ITS TIME THAT GOVERNOR LEE AND OUR LEGISLATORS VAULE OUR CHILDREN AS MUCH AS WE DO!

We are calling for improved funding for Tennessee public schools because of these issues among students:

- 1 in 10 children ages 12 to 17 have expressed a depressive episode in the last 12 months.
- The Governor’s own data shows that 1 in 5 children has a mental health diagnosis in a given year.
- In 2019, over 200,000 of our students had a chronic illness or disability diagnosis.
- African American children are suspended 3 times more often than their white, Asian, Latinx or Indigenous peers.
- Tennessee continues to spend almost 3 times the money, per capita, on incarceration as it does on public education.

And yet, Tennessee is 43rd in the US in public school funding, and ranks at the bottom in the expenditure of taxable resources on public education.

Support legislation to fund more social workers, more counsellors and more nurses in our schools! Even though our long-term goal is to find a more student-focused formula to fund education, passing this legislation will be a huge first step!