From left are Senator Bo Watson and Reps. Esther Helton, Robin Smith, Greg Vital and Yusuf Hakeem
photo by Joseph Dycus
Senators, school board members, commissioners and more were all present and vocal during Tuesday morning’s legislative breakfast at the County's Paul McDaniel Building. The future of funding schools took up a sizable portion of the discussion, with the current Basic Education Program possibly being replaced in the future as the state discusses student-based funding models. While Senator Bo Watson said nothing is close to being decided at this time, Superintendent Dr. Justin Robertson expressed excitement about reworking the 30-year-old BEP program.
“I’m excited the state is looking at the model and having conversations about what it takes to educate students in Tennessee, and that they’re looking at it from a student-based model,” Dr. Robertson said. “We’ll engage with state officials and the department, and we encourage citizens in the county to give input too.”
County Commissioner Warren Mackey asked Senator Watson if any of the proposed plans would take taxpayer dollars away from public schools and into private schools. Senator Watson said in one hypothetical model, the school system would receive funding based on individual students, and if that student were to leave the system via voucher or scholarship, then the county would lose that funding.
“We haven’t made that decision yet, so it’s still speculative,” Senator Watson said.
County Mayor Jim Coppinger told the audience that he wished the various school boards and the state would come to an agreement on what is necessary for a functioning school system. He said the state requires and funds certain things, and that Hamilton County deems other positions to be necessary and that they receive no state funding for those positions.
“I’d like to see people agree to what it takes to run a school system of this size,” County Mayor Coppinger said. School board members Jenny Hill and Tiffanie Robinson also spoke at the breakfast and said it would be advantageous for the school system if a representative such as Greg Vital was on a committee in Nashville that affects education.
Aside from education-based topics, various members of the county government made statements. Chancellor Jeff Atherton said electronic filing will be approved by the county “soon” and he hoped the state will follow suit shortly thereafter. Juvenile Court Judge Rob Philyaw said that school threats are currently a misdemeanor and that has an impact on what courts can do.
“That means we’re very limited in how we can deal with the children who make those threats, and what kinds of services we can get assigned to those children,” Judge Philyaw said, “and so there’s a real need to look at that this year.”
Juvenile Court Clerk Gary Behler and Criminal Court Clerk Vince Dean both said a legislative priority for their respective offices is to change the way bonding is handled by the clerks’ offices.
“The clerks are nervous and have an extreme amount of heartburn about any bail bonding bills that are out there,” Mr. Behler said. “Court clerk offices are minimally staffed, and much of bail bonding happens after hours. That is not the role of the court clerk, and we’d like our legislative delegation to take that into consideration.”
“We don’t need to be bail bondsmen,” Mr. Dean said. “Does the bail bonding industry need changes? Absolutely. But don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, and listen to the people who are doing the work.”
He said the clerks offices try to collect for several different programs, and that the clerks offices do not have the staff to complete those tasks.
Also in attendance were state legislators Esther Helton, Robin Smith, Yusuf Hakeem and Greg Vital.