EDITORIAL: School funding committee makes its recommendations
As some people are aware -- mostly in the education arena -- Gov. Nathan Deal appointed an Education Reform Commission earlier this year. Its charge is to look at public education in the state and ways to make it better. Since the governor’s office isn’t steeped in educational issues one of the primary focuses of this body is school funding. However, there are a few problems pointed out by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute that should give pause to the process.
Unlike the comprehensive study undertaken to discover the transportation needs of the state that led to tax increases of almost $1 billion annually, there has been no such study into what it takes to deliver a world-class education. And there is another telling constraint. Whatever the committee comes up with, it has to fit into the 2016 budget that has school austerity cuts of $466 million. And while the committee meeting of Aug. 27 made some recommendations to change the way the state allocates money to the 180 school districts, there is no more money, and that leaves, according to the GBPI, the austerity cuts in place. According to the GBPI, “Georgia’s schools suffered through a cumulative shortfall of $8.6 billion over the past 14 years. Georgia ranked 26th nationally in spending per student the last year the QBE formula was fully funded in 2002. The state fell to 37th by 2013.”
Where is the funding committee looking to save money? Teacher salaries. It’s no secret the governor’s staff is of the belief that teachers with advanced degrees or additional training are no more effective in the classroom than their colleagues without them, and that’s why they have proposed moving the salary structure in another direction. This new plan, each district would have to develop its own, would apply to all new teachers. Those teachers already employed would have a choice of being compensated as they are now or under the new plan.
The governor is to be complimented. After 30 years, it was time to review the 30-year-old Quality Basic Education funding formulas. But you have to know how much something costs before deciding how to pay for it and you can’t pay for it on the backs of teachers.
This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 9:28 PM with the headline "EDITORIAL: School funding committee makes its recommendations ."