Students protest education funding woes. Click to enlarge all our photos.
photo by Christina Siebold
Hamilton County school board member Debbie Colburn said Tuesday night that school systems across the state are exploring the possibility of suing the state to reverse a ruling taking funds from large school districts and giving them to smaller districts.
At a rally of the East Ridge Education Committee, Ms. Colburn said the five largest counties in the state were seeking to have the Basic Education Program reversed. The BEP was a program initiated after a lawsuit in the early ‘90’s whereby smaller school districts without the benefit of higher tax revenue are given additional state funds taken from larger school districts. Hamilton County was deemed the second wealthiest county in the state, putting the county’s funding from the state at second to last.
Ms. Colburn told the group of about 120 parents, teachers and students gathered at Spring Creek Elementary that the policy was unfair and that it was, along with flat growth and skyrocketing health insurance costs, at the root of the school district’s budget woes.
“It’s the Robin Hood effect,” she said. “They take from counties with malls and a larger tax base and give it to counties without the tax base. One third of our school budget comes from the state while 90 percent of Grundy County’s budget comes from the state. The BEP funding formula has to be changed for us to survive.”
Ms. Colburn said in enacting BEP, the state failed to take into account the challenges urban schools face. “In the five largest Tennessee counties, we have more special needs children and children in poverty than all the rest of the counties combined. The state did not take into consideration adequacy, they went for equality. We are looking for adequacy.”
Ms. Colburn also blasted the state’s unfunded mandates to school districts. As the second wealthiest county in Tennessee, the state funds 63 percent of teachers pay on the BEP state salary scale, which is significantly lower than what Hamilton County pays their teachers. Ms. Colburn said teachers with a bachelors degree and 25 years of experience are paid $28,140 per year, according to the state salary scale. Hamilton County pays that same teacher $43,189 per year. The district receives 63 percent of the state mandated wage for each teacher, and must make up the remaining $25,461. With thousands coming out of the county’s pocket for each teacher, and Georgia’s higher paying schools a short ride away, Ms. Colburn said the legislature needed to find some answers.
“The state needs to stop hiding behind an unrealistic approach to funding teachers,” she said.
Her sentiments were echoed throughout the evening as students, teachers and parents encouraged the crowd to lobby their state representatives to find a long-term solution to the funding problems. Vanesita Smith, a sophomore at East Ridge High School said, “The state finance problems have become our problems.”
Gail Phillips, who chairs the East Ridge Education Committee, said the problem was with the state’s priorities. “We’re tired of being 49th in the nation in education. There is not enough funding because education is not a top priority.”
The school board passed the budget showing a deficit of $6,867,612 Monday night. The board is looking to the County Commission to foot the rest of the bill in their May 15 budget session. Commissioner Curtis Adams attended the rally and said afterwards that the County Commission had always funded education well. “If we can help them, we will,” he said.
Six buses full of Hamilton County parents, students and educators will be driving to Nashville to lobby their state representatives in person on Wednesday. According to school board member Charles Love, barring any action by the state, the Hamilton County school district faces a $14 million deficit in the next fiscal year.
County School Board member Debbie Colburn at East Ridge education rally.
photo by Christina Siebold