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Thursday, September 11, 2008
Down with school busing?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So DeKalb County has hit the wall — or money pit? — when it comes to busing kids to “choice” schools (if you missed today’s story, see it here).
Is that fair?
The budget issues are a real struggle right now. I sat through an 8 a.m. budget committee meeting this morning. Keep in mind:
1) The state (even before the economy tanked) continues to pay less than its own funding guidelines require.
2) This year’s budget was approved months ago, as the law requires.
3) Today, DeKalb schools’ CFO Marcus Turk said he expects DeKalb to lose another $10.5 million in state funds in a mid-year cut. Turk said he also thinks the state will additionally cut another 1 percent of DeKalb’s state school funding before the end of the school year.
Why does that hurt?
Gov. Sonny Perdue recently delayed payment from the state’s homeowners tax relief grant program (which local governments, including school systems, use to supplement budgets instead of raising taxes). For DeKalb schools, that amounts to almost $22 million.
System officials already plan on cutting jobs, particularly those at central office. At what point are they going to run out of fat and hit bone?
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