{"id":308,"date":"2007-02-07T06:50:40","date_gmt":"2007-02-07T11:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/?p=308"},"modified":"2007-02-07T06:50:40","modified_gmt":"2007-02-07T11:50:40","slug":"whinefest-in-knox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/?p=308","title":{"rendered":"Whinefest in Knox"},"content":{"rendered":"

The headline reads “Cigarette-tax plan draws fire<\/a>,” but there’s nothing in the article criticizing the Governor’s proposed 40-cent increase in cigarette taxes.<\/p>\n

Maybe it should have said “Ragsdale wants more<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Knox County would get about $3.3 million of the new money if the tax increase and Bredesen’s spending plans are enacted, according to data provided by the governor’s office Tuesday. That is less than schools in any other major urban area of the state.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The biggest bump in education funding would come from the State’s fully funding the needs of at-risk (economically disadvantaged, poor, whatever label appeals) students.\u00c2\u00a0 Just two weeks ago, I met with the Knox County Finance Director, John Werner, to see if we could find any common ground on changes in education funding.\u00c2\u00a0 Funding for at-risk and ELL (students who are learning English as a second language), as well as State funding for growth in the student population, were three of the four items of agreement, and all three were included in the Governor’s proposal.<\/p>\n

The fourth was to return to having the State pay 75% of their version of teacher salaries, reduced to 65% about five years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s going to cost more, and would likely have to be phased in.<\/p>\n

I’ll accept Bredesen’s proposal for increasing funding in these three areas with gratitude, even though Oak Ridge won’t benefit nearly as much as Knox County.\u00c2\u00a0 The important point is, no one is harmed by this proposal — every school system will receive these funding improvements commensurate with the burdens borne in each of the three areas.<\/p>\n

It’s not enough to bring Tennessee from the depths of our standing nationally, but it’s moving in the right direction.\u00c2\u00a0 Simply tinkering with the distribution formula isn’t going to improve education statewide — only rearrange the problems.<\/p>\n

In Tennessee, education funding is a responsibility shared by State and local governments.\u00c2\u00a0 The amount contributed by the State depends on the ability of the local government to generate revenue for schools, according to the fiscal capacity formula (taking into account the sales and property tax base, average income, etc.).\u00c2\u00a0 Local governments are required to contribute a specified amount, but nearly all contribute more than the required minimum.<\/p>\n

Local governments set priorities, then raise the necessary revenue (through taxes) to fund them.\u00c2\u00a0 Oak Ridge has historically established education as one of it’s highest priorities; Knox County unquestionably has the tax base to do so, but to date, has not.<\/p>\n

To insist on stepping upon someone else to raise your own standing is a bully tactic.\u00c2\u00a0 Let’s not go there, Mayor Ragsdale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The headline reads “Cigarette-tax plan draws fire,” but there’s nothing in the article criticizing the Governor’s proposed 40-cent increase in cigarette taxes. Maybe it should have said “Ragsdale wants more.” Knox County would get about $3.3 million of the new … 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":[2,9,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308"}],"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=308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}