A new report ranks state public school systems by racial and economic segregation and finds Tennessee has the most racially segregated schools in the South.
Tennessee public schools are among the most racially segregated in the nation, according to a new study.
Researchers from Stanford and the University of California, Los Angeles, found that Tennessee has the most segregated schools in the South and ranks number six nationally, trailing behind New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio.
The “States of Segregation” report uses data from the 2023-24 school year and measures the levels of racial segregation between white students and their Black, Hispanic, and Native American peers. Each state has an index number ranging between zero and one – with zero meaning no segregation and one indicating that the school is completely segregated, with all the students being the same race. Tennessee’s number is .46.
As Gov. Bill Lee’s 8 years in office come to an end, his legacy is clear: Support for public schools is near the bottom in the nation, while efforts to privatize get top billing.
While the most recent analysis of public school funding places Tennessee last in the nation, a report released this week by the Network for Public Education (NPE) gives the Volunteer State a grade of “F” for its support (lack of support?) for public schools.
In a press release, NPE says:
Only two states — Nebraska and Vermont — earned an A. Seventeen states received an F, failing to meet even 40% of the points allocated across NPE’s 39 standards. Florida ranked last, scoring 14 out of 102 possible points, with Arizona close behind. “The data confirm what we have long suspected: privatization and disinvestment go hand in hand,” said Carol Burris, Executive Director of NPE and the report’s author. “These are not states struggling with limited resources. They have made deliberate choices to abandon their public schools while directing billions in public dollars to private alternatives.”
Relative to Tennessee, the report notes:
Florida lost every possible point in our school funding category, ranking in the bottom decile for funding level, distribution, and effort, while also paying among the lowest teacher salaries in the country when adjusted for cost of living. Arizona, Idaho, North Carolina, and Tennessee each earned just two of sixteen possible funding points.
The 17 states that earned an F for their lack of support of public schools, students, and educators while embracing privatization were (lowest to highest) Florida, Arizona, North Carolina, Louisiana, Indiana, Oklahoma, Idaho, Arkansas, Alabama, Utah, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, Ohio, Nevada, South Carolina, and Missouri.
About the report:
The report draws on original research in addition to research from other organizations — including the Education Law Center, the Learning Policy Institute, and EdChoice — to deliver a comprehensive assessment of public education and privatization across 39 distinct factors. These include teacher-to-student ratios, teacher satisfaction, school funding levels, and the degree to which laws governing vouchers, charter schools, and homeschools protect both taxpayers and students.
Nashville will host the Super Bowl in 2030, an event that promises to bring far smaller economic returns than the NFL or Lee suggests, based on results from cities that have actually held the Super Bowl.
Still, the state put up $500 million just to build a domed stadium for billionaires who couldn’t afford to spend their own money, while kids in DCS custody sleep on office floors because the state lacks adequate facilities to house them.
House Speaker Cameron Sexton appointed Dave Mansouri, President and CEO of the Statewide Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), to a new board that will oversee Memphis schools.
House Speaker Cameron Sexton appointed Mansouri to the board on Tuesday, one of the speaker’s two appointees on the board. Sexton has not announced his final pick.
Mansouri will be the only member of the new board who is not a Shelby County resident after Sexton negotiated for the opportunity to appoint a non-resident when Republicans passed the takeover legislation earlier this spring.
Mansouri doesn’t live in Memphis and has zero ties to the district.
He is, however, the leader of the organization that has been driving Tennessee education policy for over a decade.
The state now has a private school discount coupon program (school vouchers) costing taxpayers $300 million a year – transferring wealth from rural and working class Tennesseans to wealthy families already sending kids to private schools.
Our state’s teachers are among the lowest-paid in the nation – lagging behind several of our Southeastern neighbors.
It’s not clear what positive impact SCORE has had for schools or Tennessee communities – except that its executives are handsomely paid. Mansouri earned nearly $400,000 in 2024 according to SCORE’s IRS 990 form. That same year, the group took in $17 million – ostensibly to advance meaningful education reform in Tennessee.
Perhaps Mansouri will actually visit Memphis now that he’s part of the group overseeing the city’s schools – and spend some of his and SCORE’s money there.
As Gov. Bill Lee prepares to leave office this year, that’s his legacy – changing the school funding formula, spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on private school discount coupons, and leading our state to dead last in school funding in the whole United States.
A recent story about Tennessee school funding notes not only is the state dead last in the nation in school funding, but also, the state’s investment in schools has dropped by 10% since the 2023-24 school year.
School funding in the state is dead last in the nation – and lower in real dollars than it was in the first year of TISA – 10% lower.
Teacher pay in the state?
Also lower than our neighbors – and lower in real dollars (6.5% lower) than a decade ago.
Lee’s legacy is clear: Less investment in schools, lower pay for teachers. Instead, Lee is spending $300 million next year to expand his private school discount coupon scheme – taking money from the least able to pay (and least likely to have access to private schools) and funneling it to the already quite wealthy.
A word from the Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF) on how the meaning of words makes a difference for public school kids.
Earlier this year, Tennessee lawmakers introduced a bill that would change the state’s definition of students who are economically disadvantaged. The bill proposed adding TennCare (Medicaid) participation as a factor in determining which students are designated as “economically disadvantaged.” Tennessee’s definition of this demographic, which was changed in 2016, is one of the most restrictive in the country: it currently counts students whose families are actively enrolled in SNAP and TANF in addition to other categorical factors, such as students experiencing homelessness or part of the foster care system. A major reason this definition is considered so strict is due to the low income threshold for qualifying for SNAP compared to other states – Tennessee’s income limit is 130% of the federal poverty guidelines, while many other states have enacted policies that effectively increase this threshold, with some states up to 200% of the federal poverty guidelines.
Adding in TennCare enrollment data, as the bill proposed, would result in a state definition of “economically disadvantaged” that much more accurately captured the socioeconomic reality and lived experiences of students and families. The implications of this definition became prominent when the number of students considered economically disadvantaged became directly tied to public school funding with the passage of TISA in 2022.
Despite bipartisan support, the state did not allocate funding for the costs associated with the definition change if the bill had passed. However, the bill was amended to task the TISA review committee to study Tennessee’s definition of economically disadvantaged, analyze how the state’s definition compares to that of other states, assess the impact on public schools, and make recommendations by November 2027. While not a full realization of the original bill, the amended version, which passed nearly unanimously in the state House of Representatives and Senate, demonstrates positive forward momentum and a shared commitment to addressing this issue.
Tennessee has now been ranked as the worst state in the nation for spending on public school students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
The finding is part of a new report from the National Education Association that tracks teacher pay, student spending and education investment across the U.S.
The report shows that public school spending per student has dropped nearly 10% from the 2023-2024 school year. In that year, Tennessee ranked 48th in the nation for student spending.
The report places the Volunteer State 51st in per-pupil spending, behind every other state and the District of Columbia, prompting criticism from Democratic lawmakers who argue the numbers reflect years of underinvestment.
“It shows the state has prioritized big tax cuts and a private school program rather than dealing with the most important investment we make in the state’s future,” State Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) said.
Senate Democratic Caucus Chair London Lamar blasted the GOP supermajority and Gov. Bill Lee over the consistent underfunding of the state’s schools:
“While Gov. Lee and Republicans were busy shoveling hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into their private school voucher scam, they left nearly a million kids in Tennessee’s public schools with less funding per student than anywhere else in the nation. This isn’t an accident — it’s a choice. And Tennessee families are paying the price.”
Tennessee policymakers and Gov. Lee have decided that funding a separate, $300 million voucher school system is more important than investing in our state’s public schools.
That decision carries real costs, as this letter writer to the Tennesseanpoints out:
The wonderful public school my precious granddaughters attend has been informed that they will lose $338,000 this year. In essence, to have the same services in 2026-2027, they will have to find donors and philanthropies to chip away at this hole in the next few months, or drastically reduce staffing. Already, current staff cover two or three job descriptions, double up on learning support and, at the same time, have produced better test scores and student retention. The system disincentivizes success.
Four months to raise $338,000 that won’t provide extras or undergird new efforts. It’ll be just enough to maintain. Metro and the State do not provide fundraising support. PTAs are keeping the doors open, and moms are popping their trunks in the pickup line to provide diapers, hygiene products and food for students whose government-supported benefits have been reduced or stopped altogether.
