Study Shows Tennessee Is Failing At School Funding
Photo Credit: tn.gov
The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –
A newly released study places Tennessee near the bottom when it comes to education funding, as Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn continues with a series of town hall meetings across the state in an effort to push a new funding formula.
Governor Lee and his administration are looking to review the Basic Education Program (BEP) that Tennessee currently uses to fund schools.
“We are and will look at pay and for funding broadly for public education, if we’re going to look at a new strategy for funding,” Governor Lee said. “We’ve been needing to address the funding formula for years and years, and I felt like we shouldn’t wait any longer.”
The new joint study, published by the Southern Poverty Center and Education Law Center, gives Tennessee an ‘F’, ranking the state as 44th in the country and nearly the lowest in the South in funding level. The study takes into account the cost differences across varying regions and adjusts for those variables.
According to the study, Tennessee comes in around $4,000 below the national average of funding per student.
JC Bowman, President of Professional Educators of Tennessee, says the report is no shock.
“We’re going to do something different on school funding, one thing for sure it will increase, it will have to,” Bowman said.
In the area of funding distribution, Tennessee scores another ‘F’, coming in at 47th in the nation.
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Representative Gloria Johnson of Knoxville argues that the state does not need to try to figure out a way to allocate the money differently; instead, they need to figure out a way to find more money to be allocated.
“We have the money to do what is needed, and we’re not doing it. One of the other things that they cited in that study was the fact that we aren’t funding equitably, and we know that for a fact,” Johnson said.
She continued, “We’re underfunding our schools to the tune of almost 2 billion dollars, and we have got the money to invest in our schools.”
Governor Lee says additional funding is in the works.
“We’ve increased funding for education every year since I’ve been here. We’ll do so again this year, the real question is how much we will increase,” Lee said.
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
Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn needs to go back to California. I do not trust this woman at all.
The argument that the amount of funding allocated to public education is the primary determinant as to whether “quality education” happens is flawed at best. Examples of superior and inferior learning can be found at both ends of the “funding spectrum”.
This is primarily an argument used by public school teacher UNIONS – to ensure continued salary increases.
As one who has worked in public school districts across the country, I can easily confirm there isn’t a problem with “funding”, but rather how “funding” is spent.
SPLC is not a creditable organization to cite for anything! And not worth a Penny Schwinn should be fired anyway certainly not taken seriously.
Looks like all the liberals are coming out of the woodwork. Their answer to everything is to throw more money at it. I suggest a closer look at how the money is spent. One thing for certain is that certain elitists in the education system are grossly overpaid. Their salaries should be limited to no more than twice the average income in the state of Tn. Don’t tell me it takes money to attract the best minds because the latest hire prove that fallacy. Start looking at how the money is spent and where.
Maybe we are funding too many Administrators that do not bring much to real education.
SPLC???? DmThe epitome of race baiting and misinformation. Then giving any advice on education funding is synonymous with Jeffrey Dhamer providing recipe advice.
NY, Cali spend more around $30K per student, 25 students per class, Teacher’s assistant. While they just hand out grades. TN spends about $12K per student, and beats the socks off NY/CALI public schools.
My husband taught Electronics, Computers, Math as a USN 2O YR CAREER Serviceman while on land, at Sea he fixed it, worked Aircraft Carriers. Got out, got his Teaching degree, was a Math Major. Taught on contract at the local Navy base where the Sailors had 12 weeks to learn what public school taught in a semester. State Tech hired him to teach the same subjects, the Progressive Memphis schools gave A/B MATH GRADES, County and Foreign had to earn theirs. Guess who took Remedial math…Memphis kids. Guess who dropped out more often…Memphis kids. He also taught the future CISCO teachers. Ret. in 2002 as Dept. Chair.
You get good students when they EARN THEIR GRADES, IT’S WHY HOME SCHOOL, EXCELLS. TIE THE MONEY TO THE CHILD, LET PARENTS DECIDE WHERE THEIR CHILD GOES TO SCHOOL. BTW MOST SCHOOL TEACHERS SEND THEIR KIDS TO PRIVATE SCHOOLS AT A REDUCED RATE.
At 81 still teaches the Math portion of the HAM RADIO EXTRA CLASS. Did last year’s via ZOOM. Which was recorded.