Volunteer Public Education Trust Fund
— Acceptance of Funds — Accounts — Investments and Expenditures
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There is established within the state treasury a special trust fund for education known as the volunteer public education trust fund that shall be administered by the state treasurer and the commissioner of education as trustees.
The state treasurer, on behalf of the fund, is authorized to accept money contributed to the fund from any individual, association, trust, corporation, partnership, firm, venture, agency, organization, governmental entity, or political subdivision, including, but not limited to, state-appropriated funds or monetary gifts, grants, or any other monetary aids received by the program from public or private sources.
The state treasurer may accept funds from a private or public entity that may be earmarked for a specific purpose and for a specific local education agency (LEA), as defined in § 49-3-302, and the income from these funds must be disbursed to the LEA in the name of the private or public entity as long as the funds are used for public education.
For all funds deposited into the trust fund, the income from the funds may be expended by the trustees in accordance with the trustees' operational guidelines for the expenditure of income in an amount certain to one (1) or more LEAs, subject to the earmarked purpose of the money contributed to the fund.
The trust fund must be divided into the following two (2) general accounts: one (1) for public funds and one (1) for private funds.
Each general account must be divided into subaccounts for each LEA to the extent that the trust fund money is allocated for a specific LEA.
Corpus from the fund must be allocated to each subaccount in an amount sufficient to fund a public education purpose or project in accordance with the expenditure authorization from the trustees. All income on the corpus allocated must be paid to the subaccount.
Income on the remaining corpus in each general account that has not been allocated must be maintained in a special reserve at the general account level.
Income in excess of the funding for a subaccount must be maintained in a special reserve at the subaccount level.
Regardless of the allocation of funds, all moneys in the trust fund may be commingled for investment purposes with other trust funds and other funds subject to investment by the state treasurer in accordance with the trustees' investment policy and applicable law.
Funds in the special trust fund for education established by this part shall be invested and reinvested by the state treasurer. The trust may invest in any security or investment in which the Tennessee consolidated retirement system is permitted to invest, subject to the requirements of other applicable law; provided, that investments by the trust must be governed by the investment policies and guidelines adopted by the trustees in accordance with this part.
The trust income must be expended only in accordance with §§ 49-3-404 and 49-3-405 and to pay expenses incurred in administering and investing the trust assets. The corpus, as set forth in § 49-3-405, shall not be expended for any purpose. Under no circumstances shall any of the money in the fund be used for any purpose other than public education.