State needs to do everything possible to bolster education

Battle lines are drawn in Nashville over the governor’s plan to increase the cigarette tax to pay for education.

Gov. Phil Bredesen and Senate Republicans are still talking. But in this legislative version of a sandbox squabble, House Republicans want to take their toys and go home. Someone should send them to time out instead.

Tennessee’s schools, as a whole, are inadequate. Pick any statistic you like ? the dropout rate, the number of adults without college degrees, standardized test scores. All indicate an educational system struggling to meet the demands of today’s high-tech world.

The best plan is the governor’s plan, which raises the tax on a pack of cigarettes from 20 cents (48th in the nation) to 60 cents. The higher rate remains below the national average, but is well above that in the neighboring, tobacco-belt states of Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia.

Bredesen wants to spend all of that new money ? and a portion of the state surplus ? on a restructured school funding formula. The new formula would mean more money for every school district and would end the competition between districts for the scraps that fall from the legislative table.

Senate Republicans, while reluctant to throw in their lot entirely with the governor, are willing to meet in the middle. With Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey in the lead, the Senate GOP offered an increase of 30 cents per pack phased in over four years. This would eventually result in a 50-cent per pack tax ? just a dime shy of the governor’s plan.

If a state puts its treasure where its heart is, where is Tennessee’s heart? Legislators must come back to the bargaining table.