Education
Education

Georgia cut school spending deeper than most states during recession

By Ty Tagami
Dec 10, 2015

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.

Read why this matters and how it relates to a school funding proposal for Gov. Nathan Deal at myAJC.com.

About the Author

Ty Tagami is a staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Since joining the newspaper in 2002, he has written about everything from hurricanes to homelessness. He has deep experience covering local government and education, and can often be found under the Gold Dome when lawmakers meet or in a school somewhere in the state.

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