Its official – Shelby County Schools will sue the state of Tennessee over its funding formula. According to a press release today just before noon, Shelby County Schools “will file a lawsuit against the State of Tennessee today, August 31, for failing to equitably and adequately fund public school education for all students.”
From the press release:
The Tennessee Constitution and Tennessee Supreme Court require the State to provide an equitable and adequate education to all public school children in the State, and they both maintain that adequate resources are necessary to do so. Yet, the State funding currently provided to SCS falls far short of the actual costs of offering our students a quality education.
I for one am glad to see the board finally taking this step considering its one I’ve been calling for since this time last year (here, here, here, here and here) when it became clear that the state’s financial commitment was woefully inadequate for districts to fulfill the needs of our county’s students.
Why take this step? Because it seems that, unfortunately, lawsuits are the only thing that can actually get our state legislature moving. A lawsuit was the motivator for BEP back in the 90’s in the first place, after all. Our current state legislature seems to be completely allergic to any for of spending (see the medicaid expansion that was created just for them that they still turned down) and without a lawsuit or even the threat of one, there’s no way districts will ever get the increase funds they need.
That said, from a political perspective this lawsuit could also provide some cover for the state legislature to raise additional revenue for the school districts. Should any of the lawsuits currently pending (SCS’ isn’t the only one) be decided against the state, our right wing legislature would be handed an excuse on for raising the necessary revenue without needing to take the blame for it themselves on a silver platter. “The courts told us to, our hands are tied” is about as much political cover as any republican could ask for at this juncture.
We’ll be watching closely how this plays out, but I’m glad to see Shelby County taking the lead on this.
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