Comparing School Financials and Academic Performance of the Fayette County TN School District.

This is a very important subject to explore and thoroughly understand. As a County Commissioner here in Fayette County TN, I feel that taxpayer monies must be spent wisely and provide the best return on investment (ROI) for taxpayers. Our first obligation is Public Safety, Law Enforcement, Fire Fighting, and EMS. But we have other state required obligations such as Public Works (roads) and Public Schools.

Recently, after going through the budget cycle for fiscal year 22-23, it became obvious that spending in the Public School system budget was arduous to collate and filled with categories of  funding classified as "Other" and/or "Miscellaneous." This makes it virtually impossible to figure out how and where money is actually being spent. When pressed, school officials give general descriptions and obfuscation leaving commission members confused and distrustful.

Further, teachers have been told they will not get raises because the County Commission will not allow budgeting beyond state required maintenance of effort(MOE). This fiscal year the state required MOE for Fayette County Public Schools will be nearly 11 million dollars of taxpayer funds.

In addition, School system academics, in general and 3rd Grade reading in particular, fall well behind state standards and near the bottom of the state averages. Consequently, I felt compelled to see if there was a way to quantify spending via state disclosures to help understand the ROI for taxpayers.

I found the state provides very good information which is concisely compiled in spreadsheet form. This facilitates analysis of FPCS spending for the previous fiscal year, in this case 21-22, and comparison of that spending against other districts. Here is the link to download that data:https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/education/documents/asr/ASR_2021_22_ExcelFiles.zip

The goal here was to look at several school districts in comparison to FCPS to see how spending in this county measures up to other counties with similar enrollment, funding, and funding model. The analysis includes the following counties; Fayette, Hardeman, Henry and Obion.

"Part 1" will cover the findings for the study and show some charts denoting similarities in the counties included in the analysis.

"Part 2" will look at "Teacher Pay" of the counties to understand what differences exist in pay for teachers, principals and superintendents.

"Parts 3" of the analysis will cover "Instruction" versus "Support Services" in comparison to the other counties and "Part 4" will compare "Instruction" versus "Support Services" as percentages along side the currently published 3rd Grade ELA scores.

The "Conclusion" will summarize the series and provide a key spreadsheet to exemplify the information presented.

Findings of the analysis are that Fayette County:

  - has the highest "Per Pupil Expenditures" of the counties

  - has the second highest "Local" funding of the counties

  - has the lowest paid teachers in every category

  - has the lowest paid principals

  - has the second highest paid superintendent

  - spends much less on "Instruction" than other counties

  - spends far more on "Support Services" than other counties

  - has the lowest 3rd Grade ELA scores of the counties

There are 3 charts below. These were included to create a level-set for the analysis.  First is "PER PUPIL EXPENDITURES" (PPE), which includes enrollment as of October 1 and the total amount of funds expended per pupil. Note that Fayette County has the highest PPE of all of the counties in the analysis. This is with an enrollment that is right in the middle, only 24 more than Henry County which has the lowest PPE. In "Part 2" it will become clear that while Henry County has the lowest PPE, it also has some of the highest paid teachers.

The second chart is "REVENUE - FUNDING PERCENTAGES" which shows the level of state, local and federal funding. The variance in state funding can be accounted for by differences in enrollment. It is noteworthy that Fayette County local funding is the second highest at 27.4%. This includes the MOE required funding by the County Commission according to state law. It also dispels the notion that the county is not investing in the schools. Finally, the federal funding is higher in Fayette County but only by a few percent.

The last chart is the 3rd Grade ELA scores from the current State published list. In this chart it is obvious that Fayette County is behind other counties. In "Part 4" I will show a relationship between lower scores and "Support Services" spending.

I hope this series will be enlightening and informative for the taxpayers of Fayette County.

By Mike Reeves

Armed Citizens Make Society Safer

Americans have frequently used legal guns to thwart crimes, defend themselves or their homes and even stop mass shootings. Some estimates suggest instances of firearms being used in self-defense stretch into the millions yearly. Having a gun is by far the safest course of action when people are facing a criminal by themselves. Constitutional Carry makes society safer.

One-half of the states in our union have now adopted Constitutional Carry legislation.

Most of the concealed carry laws in the country require citizens to first get permits.

But in 25 states, citizens can carry a firearm without getting permission . . . without paying a fee . . . or without going through any kind of government-imposed waiting period.

There are many reasons for a state to adopt a permitless carry law. Here are a couple.

1. Carrying a firearm is a “right,” not a “privilege”

The Second Amendment guarantees that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” This means that law-abiding citizens should not

need to beg the government for permission to carry a firearm. That would turn the “right” to bear arms into a mere “privilege.” Likewise, people should not have to be photographed, fingerprinted, or registered before they can exercise their Second Amendment rights. Criminals certainly do not jump through these “hoops.”

The Second Amendment is no different than any of the other protections enumerated in the Bill of Rights. That is, honest citizens should not need a government-issued permission slip; rather, they should be able to carry as a matter of right.

2. More Guns, Less Crime

Concealed carry in general has been very successful in the United States. The Crime Prevention Research Center reports that, while concealed carry permits tripled during the first seven years of Obama’s presidency, the murder rate dropped 16% during that same period.

This means there are millions of additional people carrying firearms outside of their homes, even as the murder rate has dropped. We are actually safer today.

Concealed carry holders are the safest segment of our society, as they commit crimes at a lower rate than police or the average member of the public. This positive record carries over especially in Constitutional Carry states. They are some of the safest states in the country. Just look at Maine and Vermont, with their low crime rates. In fact, Vermont has been a Constitutional Carry state since the beginning of our republic, and it is frequently ranked as the Safest State in the Union.

This is not an aberration. West Virginia enacted permitless carry in 2016. A half year later, law enforcement says they have “not noticed an increase in gun violence since the law went into effect six months ago.” Likewise, Alaska enacted Constitutional Carry in 2003; Arizona followed in 2010. Both states saw their murder rates decline by 30% in the first five years. (3)

No wonder that over 90% of police nationwide support the principle of concealed carry for law-abiding citizens. And law enforcement in states like Idaho and Maine have stated their public support for Constitutional Carry.

The Media Does Not Want You to Know

When a search is done of a crime where an armed citizen stopped the crime from continuing, it rarely notes that the citizen was armed. Gun crimes grab most media attention, while gun use in self-defense gets merely a fraction. The liberal media does not want you to know about armed "good Samaritans" because they hate the 2nd Amendment and want your lives to be controlled by the government. In the recent kidnapping attempt in Germantown, Tennessee where published video clearly shows an armed citizen thwart the kidnapping, it is not mentioned in the local and liberal media that the citizen was armed. They simply say, "a bystander confronted the suspects..."

VIDEO HERE: https://twitter.com/i/status/1609307701728940032

Americans have frequently used legal guns to thwart crimes, defend themselves or their homes and even stop mass shootings. Some estimates suggest instances of firearms being used in self-defense stretch into the millions yearly.

"Having a gun is by far the safest course of action when people are facing a criminal by themselves," Dr. John Lott, an economist and president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, told Fox News Digital earlier this year.

Lott believes that the media has dramatically undercounted the amount of times Americans use guns in self-defense, saying in a typical year there are only about 2,000 news stories about defensive use of guns. That number is more likely to stretch into the millions, Lott said, pointing to an average of 18 national surveys that estimated guns are used in self-defense about 2 million times per year.

Proof is in the Pudding

"The vast majority of successful self-defense cases don’t make the news," Lott said.

With that trend continuing into 2022, here are just five recent cases in which armed citizens were able to defend themselves and others this year.

• A San Antonio homeowner defended several adults and multiple small children in his home in December by confronting an intruder with his handgun.

• A Louisiana mom and Air Force veteran was sitting in gridlocked traffic on the interstate with her 2-year-old son in February when an intruder attempted to enter her vehicle, prompting her to pull out a gun.

• An armed Florida man stepped up to defend a pregnant woman who was being assaulted by the father of her unborn child in a Publix parking lot.

• A Chandler, Arizona, man was called a "good Samaritan" by police after he halted a shooting in the parking lot of an Amazon facility and likely prevented further bloodshed.

• An armed Indiana man was at the Greenwood Park Mall with his girlfriend in July when 20-year-old Jonathan Sapirman entered the mall with multiple semi-automatic rifles, a pistol and over 100 rounds of ammunition and began opening fire on patrons in the food court. Sapirman was able to fatally shoot three people and injure two others before he was confronted by 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken, who was legally carrying a pistol under Indiana's new permitless-carry law. Dicken approached the gunman from a distance of 40 yards and fired 10 rounds at Sapirman, striking him eight times and ultimately killing him.

By Admin with contributions from Fox News and The Daily Mail

The World Owes You Nothing

Out of all the things I was taught growing up, I am increasingly appreciative of the “the world doesn’t owe you anything” lesson.

I am watching as millions of young people, with more advantages than at any time in almost all of human history, are entirely convinced that they are unable to succeed because (insert political slogan here). There is a reason politicians want you to believe that you are oppressed and that the ONLY way you can project power is by becoming politically active. It’s because they benefit from that mindset.

Think about this for just a moment…

When a person becomes convinced that it is only through political action that they can become successful, the power over their entire future becomes political. Hard work, sacrifice, delayed gratification, saving, investment, all of it becomes insignificant compared to activism, protest, and political campaigns.

Politics is important in a free society to the extent that it is critical to ensuring that government stays within its proper boundaries and executes its very limited functions correctly.

But when it becomes the primary method by which people achieve their life goals, you are trading a genuinely free society for one where politicians intervene in all of your decisions and the only “freedom” you have is to cast 1 vote every 2-4-6 years for the people who will “represent” you.

And over time, it will become evident that even your vote is essentially irrelevant. Because if politicians and bureaucrats effectively control your access to medicine, education, and employment. If they can with very little difficulty deny you the right to engage in commerce, freeze your accounts or force you to do things you don’t want to, are you really “free” to even select your “representatives?” Or does it become nothing more than a democratic facade to justify a political elite running your life for you?

All this to say, that we had better get back to understanding that genuine freedom is NOT just having the right to vote, but the right to make decisions for our own lives free from government and political interference. And that means not only taking responsibility for our own lives but enjoying the process. Responsibility for one’s own life is not a burden, it’s a wonderful gift.

And when we appreciate that the “world doesn’t owe us anything,” we discover that buried beneath that harsh-sounding reality is the realization that a genuinely free society allows us to not only achieve success but in fact define it for ourselves in a way that a world dominated by political elites would never allow.

Written by: Nick Feitas