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Not sure where the SoS folks got that "$7453 in per pupil spending" figure?

The most recent (2011) State Report Card says $8508 per pupil.

Since that most recent State Report Card also says local government picks up 53.4% of total costs in Knox County, that "$7453 in per pupil spending" figure doesn't appear to be just the local share, either?

It's just not right for local government to not be honest to citizens they are trying to influence.

Biz, we shouldn't confuse our "local Chamber" with our "local government."

More on that subject later today...

The County Clerk recorded the Tuesday meeting with Dr. McIntyre and Commission at Calhoun's on the River. McIntyre said total spending was $420 million dollars. He is a budget expert. He knows that figure is not correct.

Per Chris Caldwell:

Fiscal Year 2012

General Purpose Schools 384,670,000

School Construction 20,044,263

Cafeteria Fund 24,310,642

Grants (FY11)* 85,738,627

Great Schools 2,641,841

Kindergarten Intervention 1,182,000

Total 518,587,373

* Total Educational grants from the 2011 Single Audit Report

Barker continues to shill for McIntyre. Let's play the fun game "Find the right TCA".

It is clear to everyone but Barker and Bobber than McIntyre is caught in a lie.

Will this TCA work?

Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-50-1404

TENNESSEE CODE ANNOTATED
© 2012 by The State of Tennessee
All rights reserved

*** CURRENT THROUGH THE 2011 REGULAR SESSION ***

Title 49 Education
Chapter 50 Miscellaneous
Part 14 Education Truth in Reporting and Employee Protection Act of 1989

Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-50-1404 (2012)

49-50-1404. False statements to state or government employees, officials or entities.

No person or persons required by state law, or rules or regulations promulgated pursuant to those laws to collect, manage, review and maintain accurate records pertaining to the operation of an LEA shall knowingly and willfully make or cause to be made any false statement in any detail of statistical or financial data, reports or other information requested or required by a state official, employee, agency, department, board, commission or other body in the executive branch of state government, or any board, commission, committee, member or employee of the legislative branch of state

And you have a bright future in trolling. Isn't this grand? Both of us have something to look forward to.

Blocking those comments make people wonder., but the people that matter are the Commissioners. Each of them got Caldwell's email Wednesday. How do you plan to block that?

Maybe Barker can write an editorial to defend McIntyre? How about it Barker? Maybe you can deny it away. If the ad from Lavidge wasn't desperate enough, maybe you can help too?

Let's start the search for a new Superintendent. That would be a more positive approach. You can't lie about total spending. WATE caught McIntyre. They always catch them.

1) This Ad lists the per student spending in Knox County at $7,453.
Fact:
According the State of TN Department of Education Report Card for KCS, the total per Child spending for Fiscal year 2011 was $8,508.

2) Dr. McIntyre has repeatedly stated that for current School year, total KCS spending is $420 Million Dollars.
Fact:
A Reporter from a local News Station, discovered that the total spending for KCS for this period is actually $518,587,373 dollars.

3) Using Dr. McIntyre’s claimed KCS total spending amount of $420 Million, then dividing that figure with the 4/12 total enrollment figure from KCS Facts page of 57,812 Students, we get a total per student spending amount of $7,267.93. $185.07 less than the amount claimed by the Advertisement above.
Fact:
Using the now verified amount of $518,587,373 spending for KCS during this period, and then dividing this number by the total Student population we get a per student spending amount of $8,970.24. That's a far cry from the claimed $7,453 from the Ad.

4) According to the Advertisement above, KCS is last in spending for 11 surrounding Schools systems using the $7,453 per student spending figure.
Fact:
Using the corrected figure of $ 8,970.24 per student let’s compare that to the 5 surrounding County systems.
Anderson is the highest at $9,201 per student.
Sevier County is next at $9,063 per student.
Blount County is next at $8,401 per student.
Monroe County is next at $8,081 per student.
Jefferson County is last at $7,867 per student.
So actually KCS is number three out of 6 county systems for per student spending, not last as the Ad states. And before anyone says it, Yes, Oak Ridge and Alcoa City Schools spend much more per student than any of these with O.R. at $12,112 per student and A.C.S. at $10,827 per student.

Also note, that if we add in the requested $35Million to the current verified spending amount of $518,587,373, we get a total of $553,587.373. And if we then divide that with the current KCS enrollment, the per student spending would then be $9,575.65.

Facts are a funny thing.

schools is the largest in East Tennessee, Hamilton County being right at $330,000,000, however, our per student expense rate is nowhere near the top. It is easy to discard the Oak Ridge, Maryville, and Alcoa systems as they have only a handful of students compared to the 57,000 enrolled in the Knox County School System, so why is the per student funding so low while the budget is clearly the largest in EAst Tennessee or why do we have so many students in the Knox County School System?

Why would a former budget director for the Boston school system, a position he held for numerous years, mislead the public and commissioners about the "total expenditures" for the 2011-2012 year?
Why has it been reported to the state that the per student spending was $7,453 when in fact it is $8,970?
Why are the citizens not allowed to vote on this issue and are instead getting TV ads and pop- up calls?
Why is it that over 50% of our 3rd grade students can not pass the proficiency test?
Why are there no TV ads talking about the success of the 2008 strategic plan the superintendent presented outlining "excellence for all children".
Why is a wealthy county like Williamson able to have lower taxes, $7,300 per student spending, 77% of the general fund going to instruction and schools ranked nationally for excellence?

There are a lot of questions that should be asked why with the school budget proposal.
Let the citizens vote before this gets into another Black Wednesday for Knox. (June 6th)

I haven't watched the ad and don't intend to, but I find the outrage at it interesting.

Mayor Burchett's robo-call asked citizens to call Commissioners to tell them to vote against the proposed "large tax increase." It didn't explain either the size of the tax increase or mention what it was for.

That was pretty misleading to, at least in my book.

All I'm going to say is that if Ron Peabody is against it, then I'm probably going to be for it for good form. Everything that I've ever heard the man say about anything was wrong. Period.

Chris Caldwell of the county finance department sent out an email revising the figures Alan Swartz and Ron Peabody have been using. He grossly overstated the amount devoted to education, primarily because the cafeteria fund and much of the grants funding were counted twice. He now puts the figure for all education-related spending at $453.8 million for the current fiscal year (2012). That's a far cry from $518.6 million.

Even in the revised figures, he used grants issued in 2011 to estimate the amount of grants for 2012 and 2013. According to a five-year grants summary chart available at the school system's web site as a part of the 2012 budget (the current one), total grant funding is estimated to drop by more than 2/3 to $13.7 million in next year's budget. It's unclear if the remaining grants can be used in the calculation of the per pupil expenditures.

Funding for the Great Schools Partnership is still included in Caldwell's calculations, despite the fact that the school system does not control expenditures and the money goes toward pilot programs.

Caldwell also leaves into his figuring the school construction fund, which exists to reimburse general county government for debt issued for school construction projects (the school system can't issue debt, so the county does it and the school system pays them back. Revenues for the fund overwhelmingly come from the local option sales tax). I don't believe school construction is used to calculate annual per pupil expenditures.

To his credit, Caldwell said in his email that he accepted responsibility for the mistake and issued an apology. It's refreshing to see a public official stand up like that.

Burchett is Caldwell's supervisor, so that would be my guess?

I agree with Scott that Chris Caldwell is a straight-up guy (to the extent that I "know" him via phone calls over the years) whom I wouldn't expect to have purposefully double-counted those expenditures, either.

And I also agree that in sending that e-mail, Caldwell was likely in a bit of unfamiliar territory. School finance details of that sort are the province of KCS folks Bob Thomas and/or Ron McPherson.

Scott,

Thank you for the updated information. This corrected figure from Mr. Caldwell is still curious to me, because it still does not match what the State has on its DOE Report Card. For 2011 the State has, using the ADA for student count, a Per child expenditure of $8,508, for 54,486 Pupils. Multiplied, that comes to $463,566.888 spent by the KCS during the 2011 school year.

My only point in my posts yesterday, was to illustrate that neither the SOS ad, nor Dr. McIntyre’s claim that the total expenditure was $420 Million for the current year, nor any other amount that has been released yet, accurately represents the Total Expenditures for the Knox County School system.

The two explanations that I have posted below, come from the State DOE website, and they help explain their method. Which by the way, does not look like it actually includes as you said, school construction costs, but does include the cost of USDA funded meals program.

“Financial: Expenditures per student provide a comparison among school systems of different sizes which illustrate school systems’ annual financial reports, expenditures by the state on behalf of school systems and the value of commodities provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for school food service programs. These numbers are based on Average Daily Attendance (ADAs). Tennessee public schools receive funding from three primary sources: local, state and federal. The BEP is the primary source of state funds for local school systems. Local funds for education are raised from two primary sources: property taxes and the local option sales tax. All federal funds are earmarked for specific purposes, such as Career-Technical Education, etc.

Per Pupil Expenditure (Local, State and Federal): Total current operating expenditures on a per pupil basis. Some examples are instructional materials, maintenance, and transportation. “
From the State of TN, DOE, 2011 Knox County Report Card site:
(link...)

Ultimately, the Taxpayers of Knox County should be told the accurate information as to what it really cost to educate our Children. Despite what was said by another poster, I am not taking a position, but I am trying to illustrate the difficulty in finding accurate information about this subject.

Can anyone tell me what the Total Expenditure is for the current Fiscal Year for the Knox County School System? I want every single dime included in this figure. I don’t want the Base Budget, I don’t want the Construction costs excluded, I don’t want projections. If it is spent on anything related to the operation of the Knox County School System, it should be included. I want to know the cold hard number. Someone knows this figure. Everything that has been released to date, or that is available from the State, looks to me to be low, if all actual expenses are included.

All of this wrangling of numbers is what makes Taxpayers/Voters/Citizens crazy. Most people that I know, if you are straight with them about a need, tell the truth when asked questions, than they can make an informed decision. Right now, I don’t see how anybody can make an informed decision about this as far as supporting or not supporting this Tax Increase.

Personally, Ron, I don't think you'd be reasonable to include grant $$$ in any # you come up with. That's just not a reliable source of revenue from one year to the next.

Also, whatever # you come up with, and however it should compare to neighboring school systems, we need to consider any TN school system's # within the context that it exists within the State of Tennessee, which itself ranks 49th nationally in per capita spending on education.

Let's get real...

Ron, your argument regarding the School Board budget sounds just like your argument against the Ten Year Plan. I don't think you are furthering your cause by demanding someone provide mathematical equations and explanations to you.

I'll tell you why the school system's budget isn't simple -- it's because all school system budgets are complicated. They get federal funds. They get state funds. They get federal funds passed through the state. They get sales tax revenues. They get property tax revenues. The primary sources of state funding, the BEP, hasn't even been calculated for next year yet, meaning every school system in the state has to estimate what its share of the BEP will be.

On the spending side, they have to comply with state and federal regulations. Some, if not most, of the money they receive from the feds and the state must be spent in a certain way. They have to make sure Title I funding goes to Title I schools. Shoot, teacher salaries aren't even straightforward, and that's before the strategic compensation plan takes effect. Some of the money comes from the state. Some of it is local. Some positions get funded through state or federal grants.

Is it too complicated? Perhaps. But it is what it is, and it has nothing to do with McIntyre or McPherson (though now that I look at it, there might be some sort of Scottish plan to take over our school system).

n/t