Jackson County Director of Schools Kristy Brown said that the small and rural school subcommittee has met to discuss initial BEP funding ideas.
Brown said that the subcommittee came up with a list of school funding needs and began categorizing them into “must-haves, should-haves, and would-like-to-haves.”
“At this point, we’re just trying to identify funding that must be any funding formula for students and to fund education,” Brown said. “Just components that must be there such as base amounts, funding for students that may require extra resources.”
The small and rural schools committee is one of 18 subcommittees created to submit feedback to the state’s central steering committee. Brown said that the goal is to take the subcommittee’s and the public’s input on how to improve BEP funding of a nearly 30-year-old system.
Brown said that with some reports stating that Tennessee ranks 46th in the nation when it comes to adequate funding for students, the committee is doing its best to research options to bring to the table to better the situation for Tennessee’s schools.
“It’s low compared to the nation in per-pupil expenditure in Tennessee for schools,” Brown said. “So our top priority is adequacy in funding and making sure enough dollars are put into education funding in general.”
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