Gwinnett, Clayton and Paulding counties will receive majority of Deal's $40 million school funding (Atlanta: sales, foreclosure)

[LynnHarris]

"Gov. Nathan Deal won praise in January when he announced plans to plow an additional $40 million into struggling Georgia school districts that are having trouble raising enough money to educate their children.

What neither the governor nor applauding lawmakers knew at the time was that virtually the entire increase next year will flow to Gwinnett, Clayton and Paulding County schools.

And many of the small-town systems that most Georgians would call poor are getting nothing..."


Equalization fund: Some schools more equal than others | www.ajc.com

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by LynnHarris

"Gov. Nathan Deal won praise in January when he announced plans to plow an additional $40 million into struggling Georgia school districts that are having trouble raising enough money to educate their children.

What neither the governor nor applauding lawmakers knew at the time was that virtually the entire increase next year will flow to Gwinnett, Clayton and Paulding County schools.

And many of the small-town systems that most Georgians would call poor are getting nothing..."


Equalization fund: Some schools more equal than others | www.ajc.com

Most of Gwinntt's school upgrades and technology upgrades come from the SPLOST tax. They also haven't been buying as many books lately from the financial pinch.

It is ultimately the property tax decrease... not necessarily what people's incomes are.

but I will say the title seems to be a little misleading

Gwinnett, Paulding, and Clayton receive just under 29% of the whole state's total equalization grants.


I think ultimately, rural school systems in this state need a carefully targetting combining of school districts into multi-county school districts.

The basic problem is efficiency doesn't work well when you have a high school of only 500 students. You can't have a larger variety of classes, education levels, AP courses, etc... Granted that isn't to say rural Georgia doesn't need equalization grants too.

[LynnHarris]

I'm not sure if I truly understand how all this works in terms of allocating school funding to specific counties -- however, I do wish that some of the rural counties could receive additional school funding.

[arjay57]

Sounds like a poke in the eye to non-ATL Georgians.

[ChefRamsey]

But you could also argue that most of the population resides in ATL "Georgia". Most of the feeder schools for colleges and universities reside in Gwinnett and surrounding areas.

If you use math and statistics, it makes perfect sense. If you have 5 apples and 10 people, 5 people aren't going to get apples. There isn't enough money right now.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by LynnHarris

I'm not sure if I truly understand how all this works in terms of allocating school funding to specific counties -- however, I do wish that some of the rural counties could receive additional school funding.

The best way to explain it is to focus in on this statement from the article

"Rick Cost, the school system’s chief financial officer, noted that in 2007, Gwinnett schools enrolled 9.1 percent of all students in Georgia. Its tax digest was 8.9 percent of the state’s total. Next year, he said, Gwinnett will enroll 9.9 percent of all students in the state, but its tax digest will amount to 8 percent of the state’s total."

It is that difference between the percentage of students and the percentage of the tax digest that cause this.

Since most of the operations for schools comes from property taxes, the equalization is designed to help districts that have more students, than they do taxable property.

The problem Gwinnett has is that is it so large, it is a destination county for people with kids (so we have a higher than average population in schools), Dekalb's and Clayton's woes are pushing families into other areas of town...including Gwinnett. Then that is on top of the foreclosure crises, which reduced home (property) values.

I bet all of this will errode away as other school systems fix their problems, improve, and home values rebound more.

What is different is we have the ability to build a more efficient system, since the system is so large (scales of economy) and we probably have a greater advantage in raising tax revenue through sales taxes.


Atlanta would be a polar opposite. The city has fewer students, but a much larger property tax base for schools....especially from commercial owners.

[LynnHarris]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

The best way to explain it is to focus in on this statement from the article

"Rick Cost, the school system’s chief financial officer, noted that in 2007, Gwinnett schools enrolled 9.1 percent of all students in Georgia. Its tax digest was 8.9 percent of the state’s total. Next year, he said, Gwinnett will enroll 9.9 percent of all students in the state, but its tax digest will amount to 8 percent of the state’s total."

It is that difference between the percentage of students and the percentage of the tax digest that cause this.

Since most of the operations for schools comes from property taxes, the equalization is designed to help districts that have more students, than they do taxable property.

The problem Gwinnett has is that is it so large, it is a destination county for people with kids (so we have a higher than average population in schools), Dekalb's and Clayton's woes are pushing families into other areas of town...including Gwinnett. Then that is on top of the foreclosure crises, which reduced home (property) values.

I bet all of this will errode away as other school systems fix their problems, improve, and home values rebound more.

What is different is we have the ability to build a more efficient system, since the system is so large (scales of economy) and we probably have a greater advantage in raising tax revenue through sales taxes.


Atlanta would be a polar opposite. The city has fewer students, but a much larger property tax base for schools....especially from commercial owners.

Overall, I agree with your point of view and explanation. Logic aside however, I guess I still feel sorry for the students and teachers in the rural counties who could probably use an infusion of funding.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by ChefRamsey

But you could also argue that most of the population resides in ATL "Georgia". Most of the feeder schools for colleges and universities reside in Gwinnett and surrounding areas.

If you use math and statistics, it makes perfect sense. If you have 5 apples and 10 people, 5 people aren't going to get apples. There isn't enough money right now.

I don't know if your numbers are correct but let's assume they are.

This would be a great opportunity for us big urban counties to jump in there on behalf our of country cousins.

"Come on, Gov," we could say, "Times are tough for us but our counties are huge and we can find a way to dig a little deeper and get through this mess. How about sending that money to some of the other counties that don't have the same deep pockets we do?"

Can you imagine how much goodwill that would build and how it would show the rest of the state that we Atlantans are not just concerned about ourselves? Man, oh man.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I don't know if your numbers are correct but let's assume they are.

This would be a great opportunity for us big urban counties to jump in there on behalf our of country cousins.

"Come on, Gov," we could say, "Times are tough for us but our counties are huge and we can find a way to dig a little deeper and get through this mess. How about sending that money to some of the other counties that don't have the same deep pockets we do?"

Can you imagine how much goodwill that would build and how it would show the rest of the state that we Atlantans are not just concerned about ourselves? Man, oh man.

well ultimately this past decade that happened with transportation spending via the GRIP program, yet the pervasive attitude in South Georgia and Georgia's 2nd tier large cities seem to be Atlanta take up all the attention and resources.

I think it was something like 17% of the states total income comes from metro Atlanta and is spent outside metro Atlanta, while we completely cover the cost of the money spent inside the metro area.

[arjay57]

I understand, CW, but the attitudes you mention underline the point I'm making. We're more than carrying our weight, but we clearly been doing a poor job of getting that message across.

That's why I say we need to really dig in and show the rest of Georgia that we're on their side and that we are in fact helping them.

Sure there are historical frictions between Atlanta and the rest of Georgia. But we can't just let it lie there. Frankly, we are the only ones in the position to heal that rift. Sitting back and hollering (and I don't mean you personally) about how the state hates Atlanta isn't moving the ball forward one inch.