State Education Department Presents $4 Billion Budget

There’s little room for cuts in Tennessee’s education budget, unless the state chooses to put off the inevitable.

Today, in the first of Governor Phil Bredesen’s budget hearings, Education Commissioner Timothy Webb presented a spending plan that’s about 20-million dollars less than this year’s. He identified another 9 million or so that could potentially be cut if the state chooses to delay certain updates to the way it tests students. But Webb warned that the updates, like incorporating essay and fill-in the blank questions, can’t be put off forever since they’re expected to become federal requirements.

When asked whether the state can hope for a loosening in mandates from Washington, such as No Child Left Behind, Webb said he’s been warned not to expect much.

“More than likely, most of the requirements for assessment and that sort of thing will continue to stay in there. We may see some flexibility, not a whole lot, as far as the timeline and the trajectory toward 2014 being the magic date when all children graduate and everybody’s proficient.”

That means there won’t be much flexibility in how the state spends its education dollars.

Overall, the department’s proposed budget would cost the state nearly 4-billion dollars.