Tennessee Government: We can’t have a living wage. Also Tennessee Government: Here’s money to put kids through private school.
this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2025
78 points (97.6% liked)
News
35867 readers
2385 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.
Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.
7. No duplicate posts.
If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.
All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
It costs the same to the government, so fiscally it is a wash
Educational funding in most of the USA works a bit like insurance and/or a healthy social system. Everyone pays in based on their means - creates a pool of resources - then kids get assistance/education based on needs.
The trick here is that a lot of the kids with the most need are from families with the least means. So if the ratio of kids who need extra help/resources goes up because rich families all pull their kids out, then the schools won't have enough funding to cover the needs of the kids that are left.
That's exacerbated by the fact that schools in most of the USA (and definitely TN: I live in Nashville) are woefully underfunded, and rely in fundraisers and parent support groups to fill the gap in funding so teachers can have even basic supplies. Again, if most of the affluent families leave, there will be fewer parents of means there to help fill the gap.
It's another example of rich families wanting to be able to opt out of helping poor ones.
The costs to educate 2 million students is double that of 1 million students. You can't just double class sizes when you have more teachers. You need new classrooms and teachers when you have more students.
So per student you need roughly a constant amount of money. Any student that goes to a private school doesn't cost the public system money. If you give what they cost to a private school it's a wash fiscally
If every student needed the same amount of support, that would be correct. But that is not the case.
Public school districts are required by law to provide whatever is needed for a student's education. That even includes some students beyond the age of 18.
That includes everything from academically gifted students to English language learners to special needs students who require full time, 1x1 caregivers. I've personally worked as a substitute teacher in some of those special needs classes.
All of those specially educators and the facilities needed all cost more than an average general education kindergarten teacher.
When parents of kids who are average of slightly above average and don't have a lot of special needs (read: often the more affluent families) pull their kids out, the ratio of kids with more meds changes.
Again, that extra support is required by laws passed by this same Tennessee legislature.
And you also ignored the issue of voluntary parent fundraising they is the lifeblood of many schools. That's a massive gap that is made worse when affluent families pull their kids out.
So what percentage more are we talking? 1% or more like 10% more?
Hopefully like last time the first applicant will be a Muslim Madrasa and the Tennessee legislator will reverse it in 2 days.