When the Dept of Ed dies or is decimated, here’s what could happen
An analysis out of Arizona demonstrates what’s at stake as President Musk and his associate, Trump, move forward with dismantling the federal Department of Education:
Now, Save Our Schools Arizona is offering an analysis of the potential impacts there. Again, as much as $1 billion could be impacted – and, to be clear, even if the final number lost is only a fraction of that amount, it will have real consequences for students and schools in the state.
TN also gets a nice share of cash from the feds. And sure, some of that money may be “block granted” to the states. But taking away a couple hundred million dollars is not a great way to help schools that are already under-resourced.
That’s what’s changed under Bill Lee’s approach to education
When Gov. Bill Lee came into office in 2018, Tennessee school funding system was broken.
The state lagged behind our neighbors in terms of support for schools by all measures. Billions in unfunded infrastructure needs. Teachers paid well below their peers in Southeastern states. Total investment in students ranked in the bottom 5 in the nation.
Bill Lee’s solution to all of this was to propose a school voucher scheme.
While it passed by a single vote in the House, the fallout is still being felt – one House Speaker lost his job over it. Staffers were indicted. And it seems the saga is not over.
Bill Lee’s “new frontier” looks a lot like Tennessee’s old frontier of school funding failure
Remember how Gov. Lee pushed a new school funding formula – TISA – to replace the state’s highly equitable but woefully inadequate BEP?
Remember how Lee promised TISA would usher in a bold new era of investment in Tennessee’s public schools?
Well, as it turns out, Lee’s rhetoric failed to match the reality. Or, those who warned about TISA were right – the new formula still provides inadequate funding to Tennessee’s public schools.
While in 2018, Tennessee ranked 42nd in the nation in school funding effort, today we rank 47th. On overall funding level, there has been no change since 2018 – that is, we’re still at 43rd.
So much for that new frontier Gov. Lee promised. Seems like the same old frontier of inadequate funding combined with the newness of even LESS effort to actually fund schools.
All of this continued lack of investment in school happened while the state enjoyed multiple years with huge (multi-billion dollar) budget surpluses. Rather than invest those funds in schools, Lee and his legislative allies gave out $1.6 billion in corporate tax breaks and $500 million to the Tennessee Titans to build a new stadium.
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This year, a Republican lawmaker joined the fight – sponsoring a bill similar to one Clemmons has carried in the past. Still, the bill was met with stiff resistance by legislators.
The national trend is toward schools providing meals for free for all kids.
The Tennessee trend is in favor of hundreds of millions of public dollars to fund a stadium for a private business owner and $1.6 billion for a corporate tax break.
Rather than fund school lunches, lawmakers and Gov. Lee seek annually to find new schemes that would use taxpayer money to fund unaccountable private schools.
For the past decade, the state has run budget surpluses in the range of $1-3 billion.
Rather than fund school lunches or boost teacher pay or invest in Medicaid expansion, or end the grocery tax, lawmakers have found a dizzying array of ways to reduce revenue by lowering or eliminating taxes paid by the wealthy or corporations.
The problem is so acute that Tennessee is in real danger of running a significant budget deficit in the 2025 fiscal year.
If Bill Lee ran his HVAC business this way, they’d be filing for bankruptcy.
Tennessee continues to fail when it comes to school funding
In spite of a new school funding formula AND Gov. Bill Lee’s promise to make Tennessee one of the top places to teach in America, the state continues to lag near the bottom in the nation in both per pupil spending AND teacher salary.
A new report reveals that average teacher pay in the state ranks Tennessee 44th in the nation – and among the lowest in the Southeast. Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia all pay their teachers more than Tennessee does.
National Education Association report on school funding
When it comes to per pupil spending, Tennessee is also in familiar territory: Near the bottom.
National Education Association report on school funding
Of course, Lee and his allies are fond of claiming everything is fine – that they’re doing a great job of funding schools. A few years back, I examined that claim up close and that takedown still applies:
So, the TN House GOP is all excited about spending $616 million plus over TEN years, while the state is sitting on a $3.1 billion surplus this year alone! That means we could spend $616 million in teacher salaries THIS YEAR and still have more than $2.4 billion LEFT to spend. Read that again. Republicans are bragging about taking an entire decade to allocate in total what is available THIS year and could be funded while still leaving $2.4 billion for other priorities.
When it comes to school funding, Tennessee stands at a solid “F” and our policymakers seem to be just fine with that.
NPE’s executive director, Carol Burris, said of the budget, “This budget is the mirror opposite of budget proposals by the present House leadership that slash funding to children served by critical programs like Title I while proposing an increase to the already bloated Federal Charter School Programs (CSP).”
The group noted the proposal includes $450 million of new money for key programs benefiting kids in schools across the country.
After years of running budget surpluses, Tennessee this year has a bit of a budget crunch. For the first time in a decade, revenue numbers are coming below projections.
This is all happening while state leaders are pitching a $1.6 billion corporate tax break.
I’ve been writing about Tennessee policymakers missing the mark on investment in education for years now as well.
Beating a dead horse, some might say.
Over at The Education Report, I wrote recently about missed opportunities in that decade of surplus revenue.
New policy punishes schools for poverty, state’s lack of funding
In yet another push to privatize the state’s system of public schools, the Lee Administration this week released its A-F letter grades for schools. Each public school in the state was assigned a grade of A-F based on criteria that heavily emphasizes the results of state testing.
Schools receiving D and F grades may be subject to audits or called before a state committee to discuss corrective action.
Of course, that corrective action is not likely to include an investment of state funds. Tennessee continues to be in the bottom 10 in the country in school funding and underfunds schools by nearly $2 billion annually.
While the policy was passed in 2016, it is going into effect this year – just ahead of Lee’s push for a program of universal school vouchers.
As the scores were released, opponents of the effort spoke out.
“These letter grades don’t help students, and they don’t provide clear and concise information that is useful to parents,” said TEA President Tanya Coats.
“These flawed letter grades will never define a school, their students and families, or their teachers and staff. What these letter grades do show is the consequences of bottom 10 in the nation student funding and a failure by the state to move resources to the students who need them most.”
I wrote several years ago about the correlation between the state’s TCAP testing scores and poverty rates.
The A-F scores tell us which schools may need more help – and they tell us that we’ve not done a great job of adequately funding public education. They also tell us that the state allows poverty to persist – in spite of having billions of dollars in various reserve funds.
Oh, and since the grades are based on the results of state tests, it’s worth noting that Tennessee’s track record of testing is abysmal.
Senate Democratic Caucus Chair London Lamar of Memphis says the GOP’s actions are “reckless and irresponsible” and instead is calling on state lawmakers to invest more funds in public schools.
“Our students need more support in the classroom, not less. Our students need more access to tutoring, counselors and mental health specialists, not less. Our students need regular meals and wrap-around support to be the best learners they can be.
“There’s no future success story for students, families or our economy if Tennessee continues down this dangerous, anti-student path.”
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport