Category Archives: School Funding

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Revenue Up, Teacher Pay Down

Economic analysts are predicting a slowing of the growth that has driven the Tennessee economy in recent years, according to an article in the Tennessean. Those same analysts indicate tax revenue growth in the state over the past 10 years has been 7% when adjusted for inflation. Here’s more:

Most of Tennessee’s cities have reaped the benefits during this longest economic boom in history with double-digit jumps in employment and gross domestic product. 

However, Tennessee tax collections have only increased 7% in the past decade, when adjusted for inflation. 

“That’s not a lot of growth,” said William Fox, director of the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. “Revenue growth would have been stronger, but we had a number of policy decisions to reduce revenues.”

An analysis provided by the Tennessee Education Association (TEA) indicates that average teacher pay in the state is actually down by 2.6% over the same time period when adjusted for inflation.

TEA also notes:

For the past five years Tennessee has been running huge revenue surpluses as education needs go unmet. Over this five-year span the state collected nearly $3 billion more in general fund revenue than it anticipated. Last year alone the state general fund had a $580 million surplus. These are millions that could have gone to classrooms. 

Not only is Tennessee bringing in more revenue than anticipated but also, as Fox notes, the state has used that good fortune to reduce future revenue. In fact, the state of Tennessee phased-out the inheritance tax (previously paid on estates worth $5 million or more) and is phasing out the Hall Income Tax on investment income. Here’s more on that from the Department of Revenue:

The Hall income tax is being phased out through December 31, 2020.  The tax is fully repealed beginning January 1, 2021.  See important notice 17-09 for more information.

Some estimates indicate completely eliminating the Hall Income Tax means foregoing $180 million in state revenue each year. That’s roughly the equivalent of foregoing a 7% raise in teacher pay each year.

So, let’s be clear about a few things: 1) State lawmakers prioritized tax cuts for wealthy Tennesseans over raising pay for teachers and 2) Even with these tax cuts, there is significant money available to fund teacher raises and 3) Now that the economy is slowing a bit, legislators are being encouraged to exercise caution — which likely means less money to invest in teacher pay and other public service needs.

Shorter: Tennessee policymakers have not made investing in teachers a priority.

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BEP Black Magic

An article in yesterday’s Chattanooga Times-Free Press indicates that some legislators have no idea how the state’s education funding formula works or even what words actually mean.

The article notes that state Senator Todd Gardenhire and state Representative Mike Carter are frustrated by the state budget process, where funds are passed to increase salaries for educators through the Basic Education Plan (BEP). The lawmakers apparently fail to understand that every single system in the state hires teachers beyond the BEP and that the legislature continues to pass unfunded mandates on to local districts.

Specifically, Gardenhire and Carter want a clear definition of the word “teacher” so that only “teachers” receive state raise money and so that the legislators can continue underfunding schools while cutting taxes for big corporations and wealthy individuals. Seems the two of them could use a math class.

Here’s more from the article:

State Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, and state Rep. Mike Carter, R-Ooltewah, have long called for one official definition of what a “teacher” is that school districts and the state can stick to, and they have again been raising the issue with Hamilton County’s school leaders and lawmakers.

Are these ALL “teachers?”

Regular classroom teachers, special education teachers, vocational education, music or art teachers, school counselors, guidance counselors, social workers, librarians, principals, assistant principals, and even supervisors such as instructional coaches, teacher supervisors and staff who complete special education assessments for students all fall into the same category.

Gardenhire and Carter apparently would like it if there were differentiations among instructional staff so they could continue allocating paltry sums to fund schools while allowing at least some employees to receive a state-funded raise.

One County Commissioner narrowed the issue quite well:

Hamilton County Commissioner David Sharpe, of District 6, asked the state representatives at the Nov. 7 legislative delegation meeting who has been getting raises who shouldn’t have been, but his question went unanswered.


“Who are we angry [about] that is getting a raise that we don’t think should be getting a raise?” Sharpe said.

Carter made clear he hasn’t spent time seeking to understand the BEP nor has he made any serious effort to improve it:

“We are promising teachers something that we are not delivering. The BEP is all black magic. No one actually understands it, no one wants to,” Carter told the Times Free Press.

Of course, the state publishes a BEP handbook and also has a BEP Review Committee which meets regularly and explores the formula in order to recommend improvements.

One way to solve the dilemma expressed by Gardenhire and Carter? Actually fund the BEP at an adequate level. The state’s Comptroller of the Treasury estimates the BEP is underfunded by some $500 million annually. Fortunately, both Gardenhire and Carter are lawmakers and have the ability to push legislation to actually fund the formula. Unfortunately, neither have made any effort in this area.

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The Price of Your Greed

So far, 134 schools in Tennessee have at least one water source with unacceptably high levels of lead, according to a story in Chalkbeat:

So far, more than 100 schools in 31 districts across Tennessee found at least one water source above 20 parts per billion.

The latest results from Shelby County brought the total to 134:

The third and last batch of water sample tests brings the total number of Memphis schools affected to 39, representing about 2% of water sources in the district’s 165 school buildings and facilities. Charter schools and state-run schools in Memphis will test their water separately, Shelby County Schools officials said.

As Chalkbeat notes, the testing came about due to a new state law:

The tests were the first under a new Tennessee law requiring school districts to test water sources such as water fountains and sinks for lead at least every two years.

The alarming statewide results indicate a need for serious investment in capital improvements at school facilities across the state.

While there is a clear statewide need for school infrastructure funding, Gov. Bill Lee’s charter school slush fund began doling out millions of dollars this week and plans to award millions more in competitive grants to charter schools in districts across the state. Meanwhile, a new report indicates Tennessee remains at the bottom in nation in both funding of schools and funding effort (use of available resources to support investment in schools).

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport

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Disrupt Poverty

This Facebook post from Ellen Zinkiewicz is an effective open letter to Bill Lee on what needs to be done for our schools (and students):

Dear Gov. Lee, all week we’ve been having a conversation (albeit one sided) about how to disrupt the education system to help improve achievement scores.

I’ve had suggestions from around the State on ways to use our existing and unspent Federal TANF and child care reimbursement money and fairly straightforward legislation to impact Tennessee’s education test scores by focusing on poverty reduction strategies. I keep mentioning poverty. And keep mentioning poverty; and keep mentioning poverty, because poor kids, hungry kids, transient kids, and homeless kids don’t do well on standardized tests. And Tennessee has a lot of these kids.

More than 1 in 4 Tennessee kids lives in poverty, and a bunch more who aren’t technically “poor” are still economically struggling. You have high schools asking their PTOs for washing machines because so many of their kids are homeless and don’t come to school with clean clothes. You have schools sending kids home with food on Fridays so they will have something to eat over the weekends. You have schools with mobility rates of over 100% meaning families can’t afford housing so they bounce around from place to stay to place to stay and that takes them from school zone to school zone.

Gov. Lee, until we help working families find some economic stability, nothing we do to the education system will transform test-readiness.

Poverty is the enemy here, Sir. And I hope you can lead our State in focusing on the disruptive effort of eliminating it, if for no other reason than to see test scores go up.

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport

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F

That’s the grade Tennessee gets from the Education Law Center’s latest report on school funding in the United States. To be clear, Tennessee earned an F in both funding level and funding effort. We earned a C in distribution of the paltry sum our state dedicates to schools.

Here’s how Education Law Center defines those terms:

  • Funding Level – the cost-adjusted, per-pupil revenue from state and local sources
  • Funding Distribution – the extent to which additional funds are distributed to school districts with high levels of student poverty
  • Funding Effort – the level of investment in K-12 public education as a percentage of state wealth (GDP) allocated to maintain and support the state school system

The report notes that Tennessee is 43rd in the nation in overall funding level and 47th in effort. The effort category is of particular interest because it indicates that Tennessee has significant room for improvement in terms of funding level. That is, there are untapped resources Tennessee is NOT using to fund schools.

Shorter: Funding schools is NOT a key policy priority in Tennessee.

Additional evidence for this can be found in graphics shared by Think Tennessee earlier this year:

Tennessee is (and has been) at or near the bottom in school funding and even in funding effort. That’s not changing. Instead, Governor Lee and his policy acolytes are diverting education dollars to voucher schemes and charter schools.

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport

Your support — $5 or more today — makes publishing education news possible.



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A Big Investment

While Tennessee languishes near the bottom of all states in school funding, one Presidential candidate is laying out a plan to make a massive federal investment in schools — especially those with high numbers of low income kids (like so many in Tennessee). Here’s more on Elizabeth Warren’s education funding plan:

Warren unveils education plan quadrupling federal funding for public schools. The Hill: “Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a leading Democratic presidential candidate, is proposing a plan to quadruple federal funding for public schools with incentives for states to fund poor and rich schools more equally. Warren has often campaigned off her personal history as a public school teacher and the importance of reforming the system. Her education plan released Monday comes after much of the primary field has already released such proposals. Warren’s plan would quadruple Title I funding — equivalent to an additional $450 billion — over the next 10 years for pre-K-12 public schools. Warren also plans to invest an additional $100 billion over ten years in ‘excellence grants’ to public schools, and an additional $50 billion in repairing and upgrading school buildings. In an effort to incentivize states to fund schools more equally, the new Title I funding would be conditioned on states ‘chipping in more funding and adopting and implementing more progressive funding formulas, so that more resources go to the schools and students that really need them.’ The plan is financed by Warren’s signature wealth tax on net incomes over $50 million, as are many of her plans.”

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport

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Will Sullivan County Schools Close?

A funding dispute between the School Board and County Commission in Sullivan County threatens to result in the temporary closure of schools, according to WCYB:


A potential lack of funding to Sullivan County Public Schools could cause the school system to temporarily close.
An email detailing the situation was sent to system employees Thursday evening.


Sullivan County Director of Schools David Cox told News 5, the system has not received more than $800,000 in funding from the county. As a result, the General Purpose School Fund is now below the Maintenance of Effort Test from the Tennessee Department of Education.


The Maintenance of Effort Test requires that local fund does not drop lower than per pupil revenue. This means that, if the school system doesn’t receive the money from the county, the system would lose more than $4 million in state funding per month.


News 5 spoke with Sullivan County Commissioner Mark Vance by phone. He said the commission is at an impasse with the county BOE and the state department of education over the budget.

While disputes among school boards (which run schools) and county commissions (which provide funding) are not new, closing schools, even temporarily, is a fairly unusual occurrence.

It’s worth noting that if the state fully-funded the BEP 2.0 formula, Sullivan County would stand to gain some $5 million per year. Unfortunately, former Governor Bill Haslam froze BEP 2.0 and current Governor Bill Lee has chosen to fund a voucher scheme rather than invest significantly in public schools.

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport

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$300 Million

Here are some interesting facts about Wisconsin’s school voucher program. These could be relevant here as Tennessee’s plan is estimated to cost as much as $300 million when fully implemented. Ask yourself: What happens when $300 million is no longer available for the BEP?

2019: 38,862 students at 284 schools statewide receive publicly funded vouchers to attend private schools in 2018-2019. Total cost: $311,470,259.04 (estimated).

Compare to 2018: 35,420 students at 240 school statewide received vouchers in 2017-2018. Total cost of vouchers in 2017-2018: 274,003,172.65 (estimated).

Over 55% of the entire student population of participating schools receive vouchers in 2018.

Only 28% of students receiving vouchers ever attended a public school.

Every year, the enrollment cap is increased by 1% of the local public school district’s enrollment, allowing more students to enter the program. In the 2026 school year, that cap is set in state law to come off entirely.

Students receiving vouchers in 2018-2019 must qualify by income. For the statewide program, that’s 220% of poverty; for the Milwaukee and Racine programs, it’s 300% of poverty. In contrast, students who qualify for Free & Reduced Lunch in public schools must meet at 185% poverty threshold.

Source: Department of Public Instruction
https://dpi.wi.gov/sms/choice-programs/data

Can Tennessee afford a $300 million voucher scheme that Bill Lee wants to fast track?

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport

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Honest Answers

Read to be Ready is a statewide reading initiative focused on early grades. The Tennessee Department of Education describes the importance of the initiative this way:


Tennessee has made tremendous gains in student performance over the past several years – except in reading. Despite our educators’ best efforts, reading skills in elementary school learners have failed to improve, and in some cases have even declined. But these abilities are some of the most important ones our students need, and they are foundational to their success.

In discussing the urgency around improving reading results, the DOE says:


We have different vision for the future. We not only want to teach our children to read – we want to develop them into the thinkers, problem-solvers, lifelong learners, and future leaders of Tennessee. And it will take all of us to get there.

All of this sounds great — and reading is certainly very important for all students. Here’s a rubric for a first grade end-of-unit task:

Now, let’s imagine what would happen if first-graders gave honest answers in this brochure. For example, let’s think about the section that “explains the responsibilities of different leaders in Tennessee’s government.”

A first grade student from Franklin might write:

My state representative is Glen Casada. He used to be the Speaker with the big gavel. Then, he resigned because he framed a civil rights activist. He also hired a Chief of Staff who did cocaine on his desk at 10 AM on a Tuesday and had sex in a hot chicken restaurant for about a minute.

Meanwhile, a first-grader from Waynesboro could note:

My state representative is David Byrd. He was a teacher who admitted to inappropriate sexual contact with his students. They let him keep teaching and he even chaired a committee on education policy. People here re-elected him because he goes to the nice church and has the letter “R” after his name. I’ve heard he’s friends with a guy named Casada.

Over in Hohenwald, students in first grade could laud the exploits of state Senator Joey Hensley:

My Senator has been married four times and he got in trouble because he liked a girl who was also his second cousin. He even gave her drugs.

In Cleveland, a first grader might say:

My Congressman is a man named Scott Desjarlais. He’s had many mistresses and even though he says he’s “Pro-Life,” he’s supported abortions for the women he sleeps with.

Anywhere in Tennessee, first-graders could suggest:

Tennessee’s Governor is a man named Bill Lee who fixes air conditioners. He likes to wear plaid shirts a lot and pretend to care about rural Tennessee — like where I live. But, he’s supporting plans to underfund rural schools by sending money to vouchers. He also doesn’t seem to mind that hospitals all across our state are closing.

When discussing all the things Tennessee produces, students might say:

Our state is a national leader. We’re the best in rural hospital closures, we have the highest rate of medical debt, and we have more people working at the minimum wage (like my parents) than anywhere else.

We’re first in a lot of categories like that. We also do a lot to make sure it’s difficult for people to vote.

Oh, and 21 of our counties don’t even have an emergency room — that must be great, to not have any emergencies there.


For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport

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Lists

Tennessee is making some lists in the education world, and where we fall is disappointing, if not surprising. While Tennessee is among the states with the lowest investment in public schools, we are also one of the worst states to be a teacher. Here’s more from HeyTutor and Business Insider:

Tennessee is near the bottom in investment in public schools, according to data published here:

Tennessee

  • Total spending per student: $9,184
  • Instructional spending per student: $5,584
  • Support services spending per student: $3,090
  • Total spending: $9.27 billion
  • Average teacher salary: $48,456
  • Graduation rate: 89.8%
  • Academic performance: Below average

Tennessee is also one of the worst places in the country to be a teacher, according to Business Insider:

Tennessee: One-third of teachers in the state would leave the profession for something with higher pay, a 2019 survey found.

And, here’s a friendly reminder:

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport

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