Tennessee Fact Sheet
Background
Related
News
The Tennessee costing-out
process undertaken in 1992 was not a typical
cost study, as are almost all of the other
studies summarized in this section’s
Fact Sheets. While the initial cost analysis
attempted to calculate the funding needed
to satisfy the state constitutional mandate
for an adequate and equitable educational
opportunity, the system, adapted and adjusted
each year, functions as the foundation of
the state’s education finance system.
Annual adjustments are not based on costing-out
studies.
State Funding Context
From NCES statistics (most
current available):
Number of Pre-K to 12 Students, 2001-02:
924,899
Total Public School Expenditures, 2001-02:
$5.5 billion
Percent Eligible for Free/Reduced Lunch,
2001-02: Not Reported
Percent in limited-English-proficiency programs,
2001-02: Not Reported
| Title: |
"Basic Education
Program" |
| Date Completed: |
1992 and annual adjustments |
| Calculated Base
Costs: |
The Basic Education Program
(BEP) defined 42 components necessary
for appropriate school funding. The
cost of these components is re-evaluated
each year by the state board of education.
The state share of these costs ranges
from 50 to 75 percent. |
| Special Features
of the Study: |
The BEP is the result
of the 1992 Educational Improvement
Act, passed by the legislature while
awaiting a school funding decision by
the state Supreme Court in Tennessee
Small School Systems v. McWherter (Small
Schools I). The BEP includes funding
for components of school budgets such
as personnel, classroom supplies, technology,
and special education programs. It also
includes non-classroom related items
such as pupil transportation and capital
outlay. It fails to include teacher
salaries as a component, a fact that
led to a follow up compliance proceeding,
in Tennessee
Small School Systems v. McWherter
(Small Schools II). As a result
of this decision, the legislature passed
the Teacher's Salary Equity Plan in
1995, which was later declared insufficient
in Tennessee
Small School Systems v. McWherter
(Small Schools III). The Supreme
Court declared teacher salaries as important,
if not more, as the other components
contained in the BEP, and demanded a
superior effort towards equalizing pay
scales for teachers across Tennessee.
As a result, teacher salaries now appear
as part of the BEP, and the legislature
recently appropriated funds for better
salary equalization.
|
| Methodology: |
Not an actual costing-out
study. The annual analysis of the Basic
Education Program does not use any of
the common costing-out methodologies.
Instead, it uses census data and current
component costs to assign funding to
schools. |
| Implementation: |
In use. |
| Public Input: |
None. |
| Prepared by:
|
Tennessee
Board of Education |
| Prepared for: |
Tennessee
Legislature, Tennessee
Department of Education |
|
