Bredesen wants more money in education

Bredesen said ?it?s no secret? that revenues are expected to grow significantly in the budget year beginning in July. The growth could range between $100 million and $300 million, Bredesen said.

The state funding board meets next week to determine the state?s revenue projections.

Bredesen?s plan to overhaul the state?s complex school funding formula is intended to get it to a point where ?ordinary human beings? can understand how it works.

The plan is billed as the first step in a $475 million plan to improve the way the state distributes money to school districts.

?We can?t pay for it all this year. Let?s try to bite off half this year, and over the next few years we?ll continue adding to that framework in getting us to where we need to be,? he said.

Under Bredesen?s proposed budget, about $280 million would be directed toward new education spending in the budget year beginning in July. That would include the education elements of his proposed 40-cents-per-pack increase in the state tax on cigarettes.

State and local governments share K-12 education expenses under a complex formula called the Basic Education Program, or BEP. It was created in 1992 after courts ruled the state?s old formula unconstitutionally deprived children in poorer counties of an adequate education.

The elements of Bredesen?s proposed changes to the BEP include:

? Having the state pay 75 percent of teacher salaries instead of the current 65 percent.

? Replacing a complicated ?cost differential factor? with an index based on property and sales tax collections to determine how much education funding counties are able to afford.

? Increasing state funding for English language instruction.

? Improving the average teacher salary in Tennessee from below $37,000 to $40,000.

An additional $48 million would be used in higher education to try to keep annual tuition increases below 7 percent, and $21 million would pay for agricultural grant programs.