Recession hit students in metro Atlanta hardest

The Great Recession hit property values disproportionately in Georgia, with school districts in metro Atlanta seeing the biggest declines in their per student net taxable "digest" values between fiscal years 2009 and 2014, according to a new report by the Center for State and Local Finance at Georgia State University.

Statewide, the per student digest dropped 17.5 percent, but in Clayton County it was 31.7 percent and in Gwinnett County it was 27.8 percent. The cities of Atlanta, Decatur and Marietta and Cobb and Fulton counties sustained similar, though lower, declines. DeKalb County was unusual in dropping less than a percentage point, according to the report.

Metro Atlanta districts represent only a handful of Georgia’s 180 districts but they educate a disproportionately large number of the state’s students.