1. A FUNDING ANOMOLY DR. JACK A. PARTON
SUPERINTENDENT, SEVIER COUNTY SCHOOLS
KAREN KING
ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT, FINANCE

2. EDUCATION OPERATING FUNDS
Revenue sources for funding education in Sevier County is derived from three primary sources:
Basic Education Plan (BEP)
Property tax
Sales tax

3. What is BEP?
The Basic Education Program (BEP) is the funding formula through which state education dollars are generated and distributed to Tennessee schools to provide a basic level of education for Tennessee students.
The BEP has three major categories related to the basic needs of students, teachers, and administrators within a school system.
Instructional (typical State share- 70%)
Classroom (typical State share- 75%)
Non-Classroom (typical State share- 50%)

4. FORMULA CALCULATIONS
The BEP Formula utilizes a statistical estimate of a county’s relative ability to raise revenue for education (fiscal capacity).
Fiscal capacity is determined by 2 indexes:
TACIR Index
CBER/Fox Index

5. TACIR INDEX
The amount of money the county reports it spends on education.
The property assessment
Local sales tax
Per Capita Income
Tax burden when calculating farm and residential properties against total assessment
Service burden for education dividing total ADM by county population

6. CBER INDEX (Fox Plan) The County’s Property Tax Sales Tax
Multiplied by an average tax base for the state to determine the county’s local fiscal capacity

7. When the fiscal capacity is determined and applied to the formula, our local economy creates an anomaly that exists no where else in the State of Tennessee.

8. THE ANOMALY and the PROBLEM
Sevier County is recognized as the wealthiest county in the State of Tennessee based on these fiscal capacity indexes, even though we have :
63% free/reduced lunch rate. as of Feb. 2014
(nearly 9,000 students)
10.4% unemployment rate as of Feb. 2014
Per-capita income= $32,065 TACIR Fiscal Capacity Info Sheet

9. Sevier County – The State of Tennessee’s third largest tax producer out of 95 counties Receives the least amount of state education funding.

10. SEVIER COUNTY SCHOOL SYSTEM FUNDING
The total operating budget for Sevier County Schools for the fiscal year is $129,271,226.
This equates to 30.4% coming from state funding and more than 60.41% from local funding.

11. East TN Public Schools Ranked by Funding source Knox News Sentinel Sunday Feb 16, 2014
LOCAL
STATE
FEDERAL
Sevier County
60.50%
31.60%
7.80%
Knox County
53.90%
36.70%
9.40%
Roane County
41.40%
48.70%
9.90%
Blount County
39.50%
52.30%
8.20%
Anderson County
48.30%
15.00%
Jefferson County
28.40%
61.00%
10.70%
State Average
40.10%
11.30%

12. BEP FUNDING IN SEVIER COUNTY

13. Top 10 Districts in Student Populations
BEP Funding
ADM
Per student
Shelby
$651,226,000
149,974
$4,343
Davidson
$252,620,000
77,670
$3,252
Knox
$173,190,000
56,773
$3,051
Hamilton
$131,119,000
42,194
$3,108
Rutherford
$164,993,000
39,746
$4,150
Williamson
$107,204,000
32,887
$3,260
Montgomery
$126,044,000
29,837
$4,224
Sumner
$120,936,000
27,993
$4,330
Wilson
$61,346,000
16,014
$3,831
Sevier
$38,495,000
14,246
$2,702

14. FY15 ESTIMATED PER PUPIL BEP FUNDING
District
FY14-15 BEP Allocation
ADMs
Per Pupil Funding
BEP $ Difference from Sevier Co.
Total Dollar Variance
Sevier
$38,495,000
14,247
$2,706
Knox
$173,190,000
56,773
$3,051
$344
$4.9M
Hamilton
$131,119,000
42,194
$3,116
$409
$5.8M
Davidson
$252,620,000
77,670
$3,232
$525
$7.4M
Williamson
$107,204,000
32,887
$3,281
$574
$8.1M
Washington
$30,502,000
8,857
$3,444
$737
$10.5M
Johnson City
$26,410,000
7,647
$3,453
$746
$10.6M
Madison
$44,819,0
12,590
$3,559
$853
$12.1M

15. IMPACT ON SEVIER COUNTY SCHOOLS
When the formula is calculated and the funds are distributed, Sevier County receives the lowest per child funding of any district in the State.
The gap between Sevier County and Knox County is $ per child ($4,909, additional funds)
Williamson County (wealthiest county in state) receives $ more per child than Sevier County ($8,185,703.29
additional funds)

16. EQUITY SOLUTIONS
Cost differential factor based on economy(government service burden)
Floor in the funding formula not to fall below 65% in state funding ($10M+)
Change in criteria indexes including some consideration of free/reduced population (at risk) , employment indexes, ELL populations
Change indexes to TACIR only ($4M+)

17. WHAT HAPPENS IF NO CHANGE IN FUNDING FORMULA?
The gap between state revenues for Sevier County children and other school districts will continue to grow.
2008 gap= $80.00 per student
2014 gap= $ per student
The revenues for supporting education in Sevier County must be increased for the operation of our school system’s most basic needs.