Education reform in Georgia won’t come cheap, according to the committee charged with recommending a new way to distribute state tax dollars for public education.
Gov. Nathan Deal empanelled an Education Reform Commission to suggest ways to overhaul the state’s educational system, and one of its subcommittees looking into funding has discussed ideas that could cost an extra quarter billion dollars.
It’s a tiny percentage of the state’s overall annual spending, which runs into the billions, but it’s still $243 million, said Charles Knapp, whom Deal appointed to chair the commission and its funding subcommittee. He said he didn’t like sending the governor a proposal with such a big deficit.
But fellow committee member Jack Hill, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said it would be a “positive” thing to pledge any future growth in funding to the recommended changes.
“One of the mixed messages that we’ve been sending is that we’re going to make positive changes that you’re going to like without spending more money,” said Hill, R-Reidsville. “I don’t think anybody’s bought that.”
Those discussions Wednesday preceded a report to the full commission Thursday, when the public was allowed to comment.
Rebecca Johnson, a Cobb County teacher and a member of a group on Facebook that claims 21,000 educators among its members, complained that the funding subcommittee had sought no counsel from teachers. Johnson read a statement from the group, which goes by the acronym TRAGIC, that said some of the ideas so far, such as eliminating reimbursements to school districts based on teacher experience and level of education, would destabilize the teaching ranks.
“The children of Georgia will certainly not benefit from a revolving door of teachers,” Johnson said.
While the funding subcommittee has not sought input from teachers, other subcommittees have, including one on teacher compensation that held meetings around the state. That group learned what many already knew: Teachers don’t expect high pay, but they do hope to be able to pay their mortgages.
The funding subcommittee was asked by Deal to accomplish something many similar panels have tried to do before and failed: re-write the formula established in the 1980s to divide up state money between school districts.
It’s been clear since last spring that some districts would get more money while others would get less. It wasn’t necessarily clear, though, that the recommendations would cost nearly as much as the existing shortfall in educational funding. Georgia has been shorting the existing school formula for about a decade, and an “austerity cut” this year was nearly half a billion dollars.
About a third of the extra cost would come from a change to the way school districts are subsidized for teacher pay. Districts that would get less under the new formula would get a supplemental “hold harmless” amount in the early years. There would be a similar temporary supplement for districts that would lose money under other elements of the formula. Other parts of the plan would add another $66 million.
These expenses don’t take into account the work of the other subcommittees, including one that has recommended higher pay and more slots for pre-kindergarten teachers, a proposal expected to cost tens of millions of dollars.
“It is going to cost some money,” Knapp admitted to the full commission on Thursday. He put the overall price tag somewhere around $300 million, though much of this would be up to lawmakers and the governor to sort out.
Final proposals are due near year’s end, and then Deal would take them to the Georgia General Assembly. The governor has said he will call a special joint legislative committee to review and act on the recommendations.
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