There’s been a lot of talk about funding public education in Tennessee lately. The buzz comes after Gov. Bill Lee and education commissioner Penny Schwinn announced a public review period in October that’s supposed to result in a new and improved public education funding formula.
This revamp comes as a 6-year-old lawsuit is set to go before a three-judge panel in February. (Republicans in the state legislature designed the new panels earlier this year as a way to dilute the power of Nashville’s Chancery Court, which traditionally ruled on lawsuits against the state and was set to handle this case.) School systems across the state — including those in Davidson and Shelby counties, along with 87 smaller districts — will argue that Tennessee does not adequately fund public education. The last time a case like this arose, it resulted in the current Basic Education Program funding formula, which has funded schools since its inception in 1992, though it has seen different iterations. Even still, Tennessee ranks among the bottom 10 states in per-pupil funding.
The review process for a new formula is a multifaceted system that starts with a three-month public participation period. The Tennessee Department of Education has already hosted six town halls throughout the state to hear from community members, and the department is encouraging citizens to send additional comments via email. According to Schwinn, those comments will be sorted by impartial paralegals who will organize and distribute them to various topic-focused subcommittees. There are 18 subcommittees that will focus on individualized matters, ranging from English language learners to fiscal responsibility. Those subcommittees will field comments, use them to prioritize funding needs, and then make related recommendations to a steering committee — made up of Lee, two of his cabinet appointees and nine Republican members of the state legislature — who will then use subcommittee recommendations to suggest policy, which will be hashed out in the coming legislative session in January.
Katie Cour, president and CEO of the Nashville Public Education Foundation, is on the Education Foundations Subcommittee. While she is “cautiously optimistic” about the coming process, she “would have liked to see a bit more diversity of perspectives across the subcommittees.”
“I was disappointed that the governor did not name any Democrats to the funding review steering committee,” Cour says. “I think there is an enormous opportunity to work across party lines to accomplish something for our students, and I would have liked to see more intention to bipartisanship.”
Schwinn notes that this public education funding conversation is separate from both the state’s impending education funding lawsuit and Gov. Lee’s voucher initiative. The latter, which has been put on hold by two different courts, would enable families to use public education funds to supplement private school tuition.
Former Metro Nashville Public Schools board member Will Pinkston, however, doesn’t buy it. “To suggest that you can have a meaningful conversation about education funding on the heels of passing an unconstitutional voucher program is ridiculous,” he tells the Scene. “Until the politicians in this state are ready to commit to public education … and set aside these privatization schemes, [they’re] never going to get anything accomplished in terms of education improvement. It’s just not possible.”
As for the lawsuit’s role in all this, Pinkston says “the litigation is forcing the conversation to happen, which is what we all intended to happen.” Pinkston participated in early conversations that led to the lawsuit.
As complicated as it is by history, politics and jargon, the conversation about how Tennessee funds its public schools can be difficult to unpack. But citizens don’t have to be experts to engage in the process. The state is asking Tennesseans to speak on what needs to be funded, and parents who send their kids to schools every day are capable of recognizing those needs.
For those who want to learn more, there are resources. The Education Trust in Tennessee has a free webinar series called “Dollars and Sense” that is dedicated to education funding. Nashville’s District 8 school board member Gini Pupo-Walker — who is also the state director of the Education Trust in Tennessee, a nonprofit that advocates for equity in education — tells the Scene “this is a once-in-a-multi-decade opportunity to really reimagine how we fund education, how we actually equip our schools, our teachers [and] our students to be successful.”
The Nashville Public Education Foundation also has information about school funding. Cour says the best thing that parents can do is write to their legislators in the state House and Senate. The NPEF has a template that folks can use, but Cour says it’s better to make it personal.
“[Legislators] will listen when you write about a personal experience that you’ve had in our schools and what you want to be different going forward,” says Cour. “You don’t have to know all the details of the BEP. You don’t have to know about what the funding formula needs to look like to advocate for more funding and better use of those dollars … in addition to going to the town halls and speaking up.”
TDOE has information and sign-up forms for those who want to learn and stay updated on the public education process. Comments can be sent to to tnedu.funding@tn.gov.
“I think it’s something that is a legacy for all of us to share,” says Schwinn, “because it’s going to mean our kids are better off in the future. And I’m very, very grateful to be a very small part of what I hope will be a big legacy investment for us as a state and setting our education system up to thrive.”
