Ray to speak on Release Time Bible Education at Nashville

Lynn Ray is scheduled to appear before the Curriculum, Testing and Innovation Sub Committee for Education today at the state capital at Nashville.  As of last August, Ray began teaching a Release Time Bible Education class at Hillcrest Baptist Church, next to Campbell County High School, to a group of CCHS students.  Representative Dennis Powers asked Ray to speak before the committee to bring more awareness to the program in support of an act to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, relative to released time courses.  If passed, it would amend the original bill to allow this class, sponsored by Powers and Senator Ken Yager, to become a “for” credit class.

TOP PHOTO:  Lynn Ray (L) with Dennis Powers (R) met last week in anticipation of today’s meeting.

Ray is a fulltime agent for State Farm Insurance, but he volunteers 90-minutes of his time daily using his certified school teacher status to teach the class.  Powers explains, “Ray will have five-minutes today at noon to share with legislators why this is good for students in public schools.”  He adds that there are only four other states with such programs.  Ray is the first teacher in the state at the high school level.

If passed, the amended bill would become effective on July 1.  That would be in time for the 2019-2020 school year.  (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 02/26/2019-6AM)