NASHVILLE — The Senate Education Committee recommended Gov. Phil Bredesen’s proposed $4.97 billion budget for K-12 education today on a bipartisan 9-0 vote.
But while the plan includes the governor’s proposed $25 million for pre-kindergarten program expansion, Senate Republicans said there are no guarantees the pre-k plan will be approved by the Senate Finance Committee.
“A lot depends on where our revenues are,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, noting state revenues in the general fund in the current fiscal year are $210 million below estimates.
Sen. McNally said he is weighing the pre-k expansion against what he says is state officials’ higher obligation to continue increasing last year’s Basic Education Program school funding formula reforms as much as possible.
Republicans last year pressed Gov. Bredesen, a Democrat, into making wholesale changes intended to make the formula fairer for systems such as Hamilton County’s.
Sen. McNally said Gov. Bredesen’s pre-k expansion plan would benefit about 5,000 children while the BEP reforms would benefit nearly 1 million Tennessee students in K-12.
See Thursday’s Chattanooga Times Free Press for complete details.
Andy Sher is a Nashville-based staff writer covering Tennessee state government and politics for the Times Free Press. A Washington correspondent from 1999-2005 for the Times Free Press, Andy previously headed up state Capitol coverage for The Chattanooga Times, worked as a state Capitol reporter for The Nashville Banner and was a contributor to The Tennessee Journal, among other publications. Andy worked for 17 years at The Chattanooga Times covering police, health care, county government, ...
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