State leaders unveil proposed education funding plan

By MARY ALICE ROYSE TOSIN FAKILE

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    NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WSMV) — Tennessee’s proposal for new education funding is broken down Thursday by Gov. Bill Lee and Commissioner Penner Schwinn to explain how the money would be used for future education in Tennessee.

There’s now more information on Tennessee’s proposed new education funding formula; the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement Act (TISA) would work.

Governor Bill Lee and Commissioner Penny Schwinn unveiled the breakdown of billions of dollars that will be used to fund students in public schools K through 12.

TISA would put in about $9 billion in education funding for the state, including state and local funds, including $1 billion in new recurring state funds and $750 million in one-time state funds this year.

Both state leaders stressed the proposed funding plan is student-based.

“Here’s the most important change, we are funding public education based on the individual needs of the students that access that public education,” said Governor Bill Lee. “We are making sure that parents understand that their child is receiving the funding for their public education based on their child’s unique needs. Whether that’s concentrated poverty, a disability, a rural school,” he added.

Officials say The Tennessee Investment In Student Achievement Act, TISA is easier to understand how dollars are calculated.

Schwinn said the old formula, the BEP had about 46 components and took several pages to explain how things are calculated.

“Our goal has been to take what has, is a cumbersome and outdated BEP formula and create a model that supports in a transparent way that supports students in our state. We need to invest more in our public schools in our state, but we don’t need to invest in bulky out-of-date funding formula,” said Gov. Lee. “The BEP doesn’t deserve a billion dollars to be put in it, but our students do deserve a billion-dollar increase in public education funding,” he added.

“Districts receive more funding under the new proposal that under the BEP assuming enrollment is stable,” said Commissioner Penny Schwinn. “If you put a billion dollars into the BEP, 25 percent of districts have to increase taxes. That is not true under the new formula. It’s constructed to control for local costs,” she added.

TISA, if passed, will replace the decades-old funding formula BEP. The proposal will fund education starting in 2023-24 school year.

“Individual needs will have individual funding decisions around it,” Governor Lee said

And that’s what makes this funding plan different.

“Different students have different needs, and so the funding should match the individual need of each student,” said Schwinn.

According to the proposal, each student starts with a base funding of $6860. And depending on what a student’s needs are like living in a concentrated poverty area or unique learning needs like dyslexia or English learning proficiency, more money will be allocated for the student.

Unique Learning Needs is a matrix calculated in the formula, and Schwinn says there are ten different levels of Unique Learning Needs.

“Students with unique learning needs; again those are students with disabilities, gifted students with characteristics of dyslexia and English learners, they have a range of what those weights can be from 15 percent to 150 percent,” Schwinn said.

The Proposed formula comprises a base, weights, directs, and outcomes funding. Base and weights funding will be split 70-30 between state and local. The state will cover direct and outcome funding.

“One of the ways that you can build a formula is controlling for state cost, or you control for local costs. The Governor wanted to ensure that we did not see any increase in taxes for our local communities. So we started with controlling for local costs,’ Schwinn said.

The Governor said another thing peculiar to the proposed bill is greater transparency and accountability.

“We also believe in this funding formula takes into consideration that we believe districts should have accountability as well when it comes to how those districts spend those tax dollars on public education,” Said Governor Lee. “District professions and school board members should be provided professional development, should be required to take professional development. So that if they’re going to be given the responsibility for funding and accountability for funding that they be given the professional development to participating in funding decisions,” he added.

State leaders were asked if there would be financial penalties in the proposed plan for schools that may continue to underperform.

“There is not a scenario considered in this bill that would reduce funding for schools. I think the idea is that when we are more specifically targeting resources to those students who need them, and we are appropriately being transparent, accurate reporting, and holding districts and schools accountable for how that money is spent to benefit those students who need it the most, that should generate better outcomes,’ Schwinn said.

Schwinn said on Friday, every district was sent the funding formula overview for their district.

TISA is expected in committee in the next few weeks, but there’s still a long way to go.

It has to go through at least seven committees and then be approved by the House and Senate before going to the Governor’s desk and becoming law.

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