Tennessee ranks 47th in spending per student
KNOXVILLE — An annual report from the U.S. Census Bureau this week contained an ugly indictment of Tennessee’s commitment to public education.
Forty-five states and the District of Columbia spent more per child on elementary and secondary education than Tennessee in 2001-02 — a lowly ranking virtually unchanged in a decade.
Though Tennessee isn’t rich, the data suggests other states are spending more of what they have on K-12. Tennessee ranked last in spending per $1,000 in personal income in 2001-02, the most recent year available.
Tennessee education officials are hopeful this will improve under Gov. Phil Bredesen, who since coming into office in 2003 has spared K-12 from the funding cuts felt by other areas of state government and this year was able to add about $170 million for teacher pay raises, equity supplements and system improvements.
“There is no question that spending was low and has been low in the past, but we feel like we are moving in the right direction,” said Dana Keeton, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Education.
“There is no lack of effort, I don’t think,” said Rep. Les Winningham, D-Huntsville and chairman of the House Education Committee. “It is just simply a lack of revenue base.”
Yet most other states have clearly done more, and not just states where the cost of living is higher.
In fiscal 2002, Tennessee spent $5,984 in combined federal, state and local revenue on each of its nearly 900,000 students in K-12, according to the Census’ annual Survey of Local Government Finances released Wednesday. Of this, about 46 percent was local money, 44 percent from the state and the rest federal.
Only Idaho ($5,923), Arizona ($5,524), Mississippi ($5,382) and Utah ($4,890) spent less. The national average was $7,701, with the District of Columbia spending the most ($13,187), followed by New York ($11,546), New Jersey ($11,436), Connecticut ($10,001) and Massachusetts ($9,856).
In the region, Florida, Alabama and Arkansas didn’t do much better than Tennessee, spending less than $200 more per student than Tennessee and all ranking in the 40s nationally.
But Kentucky and North Carolina spent nearly $500 more than Tennessee. South Carolina spent $1,000 more. Georgia spent $1,300 more and West Virginia $1,700 more.
Between 1991-92 and 2001-02, Tennessee increased state funding on K-12 education by more than $1.1 billion, spurred in part by lawsuits and state Supreme Court orders. Still, its national ranking began and ended the decade 47th and never got higher than 45th in 1997-98.
“What has happened, of course, is that other states are increasing as well,” said Graham Greeson, research manager with the Tennessee Education Association. “You are always shooting at a moving target, and other states, particularly states with more elastic tax systems than we have, are infusing more money than we have.”
In 1991-92, Tennessee spent $3,509 per child against a national average of $5,001. Tennessee added $2,475 to that during the next decade to reach the $5,984 per pupil amount reported this week.
The state Department of Education estimates Tennessee’s spending jumped to $6,256 per child in 2002-03, using the Census Bureau’s formula.
Greeson said recent actions by the Bredesen administration and the General Assembly should nudge the state up a notch or two in the rankings by 2003-04. “So, yeah, we are improving slowly, but we are still not where we should be,” he said.
Tammy Grisson, executive director of the Tennessee School Boards Association, said education special-interest groups — including the TEA, PTAs and principals — formed a coalition about a year ago to jointly make their case to the governor and the Legislature.
“We could sit around and complain, but the facts are the facts,” she said. “We have got to do something about it ourselves.”
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On the Net:
U.S. Census: http://www.census.gov/