The five largest school systems in the state have joined forces to lobby (threaten, cajole, bribe, etc.) the State Legislature for a funding mechanism more favorable to the biggest metro areas.  From yesterday’s Commercial Appeal:

“State funding is not equitable to the larger school systems,” [Shelby Co. Superintendent Bobby] Webb said.

Because sizable school districts are left to depend more on local taxes and less on state money than smaller ones, he said the school board has joined ranks with five of the state’s largest school districts under the Coalition of Large School Systems (CLASS) to fight for better funding.

During the meeting, the board agreed to pay $25,000 to CLASS to hire a lobbyist.

Of course, the very reason that the biggest cities have to depend more on local taxes is because the structure of Tennessee’s funding for education is based so heavily upon the sales tax (where the cities collect sales taxes from surrounding areas with much less retail), and because their overall tax bases — property as well as sales — are so much larger in proportion to others.

That was the basis for the successful rural schools lawsuits that resulted in the creation the BEP (Basic Education Program) more than two decades ago, and the chancellor who declared the case closed just last year openly stated that major changes to the BEP would be grounds to reopen the suits.
Assuming that each of the five school systems (Knox Co., Hamilton Co., Metro Nashville, Memphis, and Shelby Co.) ponied up the same amount, they’ve got $125,000 for a lobbyist now.  My guess is that should buy some pretty hefty effort.

It’s very discouraging to me that they would spend their time and resources on fighting for a bigger share of a too-small pie, when the rest of us are working toward adequate funding for ALL Tennessee students.  Ending the squabbling over crumbs will probably require an approach such as proposed by Comptroller John Morgan, where the State takes on a larger share of education funding (while still allowing local augmentation, rather than requiring a local match for the bare minimum).

Wouldn’t it be far better to actually spend our resources on educating children than on decades-long legal battles?  The lawyers have enough already; the kids don’t.

On Tuesday, the Cigarette Tax Bill — SB 2326/HB 2354 — is scheduled for a vote in the Senate Finance, Ways and Means committee.  This bill is the basis for substantial education funding improvements proposed by the Governor this year.

It’s also likely to be considered in the House Agriculture committee on Tuesday, where it faces a much more substantial challenge.

Last Tuesday, the Tennessee School Boards Association joined with other members of the education, business and health community as part of the SchoolsFirst Coalition to endorse the Governor’s plan.  Their website has information detailing the benefits to each school system in the state under various parts of the Governor’s proposal, but all of it is predicated on funding.  To date, I haven’t heard anyone propose specifics for another funding mechanism — only the usual drivel about cutting waste in other areas.

I really don’t care whether it comes from a cigarette tax or from not spending it to support things like the film commission, horse racing commission, or buying up land for conservancy… but please, if you oppose the cigarette tax AND claim to support education, suggest exactly where those dollars should come from.

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Hubby and I just returned from most of a week in northern Michigan, where the very cheapest of generic cigarettes are over $5/pack.  Yet, there still seem to be plenty of smokers there.  When I pointed out the pricing to him, he suggested that eventually, all states will tax tobacco out of existence.  I disagree.

I’ve been smoke-free for 42 days now (that’s six weeks).  The difficulty of NOT going outside, lighting a cigarette, and watching the vestiges of night flee the first rays of the sun with the kick and subsequent calm that only inhaled nicotine can deliver, is still painfully fresh on my mind (and body).  Were it not for the fact that I chose to quit because I was tired of being a slave to the addiction — tired of the third-rate hotel rooms, tired of standing in the rain for my fix, tired of feeling like an outcast — yes, I would have gladly paid $5 for a day’s worth of satisfaction.

Even with the 40-cent tax, cigarettes will still be cheaper here than in a lot of other places, including several that I’ve traveled through in the last few days.
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It’s time to quit squabbling over a too-small educational pie, and get serious about being competitive nationally.  In my 34 hours in the car over the past week, I listened to Thomas Sowell’s Black Rednecks and White Liberals, which provides a very interesting view of why some parts of the country do a better job of supporting education, and how it relates to the ethnic background of the region’s settlers.  If you’re easily offended, don’t read or listen to it, but if you’re really interested in some astute (and surprising) observations that likely assault your own ethnic heritage along with everyone else’s, it’s fascinating.

We require children to wear seat belts in cars; why not school buses? It seems like a good idea, but research indicates that it wouldn’t make much difference (except perhaps to keep kids in their seats):

[TSBA TLN Notes –] Organizations such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) have concluded that seat belts would not have prevented most of the serious injuries and fatalities from occurring in school bus crashes. In 1989, the NAS completed a study of ways to improve school bus safety and concluded that the overall potential benefits of requiring seat belts on school buses were insufficient to justify a mandate for installation.