Georgia school budgets affected by stagnating population growth
Schools are still feeling the effects of the Great Recession, which was followed by a dip in childbirths.
Georgia bases its education funding for school districts on their enrollment, and that has basically been static, said Ted Beck, chief financial officer for the Georgia Department of Education. It’s up several thousand students this school year, a blip when compared with the overall enrollment of 1.75 million. Many districts saw a decline in enrollment as well as state funding.
And about 3,500 of those new students are not attending traditional public schools, said Beck, speaking to lawmakers Tuesday at a joint session of the state Senate and House appropriations committees.
They chose schools authorized by the State Charter Schools Commission instead, he said. “More than half of the new students that the state is seeing are actually attending one of those schools.”
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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.
