Limited budgets add to struggle

pething101 · May 22, 2005

Limited budgets add to struggle

An interesting point from an series of articles in the local fishwrap.

Cumberland County Superintendent Bill Harrison was the superintendent in Hoke County when the Leandro suit was filed. At the time, Harrison said, Hoke County spent $332 per student in county money. Orange County was spending $1,700 per student, he said.
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Ismitje · May 23, 2005

Those numbers are startling. I wish they had comparable figures for the last budget cycle - FY 05, rather than the 1993 or 1994 numbers correlating to when the suit was first filed.

Switching to a funding model that is not based so extensively on property taxes would be challenging. But keeping it as is ensures that wealthier counties will always fund education at a higher level.

dj43 · May 23, 2005

Ismitje said:

Those numbers are startling. I wish they had comparable figures for the last budget cycle - FY 05, rather than the 1993 or 1994 numbers correlating to when the suit was first filed.

Switching to a funding model that is not based so extensively on property taxes would be challenging. But keeping it as is ensures that wealthier counties will always fund education at a higher level.
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Many states have taken steps to supplement low-wealth districts out of the General Funds but it is up to the local district to file for the extra. With the complexities of the overall process, this is not as easy as it sounds. Add to that the fact that local school boards are often a reflection of the local community and you wind up with people who are often baffled by the process and simply don't make the effort needed to secure the funding. In other words, the board members are usually well-meaning, but not particularly financially savvy enough to fight for what should be rightfully theirs. Two local districts here where we live are perfect examples of this; more money IS available but the board has not made the effort to get it. Instead they sit back and complain about "lack of funding."

Don't know that any of this fits the situation cited in this article but I'll bet it would be interesting to do some further research on what really is available. Our local district stands to pick up just over $200/student, $4.6 million this fall just for filing an application that should have been filed in 1998.