{"id":296,"date":"2007-01-25T16:17:04","date_gmt":"2007-01-25T21:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/?p=296"},"modified":"2007-01-25T16:20:01","modified_gmt":"2007-01-25T21:20:01","slug":"bep-review-final-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/?p=296","title":{"rendered":"BEP Review: Final Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

The BEP<\/a> Review Committee met again this morning to resolve their last piece of unfinished business: to issue a recommendation on system-level fiscal capacity, deferred from the Nov. 1 Annual Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year, the General Assembly passed a resolution directing the BEP Review Committee to provide a “consensus recommendation on a system-level fiscal capacity model.” This was a tall order, as the BEP Review Committee is by definition representative of all constituencies — large, urban school systems; small, rural school systems; municipal and independent school systems; the House and Senate Education Committee chairs; the State Board of Education; Tennessee School Boards Association; the Tennessee Municipal League; the Tennessee County Commissioners Association; along with various representatives from State offices like TACIR, the Comptroller, the Governor’s office, etc.<\/p>\n

Because everyone on the committee represents a particular interest, it’s impossible to gain consensus on anything that’s going to harm some, in order to help others. And, as was pointed out in today’s meeting, defining what is needed to meet the goals of state education policy is the group’s real focus — fiscal policy really belongs in the hands of the General Assembly.<\/p>\n

I agree.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the committee agreed that they cannot reach what the Legislature demanded: a “consensus recommendation on a system-level funding formula.” Their recommendation will be that the system-level funding formula be combined with a broader legislative discussion of adequacy in education funding statewide.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Several groups are now working on defining “adequacy” in terms of education funding, including one working with the University of Washington, sponsored by the Gates Foundation. Another is the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents.<\/p>\n

A second resolution passed today directed the State Board of Education to conduct a study of current school system expenditures by category, in order to determine the areas in which the BEP is falling short of meeting the needs of school systems, and that this study begin soon — not next Fall, as is usually the case.<\/p>\n

Several people on the committee surprised me by making a rather dramatic turnaround from previous positions, including TACIR’s Harry Green, who said (prior to his motion on the recommendation, which passed):<\/p>\n

I hate to spend so much time talking about fiscal capacity when the system is failing. Redistrubuting money isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to change the educational outcome if we are not addressing adequacy.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gee, couldn’t we have saved about three years if everyone realized this sooner? Still, better late than never.<\/p>\n

We’ll have to watch the Legislature very closely this year, but if they truly comprehend this recommendation, it will be okay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The BEP Review Committee met again this morning to resolve their last piece of unfinished business: to issue a recommendation on system-level fiscal capacity, deferred from the Nov. 1 Annual Report. Last year, the General Assembly passed a resolution directing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}