As published in The Tennessean October 5, 2023
Tennessee public schools have been ranked near the bottom in funding per student for decades. Even after setting up a shiny new funding formula and state leaders’ proclamations of record education budget increases, Tennessee remains near the bottom.
A lack of state investment in our public schools hurts Tennessee students, depriving them of additional teachers, counselors and specialists who could improve their academic outcomes and well-being. Tennessee needs more great leaps in funding as quickly as possible.
So imagine the surprise when a legislative working group was formed to explore whether Tennessee should reject federal education funding. Those dollars feed children, pay for thousands of teachers and provide for the support of special-needs students. One dollar out of every $8 going to Tennessee schools – more than $1 billion annually – comes from federal coffers. Many systems, including most small rural systems, couldn’t keep the classroom doors open without it. What is there to recommend?
However, the legislative federal funds working group has been established and a report is scheduled for January. If the committee works with honesty and integrity, the report should confirm what the Tennessee Education Association has been saying for years.
∎ The state has not done what it can or should for education investment. If the working group finds Tennessee is in a financial position to supplant federal dollars with state funds, it will be admitting education investments the state can afford have not been made. A pending lawsuit by rural and urban school districts claims state school funding is inadequate and unconstitutional. Imagine how that suit will be bolstered if this legislative working group points to overflowing state coffers as a reason to reject federal funds.
∎ The state uses the threat of federal requirements to protect bad policies. When legislation is filed to shutter the failed state-run Achievement School District, reduce high-stakes testing or change punitive teacher and school evaluations, the administration uses the fiscal hammer of lost federal funds to squash them. But there is far more federal flexibility than state officials admit, thanks to Lamar Alexander, former U.S. senator, being instrumental in the No Child Left Behind Act being replaced by the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015. Imagine how our policy options will be freed if this working group finds the specter of federal strings just dodges.
∎ Federal education law has had success. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has brought children who in previous generations would have been isolated into regular classrooms, benefiting all students by their inclusion. If we reject federal IDEA funding, schools will still be required by law to provide services and the least restricted education environment to all special-needs students. Imagine what happens when Tennessee taxpayers are asked to pay with state dollars what federal funds covered for well-regarded services and policies.
∎ The federal government has its share of bad education policies, but we have complicity too. You don’t have to look hard to see where Tennessee’s treadmill of high-stakes tests and negative results begins. The federal National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as “the nation's report card,” is a black box of an exam that generates state rankings politicians love to cite, but not every child can pass it. Tennessee’s pursuit of higher rankings led us to mimic NAEP in our state tests. Sixty percent of the state's public school third-graders didn't pass the English language arts section of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program test given in March, placing them at risk of retention because we followed the example of federal bureaucrats.
The working group was founded with the basic premise that local control is inherently good and something Tennesseans believe in. If they do their job right, these legislators will report that federal funds come with no strings attached in important areas like curriculum and that we unnecessarily tie ourselves up in more testing and sanctions than what the feds required.
If they do their homework, members of the group will document our acute education funding needs and the state’s ability to do more. Once that has happened, imagine the possibilities.
Tanya T. Coats is a Knox County educator and President of the Tennessee Education Association – the state’s largest professional organization for Tennessee public school educators.
