NASHVILLE - House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, says a state education funding lawsuit filed Tuesday by Hamilton County and other area school boards amounts to "suing the state's taxpayers for a tax increase."
"I think they really ought to work with the state," McCormick said Wednesday of the seven mostly Southeast Tennessee school boards that filed the Chancery Court action in Nashville. "We've increased funding for education for the last four years and we continue to do so."
The suit says the state has underfunded Tennessee's Basic Education Program funding formula, which distributes money to the 141 school districts. Local governments are required to pay a share.
McCormick said he believes "it's better for everyone to work together on this rather than sue each other. I think they'll end up hurting the kids suing the state and suing the state's taxpayers' for a tax increase and that's what they're doing."