In the 2014 campaign – my last ever – I promised the people of Georgia that I’d use my second term to accomplish the tough-but-necessary work to modernize our 30-year-old school funding formula.
When it comes to teaching children in a 21st-century classroom, our laws are as out of date as jelly shoes, parachute pants and Commodore 64s. We must find the political will to chart a new, student-focused course that gives local authorities greater flexibility in addressing their districts’ specific needs.
Transforming education is not without its challenges, and we need Georgia’s best and brightest to help us. That’s why in January, I created our Education Reform Commission, made up of teachers, legislators, administrators, community leaders and experts to review our state’s education system.
I challenged them to think broadly, dream boldly and act with vision and courage on behalf of our children’s future.
This upcoming year’s budget, coupled with last year’s budget, represents an infusion of more than $1 billion for K-12 education and a larger percentage of the state budget devoted to K-12 education than in the past 50 years, with K-12 funding increasing 21 percent during my time in office. Unfortunately, Georgia’s student performance has not increased 21 percent during this same time.
Money alone does not result in improved student performance. Nationally, from 1970 to 2010, education spending increased 185 percent while performance on national exams remained stagnant. Our investment isn’t getting the proper returns: Only 1 in 3 Georgia students are reading proficiently by the end of third grade. This is unacceptable.
Our K-12 education system must prepare students who are college-, career- and life-ready; in an increasingly flat world these students must be able to compete with their national and international peers. Reforming Georgia’s K-12 funding formula to create a simpler, more-flexible student-based mechanism for allocating funds to districts is a key part of accomplishing these objectives.
The current formula has a number of shortcomings. It’s not student-focused. For example, some student populations are more challenging to educate, and the funding formula needs to take into account the effects of poverty. Further, it was created and passed based on the unrealistic promise that state money going to local schools would grow at a rate much higher than state revenue projections. As such, the state has never fully funded the Quality Basic Education formula.
The current funding formula does not give local school district leaders the flexibility to differentiate and innovate in many areas of education, such as recruiting and retaining the most effective teachers. Teachers should be making more money earlier in their careers; teachers should be compensated for taking on additional responsibilities like mentoring new members of the profession; great teachers shouldn’t have to leave the classroom in order to advance their careers; and effective teachers should be rewarded for the impact they are having on students, rather than only the length of time they have been employed.
Anytime you have government-budgeted funding formulas, you have entrenched interests, even when it’s obvious that changes are needed. Our responsibility is to think beyond the confines of the current system, to look into the future, and to make changes that will ensure that every taxpayer dollar put toward education in Georgia will support increases in student achievement and positive outcomes, not enable the status quo. Education funding reform will remain one of my top legislative priorities throughout my term in office.
