Last Thursday Republican State House District 65 candidate Brian Beathard took to his Facebook page to attack what may be Governor Bill Lee’s biggest education accomplishment.
In 2022 lawmakers passed the Governor’s Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) that invested a billion dollars into K-12 education and fundamentally changed the formula the state uses to fund schools. Beathard told his supporters that TISA is reducing the amount of money schools in Williamson County are receiving.
“We’ve all recently learned that under the new TISA funding formula, our students will receive even less in state funding than they did under the old formula. Now more than ever we need someone in the State House that will champion our students and fight for our fair share,” wrote Beathard. “On August 1st, vote for someone with a proven record of fully funding our schools.”
State data does not back up the Williamson County Republican’s post.
According to the Tennessee Department of Education, Williamson County received $153 million from the state for schools under the Basic Education Program (BEP) in the year before TISA went into effect. Records show the county itself chipped in $168.8 million of its own money for its local share that year.
Under the first year of TISA the state share of education funding jumped to $176.2 million for Williamson County while the local share dropped to $152 million. Projections for next year continue this trend with an estimated state share of $179.2 million and a local share of $161.1 million.
Beathard is facing former State GOP Executive Committee member Michelle Foreman and real estate attorney Lee Reeves in the August Republican primary for the House seat that opened for challengers when former Representative Sam Whitson, R- Franklin, announced his retirement.
For the last 14 years Beathard has served on the Williamson County Board of Commissioners, and he utilized a resolution that board passed on a 22 to 1 vote earlier this month to make the false case on Facebook that TISA is reducing the county’s education funds.
That resolution objects to TISA and asks state lawmakers to pursue options to rectify the formula’s “disproportionate funding result.”
Supporters on the Commission, including Paul Webb, say it’s not fair Williamson County is contributing 71 percent of its annual funding for education under TISA while other counties contribute as little as 11 to 30 percent.
“They can spend that money on building a jail for instance, or fixing the roads, or paying teachers more. But we’re paying 71 percent of a public service that’s supposed to be funded by the state of Tennessee. I think it’s gone too far, said Webb during this month’s meeting. “Fair and equitable is an important concept in government and because we have the ability to pay doesn’t mean we want to continue to pay this high a rate.”
