Education funding still focus of governor’s budget-Bredesen continues to bolster education despite lean times
‘The budget I am recommending is a back to basics one,’ Bredesen said during his State of the State address Monday night to the General Assembly. ‘It is realistic for the times, it is honestly balanced, it does not call on reserves, and it calls for no new taxes.’
The budget Bredesen built for the fiscal year that begins July 1 is about $170 million lower than the current budget, reflecting a slowing national economy. But the governor said he intends to find money for those few things that are really important, and the biggest of those is education.
He said education changes Tennessee has made so far are being noticed nationally, citing an Education Week report that gave the state its highest ranking in years.
‘We’re not in the 40s. We’re not in the 30s. We’re not in the 20s even. Tennessee is ranked this year No. 16 in the nation,’ he said.
To help maintain that ranking, Bredesen wants to put $287 million more toward education initiatives. About $84 million would pay for the next installment of retooling the state’s education funding formula for K-12 schools, and $25 million would go to creating up to 250 new pre-kindergarten classes ‘ an improvement he said is crucial for Tennessee’s future.
Bredesen offered two proposals to use lottery proceeds to help more students get to ‘ and stay in ‘ college.
The first would set aside $200 million to create an endowment to help pay for college education for 15,000 more Tennesseans each year.
The second would drop the cumulative GPA needed to keep lottery scholarships to 2.75 at a cost of about $5 million.
Under current rules, a student must be enrolled full time in college, have a GPA of at least 2.75 after their freshman year, and a cumulative 3.0 GPA for subsequent years to keep the scholarship. The House and Senate deadlocked last year over how to alter the program.
The House wanted to lower the retention figure to 2.75, while the Senate version would lower the retention GPA to 2.75 only for community college students.
‘I believe in the merit concept behind the HOPE scholarships, and want to retain it,’ Bredesen said. ‘But when nearly 80 percent of the scholarship winners lose their scholarships during their time in college, something is wrong.’
Jamie Woodson, a Knoxville Republican and chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said after the speech that she’d like to ‘stick to the merit basis of the program.’
‘As far as lowering the cumulative GPA, I’m very concerned about that as a flat proposal,’ she said. ‘But again, it will be conversation that we will continue to have.’
Bredesen is continuing to put funds toward land acquisition, initiatives to make communities safer, and has included about $30 million for a 2 percent pay raise for state employees. However, one initiative that he’s giving particular attention to this year is expanding alternatives to nursing homes for elderly and disabled residents.
In the coming months, he said he plans to ‘fundamentally restructure’ how long-term care is handled in TennCare, the state’s expanded Medicaid program.
State revenues are projected to be as much as $240 million short by the time the current fiscal year ends June 30. About half of the total state budget comes from federal funding and other sources.