Kingsport school officials pushing for state pre-kindergarten funding

KINGSPORT — Kingsport Board of Education members have a request for the Tennessee General Assembly: Give public school systems money for pre-kindergarten instruction in Kingsport City Schools and statewide. And a lawmaker from Middle Tennessee has plans for that to happen during this legislative session, according to a House Republican Caucus spokesman. Pre-K funding 101 The Kingsport school board discussion occurred when Janice Irvin, director of early childhood education and principal of the Palmer Early Learning Center, presented a report on the KCS early childhood programs at the last work session. That spurred a conversation about state funding for special education pre-K funding in particular and pre-K programs in general, although the two are intertwined. School officials discussed urging lawmakers to approve state funding for mandated pre-K special education programs. School board Vice President Melissa Woods said state lawmakers last session approved such funding in committees but put it "behind" the budget, meaning it never got funded. The legislation introduced in 2025, House Bill 401 and Senate Bill 679, would go to the respective body's finance committees and then the floors of the respective bodies for a vote, if funding is available. State Rep. and House Education Committee chairman Pam White, R-Murfreesboro, and state Sen. and Senate Education Committee Chairman Mark White, R-Memphis, are the sponsors of the legislation. Ben Whitehead, deputy press secretary for the House Republican Caucus, said Rep. White is looking either to get the legislation funded and move the bill forward or come up with an alternative path forward to provide state pre-K funding. No TISA for pre-K The lack of funding last year meant another year of no direct TISA or Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement funding exists, even for special education pre-K programs mandated by the federal government. TISA is the funding formula for education in Tennessee, having recently taken the place of the BEP or Basic Education Program used for more than three decades. Parents whose children are identified as needing pre-K special ed are not forced to enroll their children in the program, and it has no attendance requirement. But the school system makes efforts to identify students who would benefit from pre-K programs, even though it doesn't have enough money to serve all those younger than 5, the usual start of kindergarten. "We're not going to let up the gas on that one," Woods said during the work session. "Mandated but not funded does not work well." In a followup interview, Woods said that federal pre-K rules require special ed pre-K students be in classrooms with regular ed students, in effect pulling the special and general ed funding issue together. "Some of the classes have to have 1-to-1 ratios" of special ed and general ed students, she said. Thus, Woods said school boards and educators statewide support a stable, recurring funding stream for special ed pre-K in Tennessee. Currently, Irvin said pre-K funding is done with local funds and some grants. Irvin during the work session said she would love to have the resources to make pre-K learning available for all pre-K students. Board member Todd Golden asked how many more pre-K students could be served in such a program. Irvin said she wasn't sure, while Superintendent Chris Hampton said the incoming kindergarteners each fall usually number about 550 compared to the 400 pre-K students taught in programs at five facilities: Palmer, Jackson, Johnson, Kenney and Lincoln elementary schools. How much money? Superintendent Chris Hampton estimated $1 million to $1.2 million is spent in local funding for KCS pre-K programs. Irvin simply said, "We're almost at capacity." Statewide, Woods said the estimated cost to have the state fund pre-K through TISA for 2025-26 was at one time an estimated $140 million, but instead of going toward pre-K, she said that rough amount of money went toward funding school vouchers supported by Gov. Bill Lee. That program, called the Tennessee Education Freedom Scholarships and touted as parental and student choice, uses public tax revenues to pay for private school tuition for students whose parents apply for and receive the vouchers. An online summary of the fiscal impact of the legislation not funded in the state budget last year, is available at https://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/114/Fiscal/FM0792.pdf. It says the "state share of the increase to the TISA is estimated to be a minimum of $159,510,642" for fiscal year 2025-26 "and exceeding $164,503,325" in fiscal 2026-27 "and subsequent years." The Kingsport school board and others in the region last year went on record opposing expansion of vouchers, and the General Assembly this year is to consider more voucher funding for 2026-27. Woods said she and other education supporters statewide are "increasingly frustrated" about vouchers. One reason is the state is not keeping track of how many voucher recipients were already in private school, which the state estimated to be about two-thirds, so Lee's stated reasoning that voucher help children get out of failing public schools doesn't hold water. Also, she said private schools don't face the same standardized test performance requirements as public schools but still get the voucher funding. 'Tribe' starts in pre-K During a presentation headlined "The Tribe Starts with Us," referring to the Dobyns-Bennett High School Indians and all feeder schools as "One Tribe," Irvin explained that pre-K education focuses on phonics, reading, writing, math, science, social studies and literacy, as well as efforts to meet Tennessee Department of Education expectations. She said research shows a lot of learning growth and development occurs by age 5, the start of kindergarten; the 20 pre-K teachers and 19 instructional assistants work to help those younger students learn as their brains are still developing and growing connections, said Irvin, a former elementary school principal. "Early intervention is optimal," Woods said of serving pre-K students in general ed and special ed learning.