Comptroller says Madison and Hamilton Counties are the biggest beneficiaries of Tennessee’s new school funding formula
Stock photo of a piggy bank in a classroom (Photo by the Tennessee Comptroller)
During last summer’s House District 65 Republican primary, Williamson County School Board Member Brian Beathard attracted attention for a comment he posted on his campaign Facebook page attacking the state’s new school funding formula.
Beathard claimed, without evidence, that the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) Act was costing his district money.
Brian Beathard standing in a warehouse (Photo by Brian Beathard’s Campaign)
“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.”
Beathard wasn’t the first elected official to make the false claim about the state’s new school funding formula, and the Tennessee Department of Education provided the Tennessee Firefly with data showing the state was actually providing Williamson County with $20 million more in funding under TISA.
A new Comptroller Report released this week found similar financial windfalls across the state. That report says all of Tennessee’s locally administered school districts received more state money during fiscal year 2023/2024 when TISA went into effect than the prior year.
The Jackson-Madison County School System (38.56 percent) and Hamilton County Schools (32.98 percent) led the way with the largest percentage increase in state funding. Only four school districts received less than a full percent increase according to the Comptroller.
Under TISA, school districts receive a base amount of funding for each student and additional funding for students meeting certain criteria, like being economically disadvantaged or having a disability. Prior to TISA, districts received funding through a “resource-based” system that allocated money on the resources the state determined schools needed.
The Comptroller says TISA’s design and its inclusion in additional funding combined to provide a financial benefit for school districts.
Graphic by the Tennessee Comptroller
“In the first year of TISA, the General Assembly invested an additional $1.16 billion in K-12 education. This funding increase equated to a 21.6 percent budget increase for K-12 education, significantly higher than the annual increases of the previous 12 years. The substantial investment of additional funding coupled with TISA’s design resulted in increased funding for all locally administered school districts in TISA’s first year,” wrote the Comptroller’s Office.
The Comptroller’s report found that extra funding played a role in support for the TISA at the school district level. Nearly two-thirds of respondents to a Comptroller survey of school districts expressed that the TISA transition has been positive and some claimed the additional funding “has been put to good use.”
Graphic by the Tennessee Comptroller
The funding formula transition’s biggest impact, according to the Comptroller survey, fell on staff who work with students with unique learning needs at the district level and staff who work with student data. Both categories expressed a larger workload under TISA.
School district’s additionally identified challenges with the state’s new TN PULSE data collection system that’s used for TISA. In 2023 the state began requiring districts to enter student service plans in TN Pulse to generate TISA funding for students with disabilities, English learners, and other students with unique learning needs.
More than half of district leaders responding to the Comptroller survey expressed challenges learning to implement TN Pulse.
