The Governor's Task Force
on Education Funding
On August 25, the day before its first meeting, PAGE leaders were briefed on the governor’s task force by its chair, state board of education member Dean Alford and state board chairperson Wanda Barrs. The two shared the purpose of the task force, its goals and its general structure.
Goal - Creation of a new funding mechanism for education that is:
- Simplified
- Transparent
- Equitable
- Focused on Student Achievement
- Short-term - address QBE funding issues - (Committee)
Long-term - create a new funding mechanism for Investing in Educational Excellence - (Four Committees)
- Statewide Dialogue via Community Conversation Groups
- Develop Consensus Requirements for Educational Excellence
- Develop a Cost Model for Educational Excellence
- Develop Strategic Multiples (Addressing Equity Issues and Special Student/Program Categories)
Members of the task force include:
- Jennifer Albritton, Taylor County, Budget Director
- Dean Alford, Task Force Chair, Rockdale County, State Board of Education
- Bill Barr, Henry County, former Superintendent of McDuffie County Schools
- Wanda Barrs, Task Force Chair, Bleckley County, State Board of Education
- Stuart Bennett, Fayette County, Chief Deputy State School Superintendent
- Shirley Brooks, Ben Hill County, Chair, Ben Hill Board of Education
- Tim Connell, Gwinnett County, Director of the Office of Planning and Budget
- Kathy Cox, Fayette County, State Superintendent of Schools
- Stephen Dolinger, Fulton County, President of the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education
- David Fields, Chatham County, Budget Director
- Bill Fuqua , Lowndes County, Chair, Lowndes County Board of Education
- William Hunter, Brantley County, Superintendent of Brantley County Schools
- Jeanette Jamieson, Stephens County, Georgia State Representative
- Brian Kemp, Clarke County, Georgia State Senator
- Guy Middleton, Lumpkin County, former Georgia State Senator
- Victor Morgan, Bartow County, Assistant Superintendent
- Sandra Neal, Crawford County, former teacher, principal, and superintendent
- Franklin Perry, Sumter County, Superintendent of Sumter County Schools
- Catherine Reeves, Fulton County, Chair, Fulton Board of Education
- Holly Robinson, Fulton County, Senior Vice-President of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation
- Gary Smith, Dougherty County, private business
- Gwendolyn Tucker, Warren County, Chair, Warren County Board of Education
- Ken White, Whitfield County, private business
- J.A. Wilbanks, Gwinnett County, Superintendent of Gwinnett County Public Schools
Original press release regarding Task Force
Tim Callahan, Public Relations Director
Professional Association of Georgia Educators
For nearly as long as the Quality Basic Education Act (QBE), the primary funding mechanism for Georgia’s public schools, has been in place there has been squabbling about the adequacy of funds it provides, the equity with which funds are distributed and the inability of the formula to keep up with inflation and student growth.
The many attempts to address these issues, nearly all of them half measures, collectively may have made things worse. Previous "blue-ribbon" panels have studied these issues and one of the more recent concluded that state funding had fallen approximately $800 million behind. This, as you may have already guessed, was a non-starter and the report sank quietly.
Governor Perdue’s task force begins its work August 26. We would think that the questions before it could be easily stated:
- What can we agree is the correct annual cost to educate a student?
- What are the appropriate "weights" to assign to specific high cost programs and students?
- What can we agree is the appropriate ratio of state and local funding?
- How can we account for growth and inflation?
- What is the optimum and equitable way to raise funds for public education in 180 different school systems, each "wealthy" differently?
Several years ago, PAGE sponsored a series of meetings with panels of top economic leaders, school finance experts and others tackling issues similar to those before the governor’s panel. We made these recommendations:
- Review every funding component to establish current cost, building in annual inflationary adjustments.
- Stop using property values as the sole determinant of local “wealth.” Instead consider a more sophisticated model that takes into account incomes and expenditures within a community, such as sales of goods and services, rentals, tourism, etc.
- Build into the formula an "equity factor" computed for each system based on a revised definition of local wealth.
- Provide systems a range of funding options consistent with each community’s wealth. Voters can decide to fund schools from a mix of sources such as property, sales, income or tourist taxes - whichever are most appropriate for their unique economic situation.
- How intently and objectively will the task force listen to Georgia school, community, business and political leaders?
- Will they seek input from national experts on the complicated issues of public funding?
- How comprehensively will the task force delve into key questions?
- Will everything be "on the table"?
- Will they develop a final report with substantive recommendations to the governor, the legislature and the public?
- Will they provide for the near-term as well as the long-term?
- How open are the governor and the legislature to new financial models?
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PAGE, Georgia’s largest organization for professional educators, is a nonunion, independent association of more than 57,000 teachers, administrators and support personnel members working to promote better education for the children of Georgia.