NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee Governor Bill Lee proposed a huge boost in education funding during his State of the State address Monday night.
Gov. Lee’s FY23 budget proposes more than $1 billion in new, recurring education spending for public schools across Tennessee.
Teacher advocates said there are pros and cons to some of the proposals in the education spending.
Lee proposed updating K-12 education funding. The new plan would set aside dollars for each student, based on their individual needs, paying particular attention to students with disabilities, rural students, low-income students, and students with other priority needs.
"Our surveys tell us internally that our teachers want more funding added to the BEP and current model. They are unsure about the proposed model," Professional Educators of Tennessee's executive director JC Bowman said.
Tennessee Education Association president Beth Brown said a lot of people will be excited to hear this level of investment, but there are still some needs the budget doesn't address.
"Our students do not have the resources that they need. Our underpaid educators are doing the jobs of 2, 3, 4, 5, and six colleagues while buying their own classroom supplies," Brown said.
In Lee's budget, $124.7M would go toward an increase in the teacher salary pool.
"It is definitely needed. It is definitely deserved. But, it is not this significant raise to educator compensation," Brown said.
Bowman said the salary increase is much needed, but he agrees it isn't enough.
"We still lag near the bottom on where we are with teacher salaries," Bowman said.
He said there are about 80,000 teachers in the state. Bowman said if you divide it up, each teacher would only get an increase of around $1,500, but that could be less after taxes.
Both advocates agree more must be done to retain and recruit teachers as the teacher shortage increases.