by Jon Styf
A bill that will change the funding mechanism for Tennessee’s public schools passed the Legislature on the final day of session on Thursday.
Senate Bill 2396, known as the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement, could set up a new formula for Tennessee’s schools to be funded beginning in the 2023-24 fiscal year.
The bill moved through both the Senate and House on Wednesday with slightly different versions, which the House then conformed to the Senate version on Thursday.
House debate was cut off before all proposed amendments were heard on Wednesday, but a full debate occurred Thursday on the House floor before the floor vote, which was 63-24-1. The bill will now head to the desk of Gov. Bill Lee.
“Today is a tremendous day for Tennessee students,” Lee said. “After months of engagement with thousands of Tennesseans, our state will have a new, innovative K-12 funding formula that improves public education by putting kids first. I commend the General Assembly for their partnership and desire to move Tennessee public education to a new frontier.”
Several Democrats and Republicans such as representatives Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka, and Terri Lynn Weaver, R-Lancaster, spoke against the bill. Weaver compared the vote to when the Legislature was called to vote for Race to the Top legislation in 2009, when she said legislators were pushed to vote for a bill that it would fix later.
“Sometimes, money isn’t the answer,” Weaver said. “Sometimes pausing and thinking very hard about what we’re going to do when that bell rings is important.”
TISA would provide a base per-student cost of $6,860 and add weights based on a students’ learning needs, whether the student lives in a low-income household or area or if the student lives in a rural area.
Additional funding also goes to schools for student achievement or participation in programs such as career technical education.
A stipulation in the amended TISA bill would require school districts that do not achieve a goal of 70% literacy for students leaving third grade to achieve a 15% improvement rate over the next three years or the Tennessee Department of Education will step in and work to improve literacy.
“It is not a spending bill,” said Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge. “… this does have a performance requirement.”
Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, said that she has spoken with educators across the state and believed the Legislature needed more time to add more detail to the bill rather than relying on the rulemaking process to determine the specifics.
“There’s nothing that’s telling us to do it right now,” Johnson said. “We could make it better.”
Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, said he believed the bill’s claims won’t come to fruition because a charter school could be created that will take funding directly away from the public schools and damage the success of the current public school system.
Funding associated with a student in the new program will travel along with the student to whichever public or charter school that the student attends.
“This is a blueprint for dismantling public schools in Tennessee,” Clemmons said.
The state Department of Education, however, was pleased with the bill’s passage.
“Tennessee students deserve every opportunity to grow, learn and achieve,” a statement from the Department of Education read. “Our elected officials have made clear their commitment to the success of our children and the success of our state by approving the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement, bringing $1 billion in new, recurring dollars for Tennessee’s students, the largest recurring investment for public education in our state’s history.”
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Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for The Center Square, Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies.
