Tennessee continues to allow school lunch debt to persist, despite significant resources that would and could create a free school meal program for all kids.
The state has spent $500 million for a new Titans stadium and $1.6 billion on a corporate tax giveaway.
Those two expenses alone are three times the cost of providing free school meals for all kids in Tennessee public schools.
Policymakers could end all school lunch debt – if they wanted to.
Some districts (like Nashville) have free meals for all kids. Heck, some states (like Minnesota) provide funding for free meals for all kids in school.
But more often than not, school lunch debt is a reality – and punishments for school lunch debt can include withholding diplomas or preventing students from participating in certain school activities.
The alternative is simple: feed all the kids at school for free. No questions asked.
Teachers, staff to see raises based on School Board’s budget
While the State of Tennessee continues to move slowly when it comes to investment in teacher compensation, local districts are stepping up.
Sumner County is the latest to announce planned pay raises for its teachers and staff.
Sumner County Schools approved an additional $28,950,000 in its budget to increase pay for all of its employees, according to an email sent to parents and the community. The school board has approved the following raises:
– Increasing classified staff pay to a minimum of $16 per hour.
– Increasing new teacher pay to $47,800, an average raise amount of $3,023 for experienced teachers.
The School Board passed the proposal by a 9-1 vote, with the lone dissenting vote noting he hoped to move starting pay up to $50,000 and ask the County Commission for additional funds for raises.
The proposal will now go through the budget approval process at the Sumner County Commission.
District rejects legislative plan to put more guns in schools
Officials in Memphis have announced that their school system will not allow teachers to carry guns at school, despite a legislative decision that would allow districts to permit teachers who receive certain training to carry firearms on school grounds.
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.
The state insists on the tests. The state insists that the tests count – for grades and for retention decisions – and the state’s selected vendor consistently fails to meet agreed deadlines.
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.
Sure, school lunch debt represents a massive policy failure. But at least this community is coming together to say kids shouldn’t leave school with debt for meals.
Wilson County residents raised enough money – around $6000 – to cancel the lunch debt for all graduating seniors. Still, the district has some $30,000 in school lunch debt remaining.
Lawmakers have repeatedly rejected the idea of the state paying for free school meals (breakfast and lunch) for all kids. The projected cost: $714 million a year.
Half a billion for the Titans stadium? No problem!
Another school district is making clear it’s not interested in Gov. Bill Lee’s school safety plan of allowing unidentified teachers with certain training to carry guns while on duty at school.
From the Instagram feed of State House candidate Allie Phillips
School systems want resources for their teachers, but Lee and his allies weren’t having that.
“We don’t want our student applicants passing up significant financial benefits,” said Dr. Michael Licari, Austin Peay State University president. “We see such great potential within the young adults of Tennessee, and failure to submit their FAFSA before the deadline should not be the hurdle that prevents them from achieving their educational dreams.”
