Senators target small schools compromise
NASHVILLE — State senators on Tuesday took a confrontational stand toward a $26.7 million deal struck between the Bredesen administration and small schools to help equalize teacher pay.
‘If the Supreme Court has the guts to throw all 132 of us in jail for contempt, then more power to them,’ said Sen. David Fowler, R-Signal Mountain, referring to the 132 members of the Legislature. ‘The point is they’re not going to do it.’
The state Supreme Court last fall ruled Tennessee’s system for paying teachers created an unconstitutional discrepancy between rich and poor school systems, and ordered the state to close the gap.
One of Gov. Phil Bredesen’s first actions was to broker an agreement with the small schools that were successful in the lawsuit. Bredesen’s proposal is to make a $26.7 million ‘down payment’ toward the problem in the next budget, and devise a more long-term solution by fall. He appointed a task force to recommend what the long-term answer should be.
The money he proposes to add to next year’s budget would go to teachers in 75 systems with the lowest average pay, raising it to at least $37,000 everywhere in the state.
An alternative budget proposed by Sens. Bill Clabough, R-Maryville, and Jerry Cooper, D-Morrison, would use the money to prevent the state from taking taxes it normally shares with city and county governments.
‘There are systems benefiting from this because they don’t pay what they can,’ Clabough told the Senate Finance Committee. ‘We would support additional negotiations between the plaintiffs, the administration and the Legislature, and we move forward in November after the study commission reports.’
That would mean nothing occur to resolve the lawsuit in the upcoming fiscal year, which starts July 1. That could put the Legislature at odds with the courts.
Sen. Jim Kyle, D-Memphis, argued against taking the ‘down payment’ and using it to keep cities and counties from losing tax money.
‘We should be pleased the administration has been able to resolve it for that small amount of money,’ Kyle said, noting other proposed solutions had much higher price tags than $26.7 million. ‘I agree there are local governments that could pay their teachers better. And I’m also concerned about the disparity between what we pay teachers and what we pay our state employees. But I also have concerns about upsetting that apple cart.’
Bredesen went further, saying to divert the money to other purposes would be ‘a terrible mistake.’
‘I think the plaintiffs would simply go into court and ask the court to mandate some approach to this thing,’ he said. ‘I think it would be a disaster for the state. It’ll end up costing us more if that happens, and tying our hands.
‘Part of what I was trying to do was to show that we as a state could settle down and do the things we need to do without having a court tell us what had to do all the time.’
Clabough asked the committee to request a member of the administration attend its meeting next week and explain the philosophy behind the agreement, which the committee agreed to do.
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