TISA review committee gets primer on Tennessee school‑funding formula and fiscal capacity; allows recordings as minutes

The State Board of Education’s TISA review committee convened its first meeting and heard a detailed overview of Tennessee’s new school‑funding formula, TISA, including how base funding, weighted adjustments and fiscal capacity determine local and state shares of education dollars.

Chair Bob Eby, who leads the committee, opened the meeting and asked staff to confirm attendance and procedures. The members then approved a procedural motion allowing recorded committee sessions to stand as the official minutes for the year; the motion passed by roll call with all recorded members voting yes.

The central presentation came from Mary Ann Dursky, chief financial officer for the Tennessee Department of Education, and Karen Burkholder, TDOE director of strategy, who laid out TISA’s pyramid of base, weighted and direct funding and the outcomes layer that awards student‑level performance bonuses. Dursky said the state is investing $125,000,000 to raise minimum teacher pay and that, "as of July 1, every teacher in the state will make at least $50,000." She also noted the base per‑pupil amount used in the formula for the coming year, stating on the slide that the base would be $7,530.

The presenters described…