Tennessee’s Policy Choice: Stuff Cash in Mattresses While Schools Suffer
Despite years of budget surpluses, school funding remains in the bottom 10 nationally
While Gov. Bill Lee “dreams” of being able to pay starting teachers $50,000 eventually and while the state’s schools languish in the bottom 10 in the nation in overall funding, the state continues to rake in extra cash.
The numbers this year show a surplus exceeding $2 billion.
Tennessee also had a surplus of more than $2 billion LAST YEAR.
In fact, we keep having extra revenue and policymakers keep NOT investing it in schools.
What should we do with the money?
House Speaker Cameron Sexton thinks we should use our surplus to replace $2 billion in federal education funding.
To be clear, doing so would not change the total dollar amount going to schools — we’d still be in the bottom 10 in the nation in school funding.
Of course, we could use the money to raise teacher pay, invest in infrastructure, and support early literacy.
