Senator Paul Stanley
A bill has been pending in our General Assembly for the past couple of years that would literally put “Education First” in Tennessee.  I sponsored this legislation, which requires lawmakers to approve an education spending plan before moving on to other areas of the state’s budget.  This is an important initiative in the difficult budget climate that we are facing in Tennessee this year.

Think about your own family budget.  If you have limited financial resources to take care of the things you consider most important first, then that is where your budget begins.  In other words you start with your most costly necessity, move to other life essentials, and if money is left over, then you can think about that vacation or new refrigerator.  The same principle should apply to state government.   

The budget document now clearly shows education appropriations separately.  Therefore, the concept is to vote on the education section separately before moving on to other budget items.  Once the education budget is approved, then the legislature can move on to the rest of the budget.  It is about separating out this part of the budget and making sure that education is adequately funded first.

Too often in Tennessee, our budget is victim to the last minute political maneuvers that come at the end of the legislative year.  When everything is on the table, nothing, including education, is sacred to last minute “wheeling and dealing.”  If we pass education spending first, separately from the rest of the state’s budget, education won’t get lost in the sea of special interest bills, or “pork” projects that generally come in the waning days before adjournment in regular or robust budget years.  In lean budget years, it means we put the kind of emphasis needed on the front end to take care of Tennessee’s future, our children’s education. 

Simply said, it would help to take politics out of education spending by making sure it does not get bogged down in so much of the compromise that goes on at the end of the budget process.

Education First would also help to assure that when we fund education, that we would do so with steady revenues and natural growth of the state’s budget.  It is not good public policy to connect the most important priority of state government, education, to an unstable revenue stream.  Education should get the first fruits, not the leftovers or after thoughts.  In addition, this measure also ensures that in a long-standing budget battle, like the income tax debate in 2001, kids would not be held hostage to a budget fight.  School directors want to know how to plan their budgets and this would expedite the process.

If education is truly first, our budget should reflect it.  We need to make sure every dollar spent on education is accountable and works to prepare our students for the challenges they face.

We need to get our priorities straight!  The General Assembly should demonstrate leadership by passing a budget that gets the state’s priorities in order and puts children first, in their rightful place.  I believe Education First will do more for education funding in the future than just about any other procedural bill we have had in our legislature in a long time.

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