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.
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.
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.
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On news that the state now ranks 47th nationally in per student investment – and last among our Southeastern neighbors, Rev. Chris Warren -a Cumberland Presbyterian minister from Murfreesboro – said:
“Scripture reminds us often to care for both children and the vulnerable in our midst. By prioritizing voucher schemes instead of fully funding our public schools, it’s clear that Governor Lee and the Supermajority Legislature have neglected this scripture’s call. Instead, they have prioritized underfunding public education while funneling millions to vouchers. This benefits powerful outside interest groups while our children suffer.”
While Tennessee historically ranks in the bottom 10 nationally – usually in the 44-45 range – we’d usually end up with funding above some of our Southern neighbors.
Thanks to Bill Lee, not anymore.
Tennessee ranks dead last among neighboring states when it comes to investment in schools after six years of Lee’s “leadership.”
Instead of seeking to right the ship and push Tennessee forward, Lee has now convinced his legislative allies to embrace a billion-dollar school voucher scheme.
If you think it’s bad now, it will very likely get worse.
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.
Gov. Bill Lee is proposing a significant change to the way the state funds public schools. His proposal would replace the decades old BEP formula with something he calls TISA – Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement.
Except, well, the plan does nothing to invest in student achievement. Rather, it is a complicated system of weights applied to students that supposedly will lead to improved student achievement based on how districts use funds for targeted interventions.
In other words, the same old stuff in a shiny new, complicated package.
Here’s how we know this plan won’t boost student achievement. First, it does nothing to shore up the shortage of teachers needed to adequately support students now. That is, according to both TACIR and the Comptroller, Tennessee districts hire MORE teachers (11,000 more, to be exact) than the current formula funds. Guess what? TISA does nothing to change that. There is no indication that the weights will mean more teachers hired and supported by state funding.
Next, TISA does nothing to boost overall teacher pay. Sure, TISA “allows” lawmakers to earmark certain funds to give raises to “existing” teachers, but that doesn’t mean they will. Nor does it mean those raises will be significant. This year’s $125 million set aside for teacher compensation will mean what is effectively a 2-3% raise for most teachers. Based on current inflation rates and rising insurance premiums, this essentially amounts to a pay cut.
If Lee actually wants to improve student achievement, he’d make a significant investment in teacher salaries. First, we have a teacher shortage that is only getting worse – more pay is not the only remedy, but it is a good tool to stem the tide.
Next, a recent study shows that boosting teacher pay has a direct, positive impact on student achievement.
Researchers have conducted a massive, unprecedented statistical analysis of public school teacher salaries and student standardized test performance in the United States, finding that when teachers are paid more, students score higher.
Why does this happen? The researchers offer this suggestion:
Prior research has shown that increased teacher salaries prompt higher quality students to seek careers in education. Additional pay also lowers teacher turnover, keeping talented, experienced teachers in their jobs and resulting in more educator continuity for students, which builds trust between teacher and pupil.
This recent study of teachers in the United States can be compared with a study by researchers at the London School of Economics which also demonstrated that higher teacher pay was causally related to higher student achievement:
“. . . we find that a 10% increase in teachers’ pay would give a 5-10% increase in pupil performance.”
But Lee’s plan doesn’t do that. Or even approach that. At best, this year’s raise will mean 3%. Going forward under TISA, every indication is that the state increase to base teacher compensation will be between 2-4% a year – or, a mere inflationary adjustment – no real boost in actual income.
Here’s what Lee’s plan does do: Raise local property taxes.
Meghan Mangrum in The Tennessean offers an analysis of how local property taxes would increase under TISA:
“Under TISA, the required local match for Davidson County is anticipated to increase by $35 million between FY23 and FY24, while the state’s investment in Nashville’s students will only increase by $12.6 (million) under the projections they have provided,” spokesperson Sean Braisted said in an email.
And that’s just Nashville. 28 districts will have to increase local contributions (raise taxes) beyond current levels in FY 2024. Then, in FY 2027, after TISA’s hold harmless expires, it is likely many more districts will see increased costs.
TC Weber dives deeper into the funding issue – the bottom line: Your local taxes will likely go up to fund TISA.
Why is this happening? Because the new formula is NOT addressing the underlying issue: Our current formula doesn’t pay for the teachers we need. The secondary (and very important issue) is that TISA does not address the need to significantly boost teacher compensation.
Here’s the deal: Tennessee COULD address this issue.
Governor Bill Lee and state lawmakers just used some of Tennessee’s largest ever budget surplus to fund a historically large incentive package for Ford Motor Company. Even after that deal, policymakers may still have at least $3 billion in unallocated funds to appropriate next year. This total includes a record-setting $2 billion for recurring items – and that’s before even speculating about routine revenue growth. For comparison, Tennessee’s total budget from state revenues this year was about $21 billion before the Ford deal passed.
We’ve got $3 billion in extra cash just lying around!
Well, and we’ve got even more. The Department of Finance and Administration reports the state is more than $2 billion OVER estimated revenue collections this year so far!
Year-to-date revenues for six months were $2.15 billion more than the budgeted estimate. The general fund recorded $2.02 billion in revenues more than estimates, and the four other funds totaled $126.7 million more than year-to-date estimates.
So, here’s what a student-achievement focused budget would look like:
$1 billion to close the gap in needed teachers – that’s $1 billion from the state allocated to local districts to fund the teachers local dollars are already providing.
$1 billion to raise teacher pay by 15% or more for ALL teachers – This assumes the state covers the cost of the increase for the newly state-funded teachers (7000-9000) plus all teachers currently covered.
Guess what? We can do that with billions of dollars left over.
Guess what else? Implementing a plan like this can be done by making adjustments to the current BEP formula.
And you know what else? This can be done without raising local taxes one cent. No state tax increase, no local tax increase, more teachers covered with state dollars, and better pay for all teachers. That’s an evidence-based, affordable solution to the problem Lee says he’s trying to address.
Which begs the question: Why does Lee’s plan rely on local property taxes and why doesn’t Lee’s plan improve the number of teachers or pay them significantly more?
The answer could be in the millions of dollars spent by pro-voucher and pro-charter (privatization) interests to influence state education policy.
Tennessee teacher and education blogger Mike Stein offers his take on Gov. Bill Lee’s latest run at school vouchers. This time, Lee’s plan appears to be to use the state’s school funding formula (BEP) to create a voucher scheme.
Here are some highlights from Stein’s piece, written after he’d been to one of TN DOE’s BEP Town Hall events:
I had so much to say! I wanted to mention how atrocious it is that in 2021 teachers in this state are still limited on how many copies they can make for their classrooms. I wanted to go into how students’ mental health is poor. That fights during school are on the rise because they don’t know how to properly deal with their emotions and the need for school counselors, psychologists, and social workers is at a critical point. I wanted to mention my idea for attacking the substitute teacher crisis in Tennessee, which is to include substitute teacher pay as a component in the BEP. Rural systems like mine can not afford to pay them a decent wage (they can literally make more money at any fast food establishment), so if TDOE creates a baseline pay of $120 per day for non-licensed substitute teachers that is reimbursed to districts, then we will be much more likely to attract and keep quality substitute teachers. The $120 figure comes from paying them the equivalent of $15 an hour for the length of the school day. If the substitute is a certified teacher, then I believe that amount should equal $160 per day. I wanted to raise these points–and more–but the two minute time limit had me rethinking what I was going to say.
Stop and reflect on that last sentence. If their timeline is to present their plan in January then it can only mean one thing–it’s either already written or close to it. This means that TDOE’s public town halls and their funding review committees are either entirely or mostly a farce. They’re going through the motions of eliciting public feedback because to redo the BEP formula without attempting to do so would mean their suggestion in January would most assuredly be D.O.A.
The tea leaves are not difficult to read here. The new BEP formula will include some form of vouchers (they, of course, won’t be called that) and because the BEP funds public schools across the state, then it will not violate the “Home Rule” provision. State legislators will be put in a position to either vote in favor of the new BEP formula (which will undoubtedly include actual needed improvements that will be popular with their constituents) or reject it. It’s a lose-lose situation for them. Either support the new BEP formula that will actually privatize public schools or be accused of being against public education.
Stein then does a great job of breaking down the members of the Fiscal Responsibility Committee – noting that many of them are decidedly pro-voucher.
Check out his post for more on Bill Lee’s continued effort to send public money to private schools.
For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport
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Erik Schelzig in the Tennessee Journal’s On the Hill blog notes that Tennessee’s April revenues were $600 million more than the budgeted estimate.
Go ahead, read that again. In one month, the state collected $600 million more than planned.
Here’s more from Schelzig:
Tennessee’s general fund revenue collections were nearly $600 million above estimates in April, bringing the state’s surplus to $1.9 billion through the first nine months of the budget year.
So, with three months left in the fiscal year, the state is nearly $2 billion ahead of where it planned to be. Even if the surpluses drop off, the state is well on its way to a surplus significantly in excess of $2 billion.
To put this in perspective, the state is $1.7 billion behind where it should be in terms of funding public schools according to a bipartisan legislative commission.
For further perspective, the April surplus alone is three times what Gov. Bill Lee allocated in new education funding for the entire 2021-22 fiscal year.
Tennessee policymakers, who recently adjourned their legislative session, could have paid for at least a third of the school funding shortfall with JUST the April surplus. Of course, that would assume these lawmakers are serious when they say they want to fully fund schools.
To be clear, making even a $600 million down payment on the necessary investments in schools would leave the state with a surplus approaching $1.4 billion and three months left in the budget year.
When all is said and done for the year, it is likely the entire $1.7 billion education funding deficit could be made up and the state would have half a billion dollars or more for savings and other expenses or projects.
For further clarity, not a single Tennessee taxpayer would see any tax increase if schools were funded from this surplus. In fact, it is very likely that a state investment in schools that would make up for the current funding shortfall would actually help local governments keep property taxes low.
This year, groups that typically stay out of the school funding fight like the Nashville Public Education Foundation and the League of Women Voters got involved and urged Lee and lawmakers to make use of this historic surplus to make significant new investments in public education. Those calls, of course, were ignored.
We often hear Tennessee policymakers say they want our state’s schools to be the best in the nation. No doubt, your own lawmaker has probably told you school funding is among their top priorities. However, when there was a giant surplus and the ability to make a huge investment in our schools without raising taxes one cent, these same lawmakers simply walked away. They walked away from our public schools, our students, and our teachers.
In times of tight budgets or when funding schools means raising taxes, it may be understandable that the state is cautious when it comes to investment in public education. However, when a single month’s surplus is $600 million and the overall revenue picture is historic in terms of the excess cash available, there is simply no excuse for not investing in education. The only answer at this point is that lawmakers and our Governor just don’t support our schools.
Tennessee consistently ranks near the bottom in the nation when it comes to school funding. We have an historic opportunity to change that. And, we have policy leaders who just aren’t interested.
