Tennessee’s nearly 33-year-old K-12 education funding formula, the Basic Education Program, deserves a “D” at best. Their outdated methodology cannot effectively support Tennessee public school students. Their academic achievements have stalled in part because the BEP does not adequately and equitably fund their schools.
Six months ago, Governor Bill Lee and Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn invited Tennesseans to participate in a full and open review of school funding. This produced the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement funding formula, a proposed replacement for the BEP. The Tennessee Business Roundtable believes that TISA, combined with a proposed $1 billion historic recurring increase in state education funding, will significantly improve academic achievement and post-secondary readiness for generations of Tennesseans.
In evaluating TISA, our executive members asked, “Will this improve student outcomes? Will this improve equity among all Tennessee students? Will this improve Tennessee’s workforce? Is now the right time to finance reform?” In all cases, we conclude that the answer for TISA is yes.
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As business leaders, TISA’s approach to school funding makes a lot of sense to us. It begins with three goals of student success: third-grade reading proficiency, postsecondary college and career readiness, and supporting the learning needs of every student. It then rationally formulates the actual costs of educating each student to achieve those goals. TISA directly aligns school funding with student outcomes in a way that the outdated BEP simply cannot.
TISA can promote educational equity
As a former school district leader, I see a great opportunity in TISA to promote educational equity. All Tennessee students matter, no matter who they are or where they live. By applying funding weights to the characteristics of students that require the most educational resources, TISA more accurately calculates the level of funding that each district actually requires to provide an equitable education to all students it serves, especially those beginning with socioeconomic, ability, language or other disadvantages.
Well over half of the jobs Tennessee employers will be hiring for over the next decade won’t require a bachelor’s degree. TISA will help equip more Tennessee students with the skills needed for these high-paying, high-demand occupations. Invest more state funds directly into career and technical education, and offer new results-based rewards to schools for every student who earns a high-value industry certification. And TISA gives districts more funding to hire counselors to help students discover and optimize their academic and career paths sooner.
The formula holds local leaders accountable
Like the BEP, TISA is a funding formula, not a spending directive. As such, TISA retains control over education spending levels and priorities of local elected leaders and the school district, and is accountable to voters for those decisions. TISA does not tell them how to spend education funds, but it does require them to set academic goals for that spending and then report the results at the school level and publicly. TISA also creates new state oversight mechanisms to improve accountability in school funding decisions.
Thanks to decades of prudent, bipartisan fiscal management, Tennessee’s strong and growing fiscal resources now provide a historic opportunity to multiply the positive impact of TISA reforms by investing an additional $1 billion annually in public education. At this critical time for the future of education, TISA offers an “A” approach to funding the educational needs of succeeding generations of Tennesseans. Now is the time to implement this fundamental improvement. We urge legislators to enact TISA this session.
David Pickler, president of the Tennessee Business Roundtable Council on Education, is president and CEO of Pickler Wealth Advisors in Collierville, and is founder and CEO of the American Public Education Foundation.