This Independence Day, Tennessee Schools are Free of Adequate Funding
And North Carolina's voucher program is free of accountability
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The current revenue picture in Tennessee is pretty astounding. Money as far as the eye can see.
One might think that a state that ranks near the bottom in the nation in school funding and whose teachers are some of the lowest paid in the Southeast would spend a significant portion of any revenue surplus on schools.
But if we’re talking about Tennessee, one would be wrong.
As I noted in Tennessee Education Report:
While Gov. Bill Lee “dreams” of being able to pay starting teachers $50,000 eventually and while the state’s schools languish in the bottom 10 in the nation in overall funding, the state continues to rake in extra cash.
The numbers this year show a surplus exceeding $2 billion.
Tennessee also had a surplus of more than $2 billion LAST YEAR.
In fact, we keep having extra revenue and policymakers keep NOT investing it in schools.
If this sounds familiar, it should.
Back in 2021, I noted:
It’s raining money in Tennessee as recently-released projections suggest state policymakers could have as much as $3.1 billion EXTRA to allocate when they return for the regular legislative session next week.
This is, of course, a very good position. However, it’s not at all clear the state will allocate those resources into meaningful investments that improve the quality of life in Tennessee.
Take the action on teacher compensation during the special session as an example. Despite early reports that revenue would be higher than anticipated, Gov. Bill Lee’s teacher pay adjustment amounted to roughly 10 cents on the dollar compared to the extra work teachers have been doing during the pandemic. There was little meaningful investment in public schools at all, really.
In case you’re curious about how we got to a place where we have $3.1 billion extra to spend, the Sycamore Institute breaks it down.
But wait! This story has been going on for a very long time.
Back in 2015, I wrote about the $1 billion surplus that - you guessed it - was NOT invested in schools:
Tom Humphrey reports on the most recent budget projections which predict a surplus of between $300-$400 million for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2016.
This money, combined with the $600 million surplus from the fiscal year which ended on June 30, 2015, means the state will have about $1 billion in unanticipated, uncommitted revenue.
On top of that, economists are projecting growth in the $400-$500 million range for the upcoming budget year.
As Humphrey notes, proposals are floating so spend the surplus on road projects or tax cuts or both.
What’s not being mentioned?
Schools.
Despite a pair of lawsuits contending the state’s school funding formula, the BEP, is inadequate, lawmakers and the Governor are not rushing to suggest significant new investments in Tennessee schools.
For nearly a decade now, Tennessee has had annual revenue surpluses at or exceeding $1 billion. Sure, that could mean our revenue forecasters aren’t very good at their jobs. Or maybe they are deliberately setting low revenue estimates.
But here’s the larger point: Tennessee’s policymakers have had lots of extra cash year after year and have consistently chosen to shortchange public schools. This is across both Governors Bill Haslam and Bill Lee.
Underfunding schools, then, is a clear policy choice and one the legislature repeatedly endorses.
I suppose our lawmakers don’t want the state’s schools to be burdened with adequate funding nor our teachers burdened with salaries large enough they don’t need second jobs.
Freedom, indeed!
North Carolina Voucher Program Free from Accountability
If you’re a pop-up private school in North Carolina, there’s good news for you.
It seems you can report to the state a number of “ghost” students and they’ll just send you money for them.
While one recent report notes that a number of private schools received voucher funding for students that exceeded the number of enrolled students at the school, there’s one school that apparently doesn’t even exist.
Reporter Ann Doss Helms details her search for a private school that supposedly enrolled 22 students:
The biggest voucher-enrollment gap in Mecklenburg County is at Teaching Achieving Students Academy, which reported having 13 students in 2021-22 but was listed as having 22 scholarship recipients, bringing the school $92,400 from the state.
Here’s more on the search for this school:
A Google search didn’t turn up the school’s website, but there are listings from Charlotte Parent and Niche that give the address as 7829 Old Concord Road in northeast Charlotte. My Google Maps app showed me the same address … which is a building at the back of Sugar Creek Charter School’s campus. Sugar Creek Superintendent Cheryl Turner says if a private school was ever there it would have been before 2014.
The 2021-22 private school directory lists the address as 4400 Tantilla Circle, a duplex off W.T. Harris Boulevard in east Charlotte that has no signs indicating it’s a school. The state’s “current private schools” list says the physical address is 1000 Anderson St., rooms B5 and B7. That’s the old Plaza School, owned but no longer operated by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. There’s nothing there to signal it houses a private school, and CMS says it has not leased space to Teaching Achieving Students Academy.
The website, which I found only after Googling Cowan’s name, says the school is “now enrolling 2022-23,” which likely indicates the school won’t open in August. During this past year, it was listed as having nine voucher students (dollar totals aren’t posted).
After the newsletter came out, someone tweeted me a link to a Facebook page listing Fanisha Cowan as Fanisha Locke. That led to a Facebook page for TAS Academy that listed another address: 2723 N. Graham St. That’s the site of Charlotte Leadership Academy, a private school that also receives vouchers. One of the operators of that school said TAS Academy is not located there.
Hmm.
Thank you for sharing. Tennessee is no surprise, but the ghost piece, is just unbelievable.
One other thing. My high school is showing 30 openings. A high school teacher teaches 6 different classes/sections. So it's not like one teacher= one class. Say that 20 of those openings are for classroom teachers. This year we had year-long vacancies in Chemistry, Spanish, English, and Math. If we only had 20 vacancies, that means that 120 individual classes are without a teacher. I hope people realize what this means. It means their child doesn't have a teacher who is qualified to teach the subject! Are the kids being baby-sat by a sub? Are they taking the class online, such as through Edgenuity? Are they sitting in the gym? Is another teacher giving up their planning to watch (not teach) the class? It will take two things to fix this. One: pay teachers a wage that acknowledges their college education. We make 20% less than comparably educated people. Two: Have a discipline plan that holds students and parents accountable. Lots of teachers quit because of student behavior.