GOP says pre-k plan not sure thing

NASHVILLE — The Senate Education Committee on Wednesday recommended approval of Gov. Phil Bredesen’s proposed $4.97 billion budget for K-12 education including the governor’s proposed $25 million for prekindergarten expansion.

While the 9-0 vote was bipartisan, Senate Republicans said there are no guarantees the governor’s pre-k plan would be approved by the Finance Committee.

State revenue shortfalls and GOP members’ desires to focus on last year’s commitment to overhaul the state’s Basic Education Program funding formula may scuttle the Democratic governor’s pre-k proposal, Republicans said.

“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 short of estimates.

“My No. 1 priority is to fully fund the governor’s proposal so far as the BEP is concerned,” Sen. McNally said.

He noted the BEP serves some 940,000 students. The $25 million for pre-k would add 5,000 3- and 4-year-olds to the program, Sen. McNally said.

Senate Democratic Caucus spokesman Mark Brown said that despite tough economic times, improvements can be made in both the BEP and pre-k.

“We don’t think that one should be done at the expense of the other,” he said.

Last year, GOP lawmakers persuaded Gov. Bredesen to make extensive changes to the BEP, providing new funding for at-risk students and students for whom English is a second language. The overhaul simplified how local school systems’ ability to fund their share of k-12 education is determined, helping systems such as Hamilton County.

Lawmakers put more than $100 million from a tobacco tax increase into the overhaul in the current budget, then set aside $100 million for the next installment in the proposed fiscal 2008-09 budget. Gov. Bredesen is recommending $86.5 million, causing some GOP lawmakers to criticize his plans to provide $25 million more to expand pre-k.

During the committee meeting, Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Jaime Woodson, R-Knoxville, asked acting Education Commissioner Tim Webb what formalized funding schedule the governor was proposing to continue BEP reforms in coming years.

“I’m not sure there’s actually a plan,” Mr. Webb said, adding it might take six to seven years to fully fund the changes.

Officials last year had hoped it might take as little as three years. In December, Gov. Bredesen cited the worsening economy and said it might take a five-year time frame.

“I’m very concerned there is at this point not a specific strategy on how to fulfill that commitment” to BEP reforms, Sen. Woodson said. “I’ve expressed that to the governor personally.”

Asked whether fulfilling the commitment to BEP reforms is more important than expanding pre-k, Sen. Woodson said such discussion will hinge on revenues.

“I think at this point we need to wait and see. But that (BEP reform) was a promise we made last year, and I think that fulfilling that commitment at this point is paramount in my mind to all issues,” she said.