A few weeks ago, I groused about noted my suspicion that the BEP Review Committee scheduled its next meeting two days before Thanksgiving, when many are either out of town, preparing to leave town, or preparing for company… and thus, the committee might be able to do its work free of some of the public scrutiny.
It was obvious from the lack of “audience” seating in the room that they didn’t expect many to attend. I think they had to bring chairs from every office in the building.
Traditional plans were scuttled and rearranged, and I attended anyway — with company: a representative of the Chamber of Commerce, the schools’ finance officer (technically, Director of Business and Support Services), the city’s finance officer, the mayor, the city’s lobbyist, and our own State Representative. Kingsport showed up with a very similar contingent. All in all, the edges of the room were lined with folks from places with municipal school systems — the only exceptions being one person from Knox County, and one from Shelby County.
Presentations from the meeting should be on the web by tomorrow, and I’ll post them as soon as I have them. The primary topic of today’s meeting was to hear Comptroller John Morgan’s proposal for the State to assume full responsibility for funding education — no local match required. Local governments would still be free to augment funding, but there would be no such requirement, as there is now.
But here’s the part that got to me, and I confess that it didn’t fully sink in until after we’d left the meeting: at each meeting this Fall, a different funding mechanism has been presented. First, it was TACIR with their variety of formulas. On Oct. 11, we learned the details of the Peabody Alternative… followed by another look at the TACIR prototype. On Oct. 23, the committee reviewed all the options (including the Comptroller’s plan, which hadn’t been presented it detail yet at that point), followed by yet another discussion of the TACIR prototype.
Today, the Committee met again, and John Morgan presented his plan in detail. (Here’s the powerpoint he presented at TSBA; I’ll link to the updated version as soon as it’s posted to his website — probably tomorrow). Followed by yet another presentation about the TACIR plan — this time, their attempt to dumb it down so that ordinary mortals understand it.
(Do you see a common, repeating element here? Think the committee might be a little biased in their agenda?)
We understood it. We still didn’t like it.
Finally, shortchanged on time because the building had to be evacuated for exterminators, Committee member Richard Kitzmiller (Kingsport Director of Schools) gave a brief presentation of his own — why the TACIR plan is overtly and deliberately harmful to municipal school systems, and why harming them is generally bad for education in Tennessee. He promised to post it on their website when he gets home, but I know that he’s not there yet. I’ll post that when it’s available, too.
The support for municipal schools couldn’t be any stronger in that room today. Still, I’m keenly aware (reminded again today by Rep. Hackworth) that the big cities combined with the west Tennessee delegation are a powerful force — and they want the TACIR plan. Simply put, they favor statewide consolidation, so that there is only only one school system in each county.
I will fight that bitterly, openly, and with many allies across this state. I will need your help, and the help of any legislators you know in other parts of the state. I will camp out in their offices, will blog their committee meetings, and make dear friends of those who buy ink by the barrel and paper by the ton.
Stay tuned.
