STATE OF EDUCATION FUNDING
Tennessee
Fair school funding systems ensure that districts, schools, and ultimately students receive significant additional funding according to their specific needs. Providing high-quality learning opportunities for students living in poverty, English learners, students with disabilities, and rural students requires additional resources.
The Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) funding formula passed in 2022, replacing the state’s outdated resource-based funding formula. TISA will impact approximately $9B in state and local education funding starting in 2024. Each Tennessee student will qualify for $6,860 base amount and potentially additional money based on their needs through weights (e.g., students from low-income backgrounds, with disabilities, in rural schools, English learner). Also, districts can receive bonus funding based on performance on selected outcomes and based on particular programs or initiatives through direct funding.
More detail on TISA including an analysis of the individual components and weights is available through the Tennessee Alliance for Education Equity.
Learn more about
how Tennessee
funds students
According to Bellwether, “Tennessee’s new funding formula, called the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) Act, is designed to better meet the needs of the state’s nearly 1 million students. Passed in 2022, it replaces an outdated system that was neither adequate nor equitable…TISA replaces the BEP, a complex, decades-old funding formula that distributed state funds based on expected costs. The BEP largely ignored student needs and instead funded schools based on enrollment, staff-to-student ratios, and dozens of other line items such as textbooks. TISA, by contrast, allocates greater funding to school districts serving larger numbers of low-income students, ELs, and students with disabilities, since it costs more to support these students’ educational needs.”
| Category | Weight |
|---|---|
| TISA's FIVE WEIGHTED CATEGORIES (BASED ON STUDENT NEED) | |
| Economically disadvantaged students | 25% |
| Students living in areas of concentrated poverty | 5% |
| Students in sparsely populated communities | 5% |
| Students in smaller districts | 5% |
| Students with unique learning needs, including students with disabilities, ELs, and students with characteristics of dyslexia | 15% to 150% |
How fair is
Tennessee’s Funding?
Using criteria developed based on research, best practice, and what we believe, we provide ratings for Tennessee below. Our goal is for states to build a simplified, student-weighted funding formula guided by students’ different levels of need with the goals of eliminating achievement and opportunity gaps. We aim for states to create adequate, equitable, and transparent formulas that provide clear dollar allocations by assigning additional “weights” for students from low-income families, English learners, students with disabilities, and rural students.
For more on how we determined our ratings for Tennessee click here.
See our ratings across states, an explanation of the criteria we used to differentiate between state funding systems, and explanations of our specific state rankings here.
| Rating | Reason for Rating | |
|---|---|---|
| FUND STUDENTS ADEQUATELY | ||
| The funding formula is student-based, or weighted | Yellow | The formula is student-based |
| Per-pupil funding is adequate enough for all students to achieve average, national test scores | Red | There is high percentage of students attending schools in inadequately funded districts |
| FUND STUDENT NEEDS APPROPRIATELY | ||
| Formula includes a weight or additional funding for students living in poverty | Yellow | The formula includes a 25% weight for students living in poverty |
| Formula includes a weight or additional funding for English learners | Yellow | The formula funds English learners at 3 different levels: 20%, 50%, and 70% of the per-student base |
| Formula includes a weight or additional funding for students with disabilities | Green | The formula funds students across ten different categories of disability or student need |
| Formula includes a weight or additional funding for sparse and/or isolated districts | Red | The formula does not provide generous weights for small and sparse districts (5%) |
| Formula includes weights or additional funding for districts with high levels of concentrated poverty | Red | The formula has a 5% concentrated poverty weight, failing to differentiate between different levels of district poverty |
| FUND SCHOOL DISTRICTS EQUITABLY | ||
| State caps how much local revenue districts can raise to limit between-district disparities in local revenue | Red | The formula does not set a limit for how much local revenue districts can raise |
| FUND STUDENTS TRANSPARENTLY | ||
| State annually publishes information about how the funding system is designed to work in clear, plain language | Yellow | The state education department maintains a webpage that explains the funding formula in clear language and has an accompanying guide that is in plain language and easy to find |
| State reports school spending data in alignment with equity-oriented principles | Yellow | The state reports are partially aligned with equity-oriented school spending reporting principles |
| PUBLIC FUNDS FUND PUBLIC SCHOOLS | ||
| Taxpayer funds are used to maintain and support public schools exclusively | Yellow | The state has a pilot ESA program available to low- and middle-income families in specific regions of the state |
Who’s Who
in Tennessee
Legislature
The Tennessee General Assembly is the legislative body for the state of Tennessee. The General Assembly is a bicameral body composed of a House of Representatives with 99 members and a state Senate with 33 members. The state Senate has one standing Education Policy committee, and the House has two standing committees on education, one for Education Administration and one for Education Instruction. In 2024, the legislature will convene January 9, 2024.
State Superintendent of Education
The Tennessee Commissioner of Education is appointed by the governor. The commissioner oversees the Tennessee Department of Education and the state’s PK-12 schools.
State Board of Education
The Tennessee State Board of Education is composed of 11 members appointed by the governor. The board includes a member from each of the state’s nine congressional districts, a student member, and the executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, who serves as an ex-officio member. The board acts as the policy making body for Tennessee’s PK-12 schools
