The cost of energy is an important component in the budgets of local school districts. The increase in the price of oil and other sources of energy earlier this past year caused some local education leaders to contemplate drastic actions such as a shift to a four-day school week in order to balance their budgets. Although the price of energy has dropped precipitously in the last few months, the earlier energy-price bubble exposed a potential problem for school operating budgets in the future. The Tennessee (TN) Commissioner of Education and his staff are seeking more and better information about the potential impact of higher energy costs. The purpose of this technical information brief is to understand the proportion of TN school budgets devoted to energy and to identify characteristics of districts where the impact will be disproportionately large (e.g., rural or large-area districts).
The Cost of Energy for Local Education Agencies in Tennessee