Bill Lee’s “new frontier” looks a lot like Tennessee’s old frontier of school funding failure
Remember how Gov. Lee pushed a new school funding formula – TISA – to replace the state’s highly equitable but woefully inadequate BEP?
Remember how Lee promised TISA would usher in a bold new era of investment in Tennessee’s public schools?
Well, as it turns out, Lee’s rhetoric failed to match the reality. Or, those who warned about TISA were right – the new formula still provides inadequate funding to Tennessee’s public schools.
While in 2018, Tennessee ranked 42nd in the nation in school funding effort, today we rank 47th. On overall funding level, there has been no change since 2018 – that is, we’re still at 43rd.
So much for that new frontier Gov. Lee promised. Seems like the same old frontier of inadequate funding combined with the newness of even LESS effort to actually fund schools.
All of this continued lack of investment in school happened while the state enjoyed multiple years with huge (multi-billion dollar) budget surpluses. Rather than invest those funds in schools, Lee and his legislative allies gave out $1.6 billion in corporate tax breaks and $500 million to the Tennessee Titans to build a new stadium.
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