Ranked 51st in K12 Per Pupil Spending
Tennessee ranked dead last in per pupil K-12 spending (including all 50 states plus D.C.). The state pays an average $7,246 less per pupil than the national average. With over 30,000 students in Sumner, that is a significant chunk of change.
One ranking alone doesn't tell Sumner's story. When you dig deeper into the report, they share that the average funding for any school comes from 47.1% state (v. 52.1% for Sumner), 45.1% local (v. 34.2% for Sumner), and then 7.8% federal (v. 6.3% for Sumner). The remainder of my Sumner % calculations comes from the fees/charges paid by those funding internal school programs (parents, guardians, etc.). The discrepancy here: 34.2% of local taxes seems low compared to the national average of 45.1%. Why?
My instinct tells me our funding story as a state, and thus as a county, is rooted in a structural split established in 1992 under the old BEP formula, where counties were designed to cover only 34% of education costs. When Tennessee replaced BEP with TISA in 2023, that underlying split was supposed to be meaningfully corrected. So what happened?
Since 2023, Tennessee passed two rounds of corporate tax cuts: the Tennessee Works Tax Act in 2023 and the franchise tax elimination in 2024. Together, they cost an estimated $7.4 billion over ten years and reduced corporate tax collections by $721.5 million in a single year. Additionally, our elected officials prioritized passing private vouchers for students outside of public schools ($300 million annually) and an inflation adjustment amendment failed to pass. Our state legislators did not follow through and TISA failed to deliver on its promises. Thus, our low ranking. I do not blame our past school board members or county commissioners.
If you've heard any of the forums I've attended, I've said this multiple times. Caring for public education does not stop at the school board. We need county commissioners, state house and senate reps, and a governor who will prioritize our children's education. We need new blood and people that will prioritize our kids over corporate interest.
