Will local capacity be calculated using revenue at the county level or school district level? How will the state ensure that local capacity equitably represents the capacity of a school district if a county has multiple school districts?

Note: This question is similar to our question in the TISA Analysis Tool “How if at all, will CBER revise their current index? How are they considering measuring fiscal capacity at the county versus district level and absolute versus relative funding models?”

1. Currently, the BEP uses two measures, generally referred to as CBER and TACIR, to measure fiscal capacity, both measured at the county level. TISA directs the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee (CBER) and Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) to calculate fiscal capacity based on a combined average between the two formulas. It is unclear if CBER or TACIR will shift to a district-level calculation to account for counties that contain multiple districts.  For more information see the Sycamore Institute’s Fiscal Capacity 101: A Key Factor in K-12 Education Funding in Tennessee.
2. Under TISA, CBER and TACIR will publish the calculation, the underlying data, and each district’s local fiscal capacity, increasing stakeholder transparency compared to the BEP.