Empowering Educational Choice for Tennessee's Future
Transforming K-12 Education Across Tennessee
Join us in our mission to revolutionize Tennessee’s education system by expanding opportunities for parental choice and adopting the highly successful Direct Instruction methodology to teach reading, writing, and mathematics in grades K-5.
Pioneering Educational Reform in Tennessee
Tennessee Leads is dedicated to fundamentally reforming the K-12 education system in Tennessee. Our mission is to empower parents with greater choice through scholarships and charter schools, while working to improve traditional public education. We aim to reduce administrative overhead, depoliticize classrooms, and restore local control to ensure that educational resources are allocated efficiently and effectively. By supporting key legislative initiatives, we strive to increase access to quality education for all students in Tennessee.
Founded with the vision of transforming education in Tennessee, Tennessee Leads is a non-profit organization committed to advocating for policies that expand educational freedom. We believe that every child deserves access to quality education, and we work tirelessly to support legislation that increases the availability of scholarships and charter schools. Our efforts also focus on reducing bureaucratic barriers and promoting evidence-based teaching practices to create a more effective and equitable education system.
The State of Education in Tennessee
Understanding the current challenges and opportunities in Tennessee’s education system is crucial for driving meaningful reform.
Tennessee Leads is focused on four critical reforms:
First, we support dramatically expanding Education Freedom Scholarships to serve 200,000 Tennessee students by 2031—a tenfold increase from current levels.
Second, we advocate streamlining the charter school approval process to remove bureaucratic obstacles that prevent families from accessing high-quality educational alternatives.
Third, we champion the adoption of Direct Instruction methodology as the proven, evidence-based standard for teaching K-5 reading, writing, and arithmetic in Tennessee’s public schools.
Fourth, we support establishing the Classic Learning Test (CLT) as an accepted alternative to the SAT for college admissions, giving Tennessee students access to an assessment that emphasizes critical thinking, classical texts, and timeless academic skills.
These first four initiatives represent our commitment to both expanding parental choice and improving instructional outcomes for all students.