Greater sales tax would equalize school funding
In the latest school system report cards, recently released by the Tennessee Department of Education, shows Warren County basically holding its own academically in comparison with the 155 other districts in the state. Except for some of the statistical sub-groups, our students, for the most part, “met federal benchmark” requirements in math, reading, language arts, writing in grades K-8 and in English II and Algebra I at the secondary level.
The report cards, newly re-designed to reflect the measurements of federal No Child Left Behind mandates, disclose not only the efforts of students, teachers and school administrators, but also that of local citizens and their elected government. The one vital measure for citizens and government is tax expenditure per pupil.
Revealingly, Warren County’s funding per student is $661 below the state average, which in turn is $1,735 below the national average. Our expenditure of $5,987 for each student on average is 10 percent below the statewide mean of $6,648. Compared to the U.S. average, we’re 29 percent short.
This year’s funding report is in line with historical trends showing Warren County chronically 10 percent below the statewide average. The distance between our per-pupil effort and that of the rest of the nation, however, has increased dramatically, likely a reflection of deepening worries about public education performance in other states.
Further study of the report card shows that fiscal blessings continue to flow to Warren County. Across Tennessee, local taxpayers pick up the tab for a little over 43 percent of the total education bill, with the state treasury contributing about 46 percent. Federal support generally makes up the remaining 10 percent of local school budgets.
In Warren County, we’re covering only 35 percent of our costs, while the state kicks in more than 54 per cent. In other words, we’re buying education services as at hefty discount thanks to a state funding formula that recognizes certain economic and social conditions in rural systems.
The special discount for Warren County taxpayers goes beyond the numbers on the standardized reports. Our system’s technology office and many individual teachers, often working on their personal time, have been highly successful in applying for and winning grants totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars from outside funding sources to buy computers and to support innovative teaching programs.
How is it possible we can chronically under-fund Warren County schools, compared to the rest of the state, and still achieve at least median-level, and sporadically superior, academic results?
This is where secular grace comes in. Our fiscal shortfall is more than compensated for by the extraordinary professionalism and dedication of the majority of Warren County teachers, staff and administrators. We’re getting more than we’re paying for.
But as a matter of economic justice for the teachers and others who make these benefits possible – and to help stem the exodus of some of our best teaching talent to better-paying counties and states – we will need to re-assess our commitment to, and local tax support for, public education. Are Warren County students worth 10 percent less than the Tennessee average? That seems to be the signal we’re sending by our conscious and chronic under-funding.
Multiply Warren County’s 6,287 students by the $661 per-pupil deficit and you will find we’re about $4.2 million in the hole. Just to bring us to the Tennessee average – that is, just to become mediocre in funding effort, we would need a property tax hike of roughly 99 cents.
An alternative to such a drastic increase in property taxes is offered to Warren County. If county voters (outside the McMinnville city limits) go to the polls next February and approve the proposed 3/4-cent increase in the local option sales tax, we would reap more than $2 million a year in new revenues, according to projections cited by Warren County Executive Kenneth Rogers.
That means there would be money to help fund the school system’s construction and maintenance priorities (totaling $14 million), including a new elementary school in the Centertown community. There would also be money to make substantial progress toward long-overdue salary improvements for teachers and paraprofessional personnel.
(Bill Zechman is chairman of the Warren County Commission’s Education Committee.)