Georgia

The 153^rd General Assembly of Georgia concluded it’s forty days of legislative session on March 26, 2015.¹ This was a “carry over to even year,” meaning some legislation will be carried over to the next even-year session, 2016, when the voters will elect members of the legislature. This paper summarizes the bills passed during the 2015 legislative session pertaining to education funding priorities, changes to the education funding formula, state issues affecting education funding, and trends diverting funds away from public education.

Funding priorities

As constitutionally required for passage, Governor Deal signed The Budget for Fiscal-Year 2016 on May 11, 2015, with only one vetoed line item.² Funding priorities as highlighted by The House Budget and Research Office includes an infusion of 58 percent ($574.7 million) of all new revenue into K-12 education, $165.1 million to fully fund Quality Basic Education (QBE), $772,058 allocated to the Regional Education Services Agencies (RESA) to support their base grants and training of Positive Behavior and Intervention Support trainers, $1.2 million was allocated for Agriculture and Career/Technical Education, and $6.5 million to expand the reading mentor program.³ The funding priorities for higher education include providing 12.% ($124 million) of all new revenue for higher education needs, $2.5 million to establish the Georgia Film Academy, $520,000 in additional funding for the Agricultural Experiment Station, $300,000 to hire research positions for the Forestry Cooperative Extension, and $18.3 million in additional funds for the Accel program.⁴

Changes in the funding formula

The Quality Basic Education program (QBE) is the funding formula used to distribute funds to the local districts from the state for K-12 education. $165.1 million was added to the funding formula to fully fund the enrollment growth of 1.33 percent, increase teacher salaries, fund charter school grants, and supplement the State Commission Charter School.⁵ There was a $9.6 million adjustment to the QBE Local Five Mill Share program to provide for school systems with a deduction in local property tax revenue.⁶ In higher education, $56.4 million was added to the formula earnings based on enrollment and increased square footage and $14.4 million was added for merit-based pay adjustments, employee recruitment, and retention initiatives.

Issues affecting education funding

During Governor Deal’s reelection campaign, he stressed his intent to reform the public school funding formula, QBE, which was enacted in 1986. The Education Reform Commission was created during this legislative session, whose charge is to reformulate the school funding formula.⁷ The Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education (GPEE) cite funding reform as the number five issue in their Top Ten Issues to Watch in 2015. According to GPEE, Governor Deal is using the results of a 2012 study Smarter Funding, Better Outcomes conducted by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce to identify needed changes with the QBE.⁸ The study recommends moving toward a student-based or weighted student funding formula, 90–95% of the state funding should be directed to the student-based formula, and building a data and reporting system that links funding, expenditures, and student outcomes.⁹

Trends diverting funds away from public education

Governor Deal created the Georgia Opportunity School District (OSD), which passed the state legislature this session. Because it requires a constitutional change to allow the OSD to receive, control and expend state, federal and local funds, it will go before Georgia’s voters on the November 2016 ballet. The OSD would allow the Governor to take over schools he designates as failing. The Governor will appoint a superintendent to the OSD who will report directly to the Governor. The OSD will “receive funding equal to the state and federal funding as well as an amount determined by OSD for each student enrolled in such school equal to a proportional share of local revenue from the local school system in which the school is located.”¹⁰ Furthermore, the OSD may withhold up to 3% of the schools funding to cover administrative costs.¹¹

P-12 Per-pupil expenditure: $9,291^12...