In Hamilton County, great ideas but no money

NEA Today, Mar 2002

Tennessee educators know how to boost inner-city achievement-but don't know how to get legislators to pay for it.

Want solid ideas for closing the student achievement gap? Look no further than Hamilton County, Tennessee, a large urban/suburban district where NEA members and administrators work as one through collaborative bargaining and increasingly think as one.

Ask either "side" what it takes to improve the performance of a struggling school, and you'll hear about must-haves like instructional support, adequate resources, and strong leadership-and the funding to make it all happen.

LaFrederick Thirkill, a negotiating team member for the 2,400-member Hamilton County Education Association, gives the issue of inner-city student achievement plenty of thought, both in writing his master's thesis and working as a fourth-year music teacher in Chattanooga's Howard Elementary.

Thirkill argues for stepped-up supports and resources for urban teachers. "At one point at Howard Elementary, 60 percent of our teachers had less than three years of experience," he points out. "New urban teachers don't have many strategies, are often shocked by their initial experience with cultural diversity, and are demoralized by a shortage of materials. I arrived at this school to find a limited number of textbooks and no instruments or CDs to demonstrate my lessons."

Across the bargaining table, Superintendent Jesse Register plays in near-perfect harmony. His administration has drafted a five-year strategic plan that emphasizes recruitment and retention of good teachers, especially for inner-city schools.

"Poverty schools need more to be successful," the superintendent emphasizes. "It's important to support teachers in them-incentive pay for inner-city schools will be an issue for negotiations-and we think we need instructional support staff working in them."

Register has advanced a range of thoughtful proposals, including specialized administrators for state-designated,"on-- notice" schools; experienced, school-based consulting teachers; and even a longer school year.

But Tennessee's a place where even popular, visionary administrators soon hit the brick wall of school finance.

And this is a wall of double thickness: an inequitable state funding formula that pays too little to districts with many special-- needs kids, financed by a state tax system that never keeps up with the growing needs of all schools and students.

Hamilton County can barely fund its school budget from state sources, forcing it to seek private and foundation grants for everything from school materials to whole new buildings. "We've become champions at pursuing grants," sighs the superintendent.

And Tennessee's chronic fiscal crisis, compounded by the current recession, is undermining public education across the state, threatening pre-school programs in the inner cities and driving hundreds of teachers-especially in border counties-to cross state lines to teach for more money.

"Hamilton County sits on the Georgia border," notes UniServ Coordinator Gerry Dowler. "We're losing 60 to 90 teachers a year to Georgia schools, including some fabulous, highly experienced educators. This affects the morale of the teachers who stay behind and hang in for measly two-and-a-half percent raises, hoping legislators will fix the problem."

But Tennessee lawmakers only seem to favor a "fix" that drives shoppers as well as teachers across state lines-raising the sales tax another penny. Many Tennesseans already pay combined state and local sales taxes reaching a whopping 8.75 percent.

"We need a tax system that offers continuity, grows with the clientele of our schools, and pays teacher salaries that'll carry us to the 22nd century," argues Dowler.

"In my opinion, this state has to deal with revenue and tax reform," agrees Superintendent Register. "Anti-tax people's voices are loud, so teachers, parents, and community people have to make [an equally] loud noise for education funding."