Will Tennessee reject federal funding for education? Lawmakers first meeting is Monday

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Monday, lawmakers will be holding their first meeting to discuss the possibility of rejecting federal education funding.

Tennessee currently gets a little over $1.5 billion from the federal government for education.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton first raised the concept of not accepting federal funding at the beginning of the last legislative session. He later set up a task force to explore the topic.

The task force will be meeting at 2 p.m. Monday in the Cordell Hull Building for the first time.

Republicans said it is important to evaluate what strings are attached to federal dollars before taking that money, while Democrats said the state cannot fund schools with the money it has alone.

Metro Public Schools receive the most federal funding out of any school district in the state, around $202 million. However, that only accounts for just over 25 percent of its total budget.

We found there are a number of school districts in our viewing area that get more than 60 percent of their budget from the federal government, including Houston, Hickman, DeKalb and Bedford counties.

Monday’s meeting is open for the public to listen in on.