Jerry Summers
The Gig City’s mayor’s favorite rating service as expressed in the 2023 “State of the City” address, on July 22, 2024 came out with its analysis of the productivity of the Volunteer State’s education system.
There is good news and bad news:
1. The City of Chattanooga no longer runs the school system except for a little taxpayer funding;
2. As such, the leader in #1 can devote their time to preparing their revised 2024 versions of this years report to the 185,000+ city citizens due to a slight need for editing as the result of an employment problem at the top of the dedicated “Boys in Blue” crime stoppers membership (girls, etc. also included);
3. The Main Findings based on “32 key metrics” that allegedly “accounts for performances, funding, safety, class size, and instructor credentials” show that Tennessee’s Overall Rank is number 32 in the 50 states plus the District of Colombia (28th), 29th in Quality Rank and 45th in Safety Rank (more SROS needed?);
4. It should be pointed out that the home of Davey Crockett, Elvis Presley, etc. has the 2nd lowest dropout rate in the nation;
5. A panel of 5 designated experts in the field of education contributed their thoughts to the rankings in the two major areas of Quality of Education (80 total points) and Quality of Safety (20 total points) as well as 16 organizations including the Department of Education and National Conference of State Legislatures.
Since WalletHub’s 2023 ranking of the Dynamo of Dixie was televised and discussed on public television daily for several months the agency in their 2024 educational survey candidly admitted that they were supported by financial advertisers in the five categories of credit cards (10, including American Express); banking (10, including Chase); personal loans (10, including Citibank); auto loans (3, including Caribou); and insurance (94, including the Hartford).
With the Scenic City leader and City council members not having any direct responsibility for the education needs of the Inner and Outer City the opportunity to comment on WalletHub’s state wide study (that includes Hamilton County) and how our state compares with the other parts of the country is now the responsibility of the oldest sibling of our term limit advocate with 16 years of service on the Potomac River in Congress.
(The complete detailed report with many subparts can be obtained by accessing Google’s “States with the Best and Worst School Systems” (2024) by Adam McCann, WalletHub financial writer.)
----
If you have additional information about one of Mr. Summers' articles or have suggestions or ideas about a future Chattanooga area historical piece, please contact him at jsummers@summersfirm.com)