Bredesen to stress pre-K and urban school funding
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Speaking after a budget proposal from the state Department of Education on Thursday, Bredesen said expanding the pre-K program by $25 million each year would leave the Tennessee with near-universal access by the time his second term ends four years from now.
Bredesen said he’d consider a comprehensive pre-K program “a great legacy.”
Bredesen said he also planned to work with the mayors of the state’s largest cities to find ways to direct them enough money under Tennessee’ Basic Education Program funding formula.
“Everyone has acknowledged that there’s a problem in the larger cities that has just developed over the years, and that it needs to be adjusted to reflect that,” Bredesen said.
The governor said he has told the mayors to “just cool your jets a little bit, we’re going to tackle this issue.”
The problem with tweaking the formula is that if one district gets more money, another district is likely to get less. The challenge will be working a compromise through the General Assembly where lawmakers are trying to protect the funding levels of their local districts.
“The bottom line is look: The BEP has gone on 14 years, the world has changed over that time,” Bredesen said. “We need to update it, and we’re going to do so.”
Funding the growth in the state funding formula for K-12 schools will cost the state an extra $90 million next year, Education Commissioner Lana Seivers said.
Bredesen said he would ask the Legislature to remove restrictions on the pre-K program that limit enrollment mostly to lower income, or “at-risk” children.