Another Ford throws his hat in the ring
No, not from that Ford family.
This is Jeff Ford of Williamson County.
He's running for State Senator Jim Bryson's seat.
For the purposes of this blog here's the statement on his campaign site regarding education.
EDUCATION
The formula for funding of schools is confusing, incomplete and unfair to both Williamson County and Metro Davidson County Schools. Williamson County is punished for tremendous growth. Metro Schools are punished by the lack of recognition of the ELL population. Williamson County had approximately 30% of all the growth in student population for the most recent school year. We must find a way to make certain that we fully fund the growth portion of the BEP, as well as make certain that Williamson County receives the growth funds it deserves. We must also find a way to get the growth funds into the system in the year the growth occurs, rather than one year later.
Metro Davidson County currently has approximately 30% of the ELL students, but only receives approximately 10% of the ELL funds. We must ensure that the funds received by Davidson County are sufficient to handle this growing population.
Both Davidson and Williamson are punished because of an ability to pay. The BEP formula is outdated, and does not take into account changing populations.
Good start, imo. Every attempt at being fair to one set is always going to end up being unfair to another--welcome to life. This is why I think control and funding need to be as local as possible.
Jeff will be blogging at http://electjeffford.blogspot
4 comments:
On his blog this morning, Jeff taled about the surplus of money the state is going to have. He mentioned that the money should be used to "Fully fund the budget first. Restore the money to the highway fund. Fully fund the BEP, especially the growth funding. Fully fund the rainy day fund. If there is any left after this, return to tax payers through a reduction in the sales tax on food."
The highway fund comes before BEP? OK, let me ask him about that.
Jeff explains at Jeff's Blog
Although Jeff didn't mention it, others have, it's not as much about priorities as right and wrong. The highway fund proposed in the legislature is about restorimg gas tax money shifted out of the highway fund to fund last year's(or maybe even before that) budget. I like the dedicated gas tax for highways; if it's too much related to other priorities, then lower the gas tax and raise some other tax an equivalent to fund education or any other priorities we might have.
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