Lenoir city director of schools, Jennie Barker, board chairman Matthew Coleman, mayor Tony Aikens and others have gone on and on about the needs of the Lenoir City school system. However, not one of them has mentioned a word about the needs of the county school system.

As you can see from the chart above, the county system dwarfs the city system. It stands to reason that the county system has far greater financial needs than the city system. You'll also notice, the per pupil spending is very close to the same even though the county enrollment is double the city system. In the very last cell, you'll see, per pupil local. This is the percent of local funding going to each system. County tax payers are paying 63% of all funding for the county school system while city tax payers are only paying 45% of all funding, meaning, the city system receives far more from state and federal funding than does the county.

All the uproar began when the county moved 2.5%, $30,000.00 +/-, of the ASFT to the county system. The ASFT money is the $1 per sq. ft. paid on all new residential construction in the county. These funds can only be used for education capitol projects or education debt service. The ASFT was passed by county commission in 2006. At that time, the commission voluntarily agreed to share a portion of the ASFT with the city system even though they were under no obligation to do so. The ASFT is one of the local revenues going to the school systems.

As the county budget committee worked on the 2021-2022 budget this year, one goal we had was to boost the county schools revenues where we could. We had learned that the city school system had now amassed nearly ten million dollars in their fund balance and had been able to move three million dollars into their capitol projects fund. But the big get was when we learned that the county school system would be losing $400,000.00 to the city system through the state BEP. The BEP, Basic Education Program, is the program where all school systems receive their state funding. Since Loudon County has two school systems, the funding is split between the two school systems based on student populations. According to the BEP, the student population shift between the Lenoir City system and the county schools was about 2% with the Lenoir City system picking up that 2%. That 2% equals about $400,000.00. The down side is, the county school system loses that $400,000.00 to the city. Good news for the city bad news for the county.

With all that information in hand, the budget committee voted to move the 2.5% of the ASFT to the county schools capitol projects fund and to move an additional 2.5% of the ASFT to the county system over the next three years ultimately giving the city system 5% rather 15%. Of course, the ASFT collections can fluctuate greatly depending on residential construction. This year was record high in collections.

As I said, the county sharing the ASFT is voluntary and has been going on for fourteen years and could continue indefinitely. City officials argue they are entitled to a portion of the ASFT because it's collected in the city. The question is, what local revenues does the city school system share with the county system? Answer, none. Would Ms. Barker be willing to share 15% of the Lenoir City schools sales tax revenue with the county, or even 2.5%? County residents pay an enormous amount of city sales taxes.

Another argument city officials make is, the city has a lot of county students in their system. Well, that's a two way street. The county system also has a lot of city students. At least one of the Lenoir City school board members has a child in the county school system, and that's OK too. My children attended both systems as have many other county and city residents children.

Aside from all the other positive financial reports for the city school system and the extra $400,000.00 they picked up from the county school system, Lenoir City schools should see a huge windfall of new revenue from the city's just past, 17% property tax increase. Surely the city is sharing the massive tax increase with the school system given the growth and financial needs of the school system as described by Ms. Barker.

The city and county school systems have and must always work together for the welfare of all their students. The county has generously contributed to the Lenoir City school system for years and plans to continue to do so with the city's cooperation.