Georgia cut school spending deeper than most states during recession

Georgia had some of the biggest school budget cuts in the nation during and after the Great Recession, according to a new report that also said the state swung the most in the other direction this year, adding proportionately more money than most, if not all.

The report that the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released Thursday says Georgia had the fourth largest proportional cut in state per-student funding from 2008 to 2014, with Arizona cutting deepest followed by Alabama and Idaho.

The situation changed significantly by this year, with Georgia putting proportionately more money back into education than any of the 46 other states for which data were available, the report says. The inflation adjusted increase was 9.1 percent.