The Funding Committee of the Education Reform Commission met on Wednesday, August 12th at the State Capitol to continue discussion on a new funding formula. The meeting was broken up into two sessions. The first session was a presentation and discussion of what comprises the base formula. The second session was a presentation and discussion on categorical grants.
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State-by-State Comparison with Proposed Funding Formula
Martha Ann Todd, the Executive Director of the Governor's Office of Student Achievement, began the meeting with a presentation of data comparing Georgia's proposed new education funding formula with the formula implemented in the states of Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas, and Tennessee. Todd warned the committee that this comparison might be misleading due to the many variables that could impact the data.
Click HERE to view the comparison data.
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What is in the Proposed Funding Formula?
Dr. Susan Andrews, the Director of Special Projects for the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget joined Ms. Todd to present the preliminary proposed funding formula. The two presented committee members with the proposed weights of each aspect of the formula broken down into three parts: base funding, weighted student characteristics, and categorical grants.
Discussion by the committee mostly centered on clarification of the proposed formula. Dr. Alvin Wilbanks asked why staff chose a ratio of 1:29 for teachers per student. Ms. Todd replied that this is just for the base-funding portion of the formula. When the other weighted characteristics are factored in, this number drops. Representative Tom Dixon, the Chairman of the Education Appropriations Subcommittee, also pointed out an error with the technology specialist ratio which will be corrected by staff.
After discussion about the formula, Dr. Charles Knapp, the chairman of the Funding Committee and the full Education Reform Commission, asked committee members if they were willing to run the proposed funding formula through the model developed by staff to which all committee members agreed.
CLICK HERE to read the narative that describres each part of the proposed funding formula.
CLICK HERE to view a draft of actual dollar figures as projected by staff members of OPB and GOSA.
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Discussion on Categorical Grants
Following a break, the committee reconvened to discuss Georgia's current categorical grants: local five mill share, equalization, and sparsity grants. Dr. Andrews and Ms. Todd again led an informational presentation for committee members on what each of these items mean. CLICK HERE for the document created by OPB and GOSA staff members that outlines each of these grants.
Dr. Andrews then charged the committee with discussing how these grants could be changed to better serve the proposed funding formula. When she asked if the local five mill share and equalization grants could be combined in any way, Dr. Alvin Wilbanks, the superintendent of Gwinnett County Public Schools, warned that property wealth is one of the most consistent measures that a district has to project its next year's budget. Using different metrics in equalization, such as sales tax, would be a disadvantage to systems due to their unpredictable nature on a yearly basis.
Representative Terry England, the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, pointed out that smaller systems on the very bottom of the equalization grant list see their rank lowered due to increases in property tax revenues. He recommended softening this impact on small systems by having tax assessors value the property on a more consistent basis so these systems can accurately predict how much they will actually receive as an equalization grant.
In discussions on sparsity grants, Senator Lindsey Tippins, the Chairman of the Senate Education and Youth Committee, requested more data from staff in order to take a closer look at the different variables that affect sparsity measurements before the committee decides to change the way it is measured (if they even decide to change it at all).
CLICK HERE for the FY16 equalization grant table.
CLICK HERE for the FY16 sparsity grant table.
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Future Meeting Dates
CLICK HERE for a timeline for the Funding Committee for the remainder of the year.
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