On January 17, 2027, current Senator Marsha Blackburn will be sworn in as the first female governor of Tennessee. Not who I would have chosen, but you do you, Volunteer State. Blackburn is a fairly vocal proponent of current Governor Bill Lee’s school voucher grift, I mean, scheme, I mean system, so the state’s students, educators, and parents can probably expect more of the same. We will know more once Blackburn has selected her team, but I wouldn’t gamble my nest egg on a sudden and profound investment in education in the state.
Still, there’s always 2030. The bright side, I suppose, is that the state already ranks dead last in the nation for spending on students in grades K-12.
It almost seems as though a blindingly obvious solution to a vast array of problems facing the state could be addressing that dismal 50th-place statistic. What if we funded the schools? I know Memphis is hardly working with a budgetary surplus, that the state government is rarely quick to send funds our way, and that the nation’s attention and investments often flow elsewhere.
Eventually, though, Tennessee will get it together, and our governor will be qualified to do more than smile and quote from the party playbook. When that day comes, we need to have a list of demands ready to go, and fully funding the education system needs to be at the top of the list.
School is where we can find and fix the root ailment that causes so many of the other problems we discuss from the pulpit and the campaign stump. Emotional regulation, simple social skills, basic literacy, and the ability to do simple arithmetic can take someone a surprisingly long way, but those skills aren’t always taught and supported at home. That kind of care isn’t free, though.
“As governor, one of the first things that I will do is create Tennessee’s very own version of DOGE so that we can slash wasteful spending and have more space in our budget for what truly matters, like education,” Blackburn told Chalkbeat Tennessee.
DOGE cut money from the national education budget, it might be worth noting.
Teachers bring in snacks that they purchase with their own money to help feed hungry students. They teach students so much more than academic subjects — they’re teaching these kids how to regulate their emotions, behave in public, and navigate social situations. It’s hard, thankless work that includes so many social skills not on any curriculum and lasts long after the last bell has rung.
School teaches so many foundational skills, skills that are needed not just to get a job, but to successfully stand in line at Cash Saver or the post office without annoying your fellow human beings.
How do we improve literacy and reading comprehension? How do we address sinking test scores? How do we attract business to Memphis? How do we stop crime before it happens? Maybe all these questions have the same answer. Maybe we should throw money at the education system, the same way we would address almost any other problem.
New Mexico has tried that approach, with some early success, all with the idea of attracting more business in the science and technology sectors with their impressively educated populace.
Why not try it? What’s the worst that could happen, some Memphis kid discovers a previously unknown love for some art form in an elective that might have been cut otherwise, and becomes the next Jimmie Lunceford or Aretha Franklin or William Eggleston or Penny Hardaway or … you get the idea.
We may be looking at another four years of school voucher plans and dwindling education budgets, but Memphis and its people have always been skilled at working with a shoestring budget. One day, though, I hope that our local educators won’t be forced to make miracles happen on a regular basis. They deserve to receive the same level of support they give our kids.
Jesse Davis is a former Flyer staffer; he writes a monthly Books feature for Memphis Magazine. His opinions, such as they are, include the deeply held belief that he would not have been able to write this column were it not for the effort of a series of severely overworked and underpaid educators.
