The math of education
Hamilton County is hoping to persuade Tennessee officials to fully fund the state’s share of public education financing called the Basic Education Program, or BEP.
That would mean adding about $12 million to the roughly $133 million the state has been contributing locally to the county school system’s $393 million operating budget.
So if you’re looking at these numbers, you’re seeing that state pays about a third of our children’s education. If they bump that $133 million up to $145 million — which would fully fund the BEP in Hamilton County — the state would still be contributing only about 36 percent of the cost of educating our children.
We pay nearly 60 percent of the state’s revenue with our sales taxes. And we fund the lion’s share or the remaining cost of our kids’ education with our Hamilton County property tax.