Urban schools back away from fight over teacher pay
NASHVILLE (AP) — Urban school systems retreated from their attack on Gov. Phil Bredesen’s proposal to equalize teacher pay after getting assurances the state will look at their concerns over the next year.
Three of the state’s four most populous counties — Davidson, Knox and Hamilton — were worried about the governor’s proposal, which would send the most money to small school systems and rapidly growing ones.
They also complained that it does not take into account the higher cost of educating poor children and those for whom English is a second language, subgroups that fall disproportionately into urban areas.
A coalition headed by Nashville school board member Lisa Hunt had circulated a proposed amendment to the teacher pay equity bill that would have required the commissioner of education to phase in money for those costs over the next few years.
The amendment was signed by six of the 11 members of the Senate Finance Committee, but was never presented. By the time the committee met Tuesday morning the amendment had been watered down to request “special consideration” for those costs.
Hunt told the committee the large systems still feel their burdens are not fully accounted for in the state’s distribution formula for K-12 funding, but said the group has confidence that Bredesen is aware of the problem and committed to dealing with it.
“Education has changed considerably” since the state’s funding formula, known as the Basic Education Program, was adopted 12 years ago, Hunt said.
She told the committee that Nashville now is educating a third of the state’s English language learners and has a high percentage of children on free and reduced price lunches, a measure of economic need among those families.
The Senate Finance Committee passed the amended version of the bill 9-1, with Sen. David Fowler of Chattanooga the lone “no” vote.
Fowler wanted some assurance the plan would keep the state out of court, but got little.
The equity plan is a response to three Tennessee Supreme Court decisions that have declared the current funding mechanism unconstitutional, the most recent in October of 2002. The legal challenges were filed by a coalition of 77 small school systems.
The court said the state needed to include teacher salaries in the funding formula, which among other things this bill would do.
Fowler noted that the General Assembly appropriated $12 million to equalize teacher salaries in 1995, only to find itself dragged back into court shortly thereafter.
“We were told that money would solve the problem, and when it didn’t work out they sued us again,” Fowler said. “Is there any written agreement that won’t happen again?”
Wayne Qualls, director of the small schools coalition, said the coalition’s board voted 12-0 to support Bredesen’s proposal, but would not swear off filing future lawsuits if necessary.
The BEP Review Committee, which is beefed up in the equity bill, will study and report on the additional costs associated with high percentages of poor and non-English-speaking students. It also will address the broader formula the state uses to assess each county’s ability to pay its share of educational costs, which varies widely from place to place.
It will also look at each district’s willingness to pay, along with its ability.