Report: Tennessee ranks 44th in per-pupil spending
State’s outlay almost $4K less than US average
Tennessee is failing students, at least when it comes to how much the state spends on education and how it is distributed, according to a new report out Thursday.
The state spends about $11,139 per student, ranking 44th out of 51 states and the District of Columbia, according to the report, Making the Grade 2021, by the Education Law Center.
Tennessee spends nearly $4,000 below the national average of $15,114 per student and spends only 2.56% of its total GDP, compared with 3.37% nationally.
Though state leaders have celebrated Tennessee as one of the “fastest-improving” states when it comes to education, the Education Law Center gave the state an “F” when it comes to funding.
Only Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Arizona spend less per pupil than Tennessee.
Tennessee also received a “D” when it comes to how it distributes funding — high-poverty districts receive about 3% less funding than low-poverty districts across the state, the report found.
“The underfunding of schools is not, as some policymakers would like the public to believe, an unfortunate reality of budget constraints,” David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center and report co-author, said in a statement. “Rather, it is the result of inaction and even outright hostility from state governors and legislators to invest in the education of their students.”
The report comes just as the state kicks off conversations about revamping the way the state funds K-12 education. Gov. Bill Lee and Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn hope replace the current 30-year-old funding formula with a brand new “student-centered” funding strategy.
But more funding is the crux of the issue for some who are wary of the governor’s efforts. Many Democratic lawmakers and educators argue that the state needs to increase funding for schools first and then argue about how to “divvy up the pie.”
“The pie that we are talking about is just not big enough,” Kent Foreman, a Williamson County resident and a longtime volunteer in Metro Nashville Public Schools, said at a public town hall Wednesday night.
“The current funding doesn’t cover some critical areas, like technology for every classroom, enough teachers for from a ratio perspective for every classroom, enhanced studies, AP courses, foreign language and physical education. It doesn’t cover expenses for mental health. it doesn’t cover professional envelopment for teachers . ... It’s all about the amount of funding, not so much the allocation of funding.”
Meghan Mangrum covers education for the USA TODAY Network — Tennessee. Contact her at mmangrum@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.