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.
A tale out of Ohio highlights a frequent complaint in education: The unfunded mandate.
Lawmakers have the “best” idea – and if only districts would do it, everything would be great.
Funding? Districts don’t need money – just ideas. And mandates. Lots and lots of mandates.
This is the story of education a million times– some legislator gets a bright idea and declares “Let’s require schools to fix this” while waving vaguely in the direction of schools. And while this bright idea may require more resources and human-hours, that lawmaker will be confident that this whole new program can be implemented for free. Rick Hess has often said that you can force folks to do something, but you can’t force them to do it well. That is doubly true when you make zero effort to provide them with the resources needed to implement the program.
They also want to cut $4.5 billion from funds for afterschool and summer programs, technology and digital literacy, mental health services, rural schools, literacy instruction, new teacher training, emergency preparedness, magnet schools, services for unhoused children, arts education, American history and civics education, family engagement and more.
Unlike the Senate version, which did not cut K-12 funding, the House version slashes $12 billion in school spending (a 15% cut) — including $4.7 billion in cuts to Title I, which funds the nation’s most vulnerable students, constituting a 27% cut to low-income students. Democrats offered amendments to restore the proposed $4.7 billion Title I cut, but all Republicans rejected them.
After a 14-day trial in late June and early July, Judge Fox concluded that the state shorted public schools at least $2.2 billion for maintenance and construction costs between 1998 and 2013 — and likely billions more in the years since, after policymakers scrapped a formula for building repairs in favor of far less funding for competitive grants.
The question is will Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Rep. John Rose, both of whom want to become Tennessee’s governor, actually stand up and fight for the state they hope to lead?
The Trump administration plans to release more than $5 billion in funding to public schools that it has withheld for nearly a month, a senior administration official said Friday, ending weeks of anxiety and uncertainty for school leaders who had said the freeze jeopardized programs and staffing for the upcoming academic year.
Photo by John Guccione www.advergroup.com on Pexels.com
While leaders in some states are suing the Administration for release of the funds, Gov. Lee is not – and if the funds are not ultimately released, it could mean lost jobs and less programs for Tennessee kids most in need.
A spokesperson for Hamilton County Schools says they are at risk of losing $4.1 million that funds “several targeted services such as academic intervention (tutoring), teacher professional learning, and support for English learners.”
Nationally, the frozen funds amount to around $7 billion.
In Tennessee, the funds amount to $118 million. Of course, in the Volunteer State, Gov. Lee is all-in on Trumpism and so is cheering the demise of public schools.
Meanwhile, Attorneys General in some states – like North Carolina – are suing Trump to release the funds and avoid programmatic and staffing cuts.
