School funding lawsuit on hold

Meghan Mangrum, Nashville Tennessean
·6 min read

Hello and welcome to School Zone. This is education reporter Meghan Mangrum.

Let's get straight to the news this week.

State's school funding lawsuit on hold

In light of Gov. Bill Lee and the Tennessee Department of Education's efforts to create a new education funding formula for the state, a six-year-old lawsuit challenging the current system of funding is on hold.

The case was set to go to trial in February, but both parties in the case filed a joint motion last month to halt court proceedings until the end of the 2022 legislative session. Now, the trial is set to resume in October — pending whether Lee presents lawmakers with a new funding strategy.

Tennessee Judge Don R. Ash, the chief judge on the three-judge panel overseeing the case, granted the motion on Monday.

The lawsuit was originally filed by the state's largest school districts, who argue that the current funding formula, the Basic Education Program, or BEP, is inadequate. Smaller districts from across the state later joined.

School board pay, politics

Metro Nashville school board members are awaiting the outcome of a Davidson County Democratic Party executive committee meeting Wednesday night where party members are expected to vote on whether to call for partisan school board elections in 2022.

A new law passed during October's special legislative session focused on COVID-19 gives county parties the choice to field candidates and run primary elections, but a decision must be made by Dec. 12.

Members of the Metro Nashville Board of Education sent a letter to both the Davidson County Democratic and Republican parties Monday, requesting they refrain from calling partisan elections, sighting a likely "negative impact" such races could have on the board's governance.

The Democratic Party plans to meet virtually at 5 p.m. Wednesday, according to chairperson Tara Houston.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, is calling for "pay equity for school board members" across the state. Gardenhire plans to introduce legislation that would require school board members receive the same salaries and benefits as county commissioners or people serving on other local governing bodies.

Current state law requires school board members to be paid at least $3 per meeting, but the true salary varies widely across the state's 147 school districts. School board members in Hamilton County, which Gardenhire represents, currently make about $12,365 per year, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Davidson County school board members make $14,000 annually, as set by the Metro Council and Metro Pay Plan.

Charter school changes

The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission, the governor-appointed body that has taken over oversight of charter authorization appeals from the State Board of Education, is reviewing an application for a new charter school to launch in Rutherford County during a hearing in Murfreesboro today.

If the commission overturns Rutherford County's denial of the charter application, the school could be the first charter school to open outside of the state's four urban districts.

The hearing is the first of several this month, which also includes three Memphis charter schools that are currently part of the state's Achievement School District but are seeking to fall under the commission's portfolio rather than Shelby County Schools' upon their exit from the ASD.

My colleague Scott Broden over at The Daily News Journal has written about Rutherford Collegiate Prep's pitch to pessimistic Rutherford County Schools leaders and will follow the outcome of today's hearing.

Follow Memphis reporter Laura Testino of The Commercial Appeal for coverage of the hearings in Shelby County in the coming weeks.

'A bigger pie'

Two posters display graphics comparing the amount of state funding Tennessee spends on per pupil in K-12 public schools compared to the national average at a school funding town hall at Jefferson Street Missionary Baptist Church in Nashville on Monday, Dec. 6, 2021. According to an October 2021 report, Tennessee spends nearly $4,000 less per pupil than the national average.

Nashville education advocates with NOAH (Nashville Organized for Action and Hope) presented Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn with a pecan pie at Jefferson Street Missionary Baptist Church Monday night.

The pie was a metaphor for what the advocates and other community members were calling for during the school funding town hall taking place at the church — a bigger pie, or amount of funding spent, for public education in Tennessee.

Monday's town hall, hosted by the Tennessee Alliance for Equity in Education, came as the education department recently wrapped up eight initial town halls across the state.

Hundreds of community members came out and shared their thoughts on what a new school funding formula should consider.

Schwinn told The Tennessean Monday that she was encouraged to see that many people agreed on what they consider important, including considering additional funding for specific student populations like students with disabilities or English language learners, and the need for more student support services.

Is there something you think I missed or The Tennessean should be covering? Have a question or concern? Please don't hesitate to reach out. I'd love to hear from you. Share your thoughts or concerns with me at mmangrum@tennessean.com or on Twitter @memangrum.

Also, thank you for reading! Our coverage of education and children's issues wouldn't be possible without Tennessean subscribers. If you aren't already one, please consider becoming a subscriber today.

Extra credit

► A Sullivan County school teacher recently lost his appeal to regain his job after he said he was unfairly fired for teaching his students about white privilege. Matthew Hawn was dismissed last school year — before the state's new anti-critical race theory law went into effect — after parents complained about some of his Contemporary Issues class lessons, such as assigning students to read Ta-Nehisi Coates' essay “The First White President" or playing a video by poet Kyla Jenee Lacey called “White Privilege" in class. The Washington Post recently reported on Hawn's story.

► Franklin Special School District students and staff are no longer under a mask requirement after the school board voted unanimously last week to lift the requirement. The Williamson County district is one of the latest districts to lift its mask mandate despite legal challenges to the new state law that bans school districts from implementing them except in the most dire circumstances.

► The Tennessee Board of Regents have announced three finalists for the open president seat at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology at Nashville. The finalists will participate in campus public forums on the Nashville campus on Dec. 13, before the board makes a recommendation and appointment later this month.

The finalists include: Robin Cole Jr., dean of business and technologies at Southwest Tennessee Community College; Nathan Garrett, assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs and workforce alignment for the Tennessee Board of Regents; and Patrick Wade, vice president at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology — Knoxville. For more information, visit: www.tbr.edu/hr/executivesearches/president-tcat-nashville.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: School funding lawsuit on hold