Gov. Bill Lee wants to do away with Tennessee’s 30-year-old funding formula for K-12 schools.
The current formula — the Basic Education Program, or BEP — has been criticized for calculating funding levels that aren’t enough for public schools. It’s even been the target of lawsuits from counties claiming the funding formula left their district broke.
While announcing the new formula on Friday, Lee acknowledged the struggles of the past.
“K-12 funding is complicated, and it’s bureaucratic. Everybody recognizes that our BEP formula is one that few understand, or many do not understand,” Lee said. “Many do not like it. We have had complicated challenges with it.”
He says the new system will be built with input from teachers, students, parents and other stakeholders and plans to schedule listening sessions soon.
The governor says he wants to focus more on a student-based funding strategy instead of a system-based strategy. The new system will aim to make the process as transparent for parents as possible, so that they can see what the state is spending on their child’s education.
Lee hopes to have a plan drawn up for the state legislature before next year’s session.
In response, state Sen. Jeff Yarbro says Democrats are open to adjusting calculations to address inequities and outdated methods. However, he says the real issue is funding. Tennessee is in the bottom five states in the nation for per-pupil student funding according to the latest report from the National Education Association in April 2021.
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