Education advocates in Tennessee are closely following the current debate over the INSPIRE Act in Mississippi. That's because we passed equally significant K-12 education funding reforms in 2022.
A new funding formula, the Tennessee Student Outcomes Investment Act, reimagines how funding is tailored to student characteristics while giving districts new flexibility to invest resources based on student needs. To do.
Tennessee lawmakers, like the Mississippi House of Representatives today, took the courageous step of passing major reforms to the state's school funding system. We at the Education Trust of Tennessee support TISA and launched Southerners for Fair School Funding to support advocates across the region to address inadequate and inequitable school funding in their states. . We believe the INSPIRE Act is worthy of celebration.
There is a lot to celebrate in House Bill 1453, called “Investing in Student Needs to Prioritize, Influence, and Transform Education” (INSPIRE). It proposes a transparent funding system that ensures students are the protagonists in this next chapter for Mississippi State. Talk about education. This new student-centered method is based on several key questions that focus on the most important considerations. “Who are the students?” What individual needs do they have to succeed? How much does it cost to properly educate every student?
As a student weighting formula, INSPIRE starts with a clear dollar amount for each student and increases that amount by a “weight” or percentage boost for specific categories of students. These students include students from low-income families and communities, children with disabilities, students who are learning English, and students living and learning in rural areas and small districts. INSPIRE's calculations and weightings are ambitious and track trends seen in other states' model formulas.
Mississippi, like Tennessee, is not the same place it was 30 years ago. We are evolving, and the realities of our state require that school funding, just like classroom instruction, must be modernized to meet the demands of today's workforce. Tennessee's previous funding formula, the Basic Education Program, had much in common with the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP). Both are relics of the past, created to avoid lawsuits, while simultaneously tying school districts' hands with complex and opaque calculations of classroom numbers and instructional ratios tied to teacher salaries, allowing districts to make the most of their needs. It funds a limited list of programs that may or may not be eligible. , and limits the ability of local communities to contribute to the scheme.
The core of MAEP's challenge is to base critical school district funding calculations on each district's actual teacher salaries and to provide more funding to areas like Madison, where higher tax bases allow them to pay teachers higher wages. This means that funds are being transferred. In contrast, districts in the Delta that may not be able to afford the higher supplemental salaries will receive less money under this outdated and arbitrary formula, through no fault of their own. . We evaluated her MAEP earlier this year and noted the need for a major overhaul.
Under MAEP, the per-pupil base cost is limited to the amount spent each year on general education students in C-rated schools, rather than adjusting the amount to match the actual needs of classrooms across Mississippi. I am. MAEP calculations are based on general and historical spending levels that are divorced from the reality of who is in school. In contrast, INSPIRE asks a committee of educators to provide input on the resources needed to adequately fund schools. We applaud Mississippi State's efforts to leverage the expertise of educators to provide a modern formula tailored to student needs.
Designing an ambitious new funding formula naturally raises challenges and concerns, which was the case in Tennessee. However, centering and quantifying students' unique learning needs in state funding should be uncontroversial if done transparently. Mississippi's legislative leaders must allay the concerns of their colleagues and stakeholders and assure them that INSPIRE is a means to support the state's public school students, not a voucher mechanism. Most states with weighted student aid systems have no vouchers at all, including Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, and larger states like New York and California. Nationally, funding reforms have not been linked to vouchers. Once this important difference is recognized, funding proposals like INSPIRE can be fairly evaluated without fear of undermining support for public schools.
All in all, the INSPIRE Act is an important step forward for Mississippi. This would level the playing field for school districts serving the highest-needs students and allow educators to consider how the state funds schools. This provides transparency, consistency, and financial flexibility, allowing districts to serve students according to their needs. And importantly, rather than prioritizing the costs associated with educating rural students, students with disabilities, or students living in concentrated poverty, school districts' wealth The aim is to eliminate some of the most despicable inequities found in MAEP:
Tennessee stands behind Mississippi's legislative leaders and urges our senators to take advantage of this historic opportunity to ask tough questions and ensure INSPIRE delivers on its promise to students and schools. . This is a winning proposition for Mississippi students, and ultimately they must become our North Star.
Gini Pupo Walker is executive director of the Educational Trust in Tennessee.
