pastor Lindsey Whiteside.

“I heard my son scream,” a Memphis mother said in an interview with The Daily Memphian. School staff told her that they handcuffed her child for their own safety: “I was like, ‘Over a 7-year-old?’”

The change to the 2026-27 applications will offer insight about the new vouchers that the state awards. 

A group in Tennessee, including two parents in Shelby County, allege that the state’s education voucher expansion “diverts state funding to private schools statewide that are by definition not part of the system of free public schools.” 

The MSCS board is expected to vote on the suggested closures in February.

The search warrant and accompanying paperwork are the latest information regarding the alleged sexual assault that occurred in the private school’s athletic facility in Collierville on Oct. 8. 

Richmond is just over halfway through his 18-month interim superintendent contract, which ends July 31. Absent from the school board’s discussions about his evaluation, however, were comments about future permanent leadership of the district. 

The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board is formally mulling a lawsuit about the “threat to the lawful function and democratic integrity” caused by new state and county actions that cut short terms for five members.