Hamilton County Schools headquartersDon't let Tennessee lawmakers oversimplify, tinker with -- or scrap -- the Basic Education Program, the formula under which public K-12 schools are funded.
Instead, lawmakers should focus on fully funding the BEP, which only pays school districts for 10 months of health care, instead of a full year, and shortchanges teachers' pay to the tune of $10,000 per year each.
Hamilton County school board attorney Scott BennettThat's the gist of a letter sent Tuesday to Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery by D. Scott Bennett, the attorney for school boards in Hamilton, Grundy, Polk and Coffee counties.
"Rather than establishing the true cost of employing teachers across the state and funding the state's full share of that cost, the General Assembly appears to be considering a wholesale revision to the funding formula," Bennett wrote in his five-page letter.
"Several members of the General Assembly offered their opinion that the present formula is too complicated," Bennett wrote. "We would suggest that the funding formula is complicated simply because school systems are complex organizations."
Bennett wants the attorney general's office to dissuade state lawmakers from cutting any of the more than 40 separate components in the BEP formula associated with operating a school system.
"We respectfully suggest that the General Assembly should tread with great caution," Bennett wrote. "We are bringing this matter to the attention of your office with the hope and expectation that you are in a position to counsel the General Assembly and our elected leaders as to their obligations under the law."
Asked for comment, Leigh Ann Apple Jones, the attorney general's chief of staff, said via email, "This office has received [Bennett's] letter. .... We will be taking a look at it."
The state constitution requires providing public education, and Bennett cited the three lawsuits filed by local school boards that resulted in the state adopting -- but never fully funding -- what's known as BEP version 2.0.
"Under BEP 2.0, the state funds 75 percent of classroom costs," Bennett wrote. "There is substantially less money flowing from state revenue sources to local boards of education than the [state] constitution requires."
Bennett declined to say Wednesday whether any of the school boards he represents want him to file a lawsuit.
Jonathan Welch, a Hamilton County Board of Education member from Signal Mountain, is a vocal supporter for more BEP funding from the state and won't rule out the potential for a suit.
"I think that option is out there; nobody really wants to use it," Welch said. "We'll just have to see how the General Assembly reacts."
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/tim.omarzu or twitter.com/TimOmarzu or 423-757-6651.