The GOP may not care much about truth, but parents, teachers and school officials don’t appreciate being gaslighted when it comes to their students. So here’s what their campaign video doesn’t tell you: https://twitter.com/tnhousegop/status/1357084347900297217

I said $160 million is not enough and I stand by it. Under Republicans, Tennessee has dropped to 46th in student funding. If you want to understand why 3rd graders are not at level, start here.

I said teachers earn less today than they did a decade ago. The NEA’s 2020 Rankings show that Tennessee teachers earn 2.71% less today than a decade ago after you adjust for inflation. Perhaps the cost of living hasn’t increased for Republicans. https://www.nea.org/sites/default/files/2020-10/2020%20Rankings%20and%20Estimates%20Report.pdf

Here’s what the bill ACTUALLY does for teacher pay... spoiler alert: not much!
It’s a 2% increase to the state’s share of salary funding for HALF the school year.

Math teachers, feel free to confirm: A 2% increase on 50% of your pay is ONLY a 1% increase.

The GOP is bragging about this “2% increase” is exactly why teachers feel burned and mislead. Many teachers won’t see anything close to that increase because the state only includes an increase to cover raises for 66,000 teachers.

But we have about 77,000 teachers in the state. So when districts split the money between all of the teachers, the increase dwindles away.

It’s a simple matter of priorities:
Over the last decade under GOP control, they’ve passed a BILLION dollars worth of tax breaks for Wall Street and billionaires while they’ve let TN’s student funding crash to 46th in the nation.