Tennessee needs to spend about $9.8 billion on repairs, upgrades, or construction to keep its K-12 public school buildings safe and conducive to learning, a new state report says.
Chalkbeat Tennesse reports that the needs equate to about $6,557 per student over five years.
The findings, published by the education research arm of the state comptroller’s office, are consistent with previous assessments of the state’s public infrastructure needs.
Tennessee’s nearly 1,700 traditional school campuses are generally in good or excellent condition, but the report says more than half of the state’s 95 counties need to prioritize at least one costly capital project for their students, whether it’s building a new school, adding classroom space to an existing campus, or making upgrades like new roofs, plumbing, and heating and cooling systems.
With rising construction costs, momentum has been building among state lawmakers to identify a new revenue source to help local governments and taxpayers shoulder the costs of school maintenance and construction. Those needs escalated in September when flooding from Hurricane Helene caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to roads, bridges, utilities, and schools in northeast Tennessee.
In a separate infrastructure report released in January, the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations identified 18 school buildings, including 11 in Nashville, that are in poor condition.
The needs are acute in the Memphis-Shelby County district, which is the state's largest system and has some of the state’s oldest school buildings.
No buildings in Memphis-Shelby County Schools are rated in poor condition, but 45 are considered in fair condition. That means they are structurally sound but require maintenance or repairs to meet building code or functional upgrades to improve their use.
Whether it’s air conditioning problems in the summer, heating issues in the winter, or water fountains and intercom systems that don’t work in any season, Memphis school leaders say a new long-term funding source is imperative for addressing those needs.
Possible revenue sources include sales and use taxes; tax levies on the purchase of alcohol, nicotine products, and marijuana; as well as proceeds from lotteries or use taxes on timber logging, oil and gas extraction, and public land sales.
