MAURY CO., Tenn. -
On Tuesday, Governor Bill Haslam called his major education reform a "work in progress" that "won't be pushed until he has gotten more feedback."
The proposed bill ties state educational funding to bigger kindergarten through-12th grade classes, but it has drawn fire from school superintendents, teachers and parents.
The opinions were no different when Haslam met with Maury County educators at Mount Pleasant Middle School on Tuesday.
"When you have 20 kids as opposed to 32 kids, its huge," Mount Pleasant Middle School teacher-turned-librarian Alice Pope told the governor.
Maury County schools director Eddie Hickman politely told the governor, "Teacher morale was the lowest since he took office eight-years ago."
The former Columbia Central principal did not elaborate then, but was asked why after the roundtable session.
"I think because of all the magnitude of the educational reform up on Tennessee's Capitol Hill," Hickman told Nashville's News 2.
The governor responded that his reform this year gives local districts more flexibility, but critics have seized on the part of the bill that tying class size to funding.
"That's a bill we have said from the very beginning that we believe in the principle of that, but we also want to get it right," he said after meeting the educators.
"So we are going to go slow, not push it through any committees until we have additional feedback," Haslam said.
Schools director Hickman responded, "You can make changes, but if you make too many changes over a period of time, you are going to lose effectiveness, lose effectiveness from top down."
The governor promised to listen to "feedback", but maintains something has been lost in his measure that he calls the "local flexibility bill."
"Lifting the average class six would give local school boards, if they wanted it, the ability to pay some teachers more but no teachers less pay," Haslam said.
The governor is well aware that some critics have estimated the bill would cost more than 5,000 teachers statewide their jobs.
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