If Gov. Bill Haslam and the state legislature can craft a plan that funds schools at the level expected from the current state funding formula (or do so with a new one), it may be a bigger accomplishment than had he succeeded in getting lawmakers to approve his Insure Tennessee plan.
The state’s Basic Education Program 2.0, which calculates the level of funding for each public school system in the state, was adopted in 2007. A Haslam-appointed task force recently has been meeting to review the formula, but now Hamilton and other counties are ramping up the stakes.
The Hamilton County Board of Education voted 8-1 on Thursday to sue the state on the grounds it is not adequately funding schools. Bradley, Coffee, Marion and Polk counties also have voted to sue, and Grundy and McMinn counties were expected to take similar votes.
While Hamilton is identified as the third richest county in the state according to the funding formula, it receives the third lowest amount of education funds from the state. Thus, the county has to make up some $10,000 in teacher salaries and two months of insurance per person, and parents, teachers and donors wind up paying millions more for items that otherwise might have been funded.
Haslam will meet with superintendents of the state’s four largest school districts on March 23, and Hamilton County school board member Dr. Jonathan Welch said the board would see what the meeting held before filing the suit. But since it will be difficult for things to move from desperate to rosy in one meeting, here’s hoping he’ll hear enough to forestall the suit.