When state Education Commissioner Candice McQueen told the state’s 132 school districts to go ahead and take the TNReady high school test, two school districts refused.
But two days later, districts in Lincoln and Williamson counties have reversed their positions.
“I’m doing it out of compliance but in professional protest,” said Williamson County Schools Superintendent Dr. Mike Looney.
Looney said he believes in assessment testing but argues that TNReady has been a total failure and his kids deserve better.
“I think I made the decision, a very deliberate decision. I think it was the right thing to do, but at the end of the day we have play by the state’s rules or suffer consequences. And in the case, the consequences were too steep,” Looney said.
Looney said McQueen told him the county would lose up to $3 million in state funding if he refused to take the test. The state funds about 35 percent of Williamson County Schools’ expenses.
Williamson is an affluent county, but there is no magic vault with $3 million in it.
“If it was a million, it would have been too great a hurdle,” Looney said.
The Tennessee Department of Education responded by email. (continue reading at WSMV)