In a meeting today with school board members from across East Tennessee, I was heartened to hear from some County board representatives that, although the proposed system-level fiscal capacity model for BEP funding would benefit them intially, they realize that it would be harmful to them in the long run.

How? Because it would cause the City school system in their county to fold, consolidating with the County by default. At that point, the County would be responsible for matching the City system’s higher salary and benefit levels, in addition to assuming responsibility for the buildings, students, transportation, etc.

It’s encouraging that at least a few people are thinking beyond what looks like the immediate windfall. Unfortunately, there are others that believe this scheme only takes from “rich” school systems — those that are taxing themselves to fund an adequate education — to give to those who do not, and have not yet realized that there are many smaller, less affluent county systems that lose funding under the ill-contrived formula.

HB3180 is scheduled for the House K-12 Subcommittee tomorrow.

I knew it would happen, and it has: legislation has been filed (HB3180) to require the BEP to be funded according to the prototype system-level fiscal capacity model developed by TACIR. The bill is scheduled to be heard in the K-12 subcommittee on Tuesday, according to TLN Notes, a legislative update service by the Tennessee School Boards Association.

The sponsor is Gerald McCormick of Chattanooga — one of the four big cities that would benefit tremendously, at the expense of much smaller school systems across the state. Fortunately, there is no Senate companion at this time, which means it can’t pass the General Assembly. Last year a similar measure was sponsored by another Chattanooga Republican, Sen. David Fowler.

I think the bill filing deadline has passed, but am not certain whether a “caption bill” already filed in the Senate might be amended to make it a suitable companion to this one. Nonetheless, I will be watching the webcast of the committee meeting to see what happens.

Metro Pulse gives some insight on the education funding story this morning; unfortunately, it’s only half of the story. Namely, Goliath’s side.

They fail to mention that under the BEP Review Committee’s recommendations, 61.7% of all public school systems in the state would be deemed to deserve less funding. The top five winners — from millions to tens of millions — are Memphis, Shelby County, Davidson County, Hamilton County, and Knox County.

They fail to mention that every municipal school system would lose money, primarily because of the way that shared vs. unshared revenue is treated in the fiscal capacity formula. Simply speaking, cities with municipal school systems who choose to tax themselves at a higher rate in order to fund their school systems better are penalized. That loss would very likely force consolidation with county schools — a feature that many believe is the driving force behind the change.

They surely don’t mention that more than 67% of the dollar increases go to these five mammoth school systems, while some of the state’s smallest, poorest counties are left with less… places like Pickett County, with a total population of 4,999.

The data comes from TACIR’s website, and you can bring up the Excel spreadsheet by clicking here. There are several tabs, but the most relvant is a comparison of same-year (05-06) funding showing the current model, the prototype results, and the difference.

There’s no question that Tennessee needs to re-think the way it funds public education, but so long as we’re just moving money around based on the squeaky wheel principle, we’re not going to improve overall. Although one of the committee’s recommendations is a “hold harmless” provision to ensure that no system receives less than the year before, what this means is a funding freeze that denies any increases despite rising enrollment, heating costs, fuel prices, salaries, insurance, or any of the items over which local school boards have little or no control.

If the state embraces a policy that penalizes local governments for doing the right thing (funding local schools with local taxes) while rewarding those that do not, then they will surely discourage that which is in everyone’s best interest.

Food for thought: if Knox County’s tax rate was the same as Oak Ridge’s tax rate, they could easily match Oak Ridge’s per-pupil funding as well.