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Tennessee lawmakers should reconfigure its public school funding formula to classify more students as economically disadvantaged, according to a new recommendation from a top committee of Tennessee educators.
Education advocates in the state have long warned Tennessee’s funding formula is undercounting economically disadvantaged students, who get additional support in the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement funding formula, known as TISA.
A TISA review committee made up of top education officials and public school leaders from around the state urged state lawmakers in a Wednesday report to classify more students as economically disadvantaged by including Medicaid eligibility data in identifying low-income households.
Tennessee currently only uses data from public benefits programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program, which have faced increasing federal cuts in recent years.
The policy change would lead to significant financial benefits for many Tennessee districts. Specifically, it would generate additional funding for an estimated 120,000 additional students compared with how TISA currently counts economically disadvantaged students.
In Anderson County, for example, 29% of the district’s current students are classified as economically disadvantaged. If Tennessee changed TISA to include Medicaid eligibility, that number would increase to 46% of students. That would amount to a nearly 58% increase in district funding for low-income students, according to estimates from EdTrust Tennessee, an advocacy group.
The policy shift would also cost Tennessee more money, which could present a challenge during next year’s legislative session.
The new TISA Review Committee report estimated it would cost an additional $233 million annually to fund the revised formula, with the state bearing $163 million of the cost and local governments funding the remaining $69 million.
Bob Nardo, the executive director of a Memphis charter school and a TISA Review Committee member, said Wednesday that lawmakers could consider reworking the formula to incrementally increase funding.
“We don’t have to imply that the full cost has to be absorbed,” all at once, Nardo said.
The committee, which convened earlier this year, also said lawmakers should increase funding for school infrastructure and mental health resources within the TISA formula, and increase allocations for the smallest rural districts in the state.
In addition, the review committee has called for lawmakers to increase funding for special education prekindergarten classes, following pleas from school boards and superintendents.
Sen. London Lamar, a Memphis Democrat, endorsed the committee’s recommendations on Thursday.
“Tennessee is dead last in the nation in what we invest in public school students — a thousand dollars per child behind Mississippi,” Lamar said. “We do not have a budget problem. We have a priorities problem. It’s time to fund our public school kids.”
Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.
