Tennessee lawmakers are proposing a $6 million audit of Memphis-Shelby County schools.

Tennessee lawmakers were able to spend $6 million to audit schools in Memphis-Shelby County and audit them as a potential pioneer in the district’s state “acquisitions.”

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Bo Watson confirmed Monday that another $3 million was featured in the Senate’s $59.6 billion budget plan for a forensic audit, winning $3 million in Gov. Bill Lee’s supplemental budget revision.

The Senator also placed $4.5 million in his budget plan to expand Attorney General Jonathan Skulmetti’s special litigation unit.

When the 2025 session began, Republican lawmakers began discussing the appointment of a state board of trustees to replace the elected Memphis Shelby County Board of Education. Memphis residents testified against the bill.

The proposal has yet to gain foothold, but lawmakers appear to be on a district audit, despite the Secretary’s office being audited by the school system.

Sen. Brent Taylor, a Shelby County Republican, said Monday that an audit would be necessary to begin a deeper look at the district.

“That kind of money spent on that kind of audit is the kind of audit someone goes to Porky, and this is something that has been built for decades and when they finally made corners into corners,” Taylor said. He did not identify any misconduct by Memphis Shelby County school officials.

Taylor, who sponsors the bill to make major changes in the district, said lawmakers have been absent from the acquisition because they have failed to make significant improvements over more than a decade despite the $1 billion cost. However, the bill’s language remains in discussion and the advisory committee can be put into action, he said.

Sen. Jeff Yarbro of Nashville, a member of the Finance Committee, called the pending spending “silly.”

“The purpose of our school funding is not to make ammunition for the political battle of garbage, but to educate our children,” Jablo said.

East Memphis Republican Rep. Mark White is calling for changes to the session to address what he calls “a decades-old issue of Underperformance.”

His bill includes provisions for the placement of management groups from nine members appointed by the state responsible for the operation of the school district, giving authority over locally elected school boards and administrators.

Taylor’s version is not particularly restrictive, but with approval from the Department of Education, Tennessee’s education committee will take over the state by removing the principal or board of education members and allowing the county board to replace them. If a school district passes three district directors in three years, the county mayor mayor mayor to appoint a new director for a four-year term.

The Senate bill also raises the income cap on valid education savings accounts in Shelby County, the governor’s first private school voucher program, and changes the process for public schools to become charter schools.