Tennessee ranks at the bottom of the country when it comes to public school spending. That according to a new report from the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers’ union.
In its rankings, the NEA assesses per-pupil funding in two ways: by enrollment and average daily attendance. Based on data from last school year, Tennessee’s K-12 public schools spent $11,723 dollars per student enrolled, beating only Idaho. The average nationwide spending per-student is nearly $18,000.
But looking at spending divided by the average number of students who actually attended class, Tennessee sunk to dead last at $12,147. That’s about a 10% decrease compared to the previous school year.
Tennessee officials respond
Democratic lawmakers called the rankings an indictment of Tennessee’s Republican supermajority. Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis), who chairs the Senate Democratic Caucus, specifically called out the GOP’s recent voucher expansion. in a recent post.
“While Gov. [Bill] Lee and Republicans were busy shoveling hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into their private school voucher scam, they left nearly a million kids in Tennessee’s public schools with less funding per student than anywhere else in the nation,” Lamar said.
Student spending isn’t necessarily associated with improved results for students. A study from Brookings finds that increased expenditures are only weakly associated with higher test scores and graduation rates.
The governor echoed that sentiment when speaking to reporters Wednesday about the rankings, The Tennessean reported.
“Education isn’t about money. Education is about children, and children’s outcomes and how they perform as a result of education,” Lee said. “There’s a lot of work left to do, but we’re moving in the right direction.”
The NEA report did find improvement in Tennessee’s teacher pay. The average salary for Tennessee teachers increased more than 4% last year compared to the previous school year, putting Tennessee in the top half of the country for growth. Still, the salary itself, about $61,000, ranks 40th in the nation.
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