NASHVILLE – State education officials’ preliminary K-12 budget proposal calls for a $57.4 million increase over last year, an amount almost certain to go higher as Gov. Bill Haslam weighs salary increases for teachers.
During her public budget presentation to Haslam today, Education Commissioner Candice McQueen said most of the increase — $48.86 million — will go toward funding inflationary and student enrollment increases through the state’s $4.23 billion Basic Education Program funding formula.
“This does not include increases for teacher salaries,” McQueen noted.
Technology improvements aren’t included at this point either. Haslam customarily makes his decisions later about new funding in both areas in the proposed annual spending plan he presents to state lawmakers.
The BEP formula distributes the state’s share of funding to 141 local school districts based on local communities’ ability to pay their share.
While the department’s budget presentation says $48.86 million provides “full funding” of the BEP, it actually does not. That’s because the state has never fully funding a revamp of the funding formula known as BEP 2.0.
And that is a major element in a pending lawsuit filed by Hamilton County and six area school districts, which charges Tennessee is failing its state constitutional obligations to provide for an adequate system of education.
Figures in the lawsuit list at least $500 million worth of long-ignored recommendations made since 2007 by the BEP Review Committee. In the review panel’s Nov. 1 report, those older recommendations, cited in the lawsuit, suddenly vanished.
During Wednesday’s budget presentation, Haslam and McQueen never mentioned the lawsuit, nor a second similar suit filed by Shelby County schools.
They did, however, spend considerable time talking up what efforts the state has made to fund education as a Davidson County judge continues to weigh whether to dismiss the lawsuits or agree to make them a class action involving all school districts in the state.
Haslam, a Republican, during the budget hearing pointed out the state in the current budget increased K-12 spending $180 million with about half going to increase teacher salaries.
McQueen said the state has steadily increased funding since Haslam took office in 2011.
“We are pleased that we continue to go in the right direction,” McQueen told the governor, adding his administration is supporting funding in “both word and deed.”
And the governor noted the state has boosted overall K-12 funding by about 22 percent since fiscal year 2010. Not to be outdone, McQueen said Tennessee ranked in the top 10 of all states on funding increases since Haslam took office in 2011.
Asked later by a reporter whether the upbeat public messaging on school funding is linked the continuing lawsuits, McQueen said, “Well, I would stick to our facts. Our facts show that we actually have made improvements since Gov. Haslam has been in his administration.
“We’ve made improvements in education,” she added. “We’ve made improvements in the BEP and we’ve certainly made improvements in teacher salary associated with that. And so we will continue to do that. The governor has been committed to education. He has shown that committment through action and we will continue to be committed to that activity this year.”
Tennessee set to increase education funding by nearly $60 million
