AJC: $112 million eliminated from new state budget.’Equalization’ designed to add what wealthier districts can afford.
Some tactics need to be categorized as "it works every time". In the case of the claims made by the Black Establishment that preside over Metro-Atlanta school systems the claim of "funding shortfalls" as compared to their wealthier neighbors always seems to work with a populace that is not inclined to scrutinize their claims.
Where as the metro Atlanta school systems are able to draw about $10,000 per student from their tax base......the TRULY impoverished school district in Pelha, GA can only muster $666 by comparison.
I am fully supportive of the equalization plan being spread throughout the state. I am made to question why certain operatives in problem plagued school systems in Metro Atlanta keep pointing to FUNDING SHORTFALLS as the reason why they can't produce better results.
Few people will ever bother to inspect the bundle of economic theories and policies that they bring to the table which impact their revenue and tax base.
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ajc.com > Metro
Poor schools won’t get extra funds
The “equalization” cuts come as some districts want to fight over what they see as inadequate funding.
By James Salzer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, May 31, 2009
A fund designed to help poor school districts provide an education comparable to what’s available in wealthier systems was slashed $112 million this year by Georgia lawmakers looking for ways to balance an unsteady state budget.
The more than 20 percent reduction in so-called “equalization” funding for the fiscal year that starts July 1 is just the latest blow to poor school systems already slashing staff and salaries, crowding classrooms and killing extracurricular programs.
Oglethorpe County Superintendent Jeffrey Welch said his 2,500-student district near Athens will have to make some tough choices after seeing its “equalization” funding cut 23 percent.
“This isn’t an education budget, we’re moving toward a survival budget,” Welch said.
The “equalization” cuts, which were approved in April with little notice, come as some districts are considering restarting a legal fight over what they see as an inadequate school funding system that leaves children behind in poor and rural areas of Georgia.
“It looks to me with the lawsuit still out there, you would think this equalization cut would become Exhibit A,” said Herb Garrett, executive director of the Georgia School Superintendents Association. “If you’re going to cut, why not do it across the board? Why do it to the 75 percent of districts who can least afford it?”
Aides to Gov. Sonny Perdue, who proposed the equalization fund be cut from $548 million to $436 million, said the reductions were an attempt to hold down skyrocketing expenses in a program that is costing taxpayers about twice as much as it did in 2004.
They noted that because of a funding formula Perdue wants to change, much of the money is going to fast-growing suburban counties like Gwinnett rather than poor rural districts. Without the cuts, “equalization” grants would have topped $600 million in the upcoming fiscal year.
“That kind of growth is not sustainable,” said Bert Brantley, the governor’s spokesman.
School funding, particularly for dozens of poor, rural systems across the state, has been a sore spot for years.
About 135 districts get “equalization” money on top of their regular state allocation to help address the financial disparity between wealthy and poor systems. It all comes out of the taxpayer-funded state general fund, which next year will allocate $8 billion for k-12 education in Georgia. For some small school systems, “equalization” money can account for 10 to 25 percent of their annual budget.
Schools are funded with a mix of state, federal and local tax dollars and funding varies widely between counties that have a large tax base and those that do not. Rural systems generally can’t raise as much in property taxes as urban and suburban districts. For example, in 2008, while Atlanta’s system was raising about $10,000 locally per student, the city of Pelham in southwest Georgia was raising $666 per child, according to state reports.
Rural school systems across the country have won several lawsuits to force states to increase funding for poor districts. In Georgia, a group of small-town parents and school districts filed suit in 2004, claiming the state was violating the Georgia Constitution by not spending enough money to provide an adequate education.
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