Photo Credit: Tennessee Department of Education / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –
Local school leaders have begun to offer their input as the state continues to review its current public education funding formula.
After wrapping up a string of town hall meetings where community members gathered to provide their thoughts on school funding, 18 different subcommittees have been tasked with considering a variety of topics such as fiscal responsibility and diverse learner groups such as students with disabilities.
Last week, the Tennessee Department of Education conducted eight meetings with elected officials for city and county governments, as well as school district leaders. The purpose of these meetings was to talk about matching funds required from local systems.
These meetings were not open to the public or live streamed. Instead, the department recorded the meetings and later posted them online for public viewing.
One of the meetings took place in Dickson on Friday with Nashville Mayor John Cooper and Metro Nashville Public Schools Director Adrienne Battle joining with dozens of other officials from Middle Tennessee. Their goal was to communicate the priorities that were specific to their communities.
According to MNPS Chief Financial Officer Chris Henson, city leaders are hopeful that factors such as cost of living and student diversity will be considered as the state calculates the amount of money local governments are expected to contribute.
The Basic Education Program, the funding formula that is currently being used, splits state funding among local school districts according to their “fiscal capacity.” Communities fund a good portion of their school systems through local property and sales taxes. Some counties also earmark other taxes such as a wheel tax to school funding.
Henson says they hope the state will consider some of the “additional needs” that counties have as well.
“We hope you’re not just looking solely at the assessed property values and the local option sales tax, but what are the additional needs that county has? For example, in our case, an urban county might have needs that other local revenue might need to go to to meet those needs,” Henson said.
He referenced the higher cost of living in Nashville and other metro areas, along with the greater number of English language learners or undocumented students.
Federal law requires that public school districts provide an education to students no matter what their immigration status is, but Henson noted that school districts do not always receive funding for undocumented students who are economically disadvantaged because they do not qualify for federal assistance.
Cooper added that people do not always realize the role that taxpayers across Davidson County play in funding schools. State funding only covers about 30% of MNPS, while funding often covers closer to 70% of districts in rural areas.
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If Governor Lee proposes a new funding model to legislators in the next session and it is approved, department leaders plan to propose a two-step process for handling contributions from local governments.
They plan to recommend that local systems would not have to increase their current level of funding for the first five years, and they would work with systems for a year before coming up with a formula for those local contributions.
The proposed new student-centered model would measure funding in “weights.” A base weight would be paid for each student, and then additional funding would be given for additional weights. Weights could include students being economically disadvantaged or students having various disabilities that would require that additional services be provided by a school.
Funding discussions are ongoing as Governor Lee and Commissioner Schwinn continue with their 90 day review of the funding system.
About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career. Most recently, he served as Deputy Directory for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History. Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com
