November 21, 2006

State Comptroller Proposes State Grab Control Of Local Public Schools

If you believe your local public school should remain under the control of your local elected school board rather than a state bureaucracy, you better pay attention to this: Tennessee Comptroller John Morgan is proposing that the state of Tennessee restructure its tax system to put the state - rather than local governments - in charge of funding education. Morgan told the Basic Education Program Review Committee that public education in Tennessee should be under state control rather than local control.

This would be a radical change for Tennessee' public schools and the families with nearly 1 million students currently enrolled in those schools.

Under current state law, the Tennessee Department of Education has some regulatory authority over local education agencies with regard to certain issues, but most issues related to elementary and secondary education are currently under the authority of local school systems. In fact, Tennessee Code Section 49-2-203 gives local boards of education the authority to "manage and control all public schools established or that may be established under its jurisdiction."

Morgan's proposal, called "Total State Funding," is included in the Basic Education Program Review Committee's annual report, released Nov. 1, and was discussed during the committee's Oct. 23 meeting, according to the meeting minutes.

"Total State Funding" would likely lead to "Total State Control" - and the demise of the authority of local elected school boards to manage and control the public schools under their jurisdiction.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports:

The committee considering revisions to the formula the state of Tennessee uses to dispense education dollars now has another option to consider: Restructuring the tax system to put the state in charge of funding education. Tennessee Comptroller John Morgan proposed a third alternative to the current formula at today's meeting of the Basic Education Program Review Committee.

"Education is not a local issue," Mr. Morgan said. "It really is a state problem, so why don't we use the state tax base to fund an adequate education program to give all children in Tennessee the opportunity to succeed in public schools?"

Under Mr. Morgan's proposal, the state would spend an additional $900 million on education. It would capture half of local option sales tax dollars, establish a statewide property tax and distribute the revenue among school systems depending on their needs.

If the state takes control of funding for all public schools across the state, it will in short order take control of education policy, curriculum and personnel decisions for all public schools across the state. Legislators inevitably will attach strings to the money - that simply is how government works. Government dollars always come with government demands. That's true, of course, with dollars from local governments, but your local city council or county commission and local school board are more likely than some state bureaucracy to make policy, curriculum and personnel decisions in accordance with the wishes and goals of the local electorate.

As for Morgan's proposal that the legislature create a statewide property tax, it's worth noting that Tennessee had such a tax until 1947, when it was junked as both inefficient and corrupt. But in 2004 the Tennessee Tax Structure Study Commission, created for the purpose of "studying" Tennessee's tax structure and recommending creation of a state income tax, actually considered an alternative - lowering the state sales tax and the sales tax on food, and replacing the revenue with a statewide property tax of $2.60 per every $100 of assessed value and a tax on all registered vehicles, including cars, boats and planes, averaging $100, a plan that would raise about $3 billion annually.

The Commission, stacked with income tax supporters, was never going to recommend anything other than creation of an income tax, but at least it did its job and analyzed the property tax concept - and found reasons to condemn it, noting that the combination of a lower sales tax and lower sales tax on food plus a statewide property tax would create "an exorbitant tax burden on those earning $29,467 and $44,431" (the incomes of two of the Commission's hypothetical taxpayers it used in analyzing each proposed tax reform. "The big jump in tax burden at $29,467 has to do with the increased likelihood both of home ownership and of the purchase of a car," the Commission said.

Tennessee's average per capita income in 2004: $29,648. In 2005: $30,952.

Clearly a statewide property tax would hammer the average Tennessee taxpayer hard - and it would be doubly insulting if the increased taxes were going to fund a statewide education bureaucracy that was eroding local control of schools.

Update: Kay Brooks takes issue with Morgan's claim that public education "is not a local issue." Writes Brooks, "Not a local issue? Excuse me it doesn't get more local than the corner school bus stop. It doesn't get more local than your property tax rates." She challenges the Metro Nashville Board of Education to speak out against Morgan's proposal for a state takeover of public schools across the state.

And the perceptive Mark Rose notes that Morgan's proposal would mean "bureaucrats in Nashville would be given greater authority over public school districts at the expense of your city and county school boards," and that it would take a new statewide property tax to pay for it. Writes Rose:

Wouldn't it be the height of irony if we spent Governor Bredesen's second term fighting a state property tax instead of the state income tax we fought during Governor Sundquist's second term?

Just within the past two weeks (AFTER the election, oddly), we've had TDOT whining about a $2 billion shortfall over the next ten years, and now the state comptroller is floating a plan that would increase state revenue by $900 million and necessitate a state property tax. The best way to fight liberalism is with conservatism. So I'm still holding out for eliminating the state's 6% sales tax on groceries.