Georgia State Senators held this September hearing on the future of school funding in the state.
Southern Educational Foundation
Decades ago, many Southern states decided to fund schools with formulas that provided additional funding for students from low-income families. This student-centric approach was a game changer for the South and greatly enhanced education and opportunity in the region.
Unfortunately, many states have since abandoned this approach and are falling behind when it comes to providing schools with the resources to keep up with the needs of their students. The demographics of our student body are changing, and research is revealing many new insights into how children learn.
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As the nation emerges from the pandemic, we have an opportunity to create a new vision for our public schools to better serve our students. Such a vision requires bold new investments in education, with a particular focus on those students who are most at risk of falling behind in school.
Most Southern states have not updated their school funding systems in more than 30 years to address all of the needs of today’s students, including tutoring, after-school programs, mental health counseling, health clinics, and social services.
Let’s take Georgia as an example. After many years of study and debate, the state is considering improvements to its school funding system. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Georgia ranks 33rd in the country with its average total spending per student of $11,200 per year. Most southern states spend even less.
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Heads of state are clearly hearing demands from parents, business leaders and educators pointing to the need for greater investment in education. Labor shortages threaten to slow the economy, and almost every high school graduate also needs a college degree or professional training for most middle-class careers.
It should be noted that nationwide, only about 40% of white working-age adults (age 25 and older), 26% of black adults, and 19% of Hispanic adults have bachelor’s degrees. For the south, the numbers are slightly lower.
Even with a current budget surplus of more than $5 billion, Georgia is one of six states whose school funding formula does not give schools additional funding based on the number of students from low-income families. The state provides “compensation grants” to fill funding gaps for rural counties that have limited ability to raise money through local taxes, but lawmakers have slashed those funds in recent years.
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Georgia education advocates propose addressing this situation by adding an “opportunity weight” to the state school funding formula to provide school districts with additional funding for students from low-income households. The change would bring schools closer to the resources they need to better serve all children.
Schools could use the additional funding from an Opportunity Weight formula to provide:
Advanced Reading and Math Lessons: More and more teachers in Georgia need reading coaches and professional development to help them incorporate the latest learning research into their classrooms.
Other high-level courses leading to college and higher-paying careers: More Georgian students could have access to advanced academic and career-oriented courses leading to two- and four-year colleges.
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Right now, many schools across the US have massive grants under the federal CARES Act, but those grants will expire in the next three years.
It is encouraging that more states have updated their school funding systems and made significant new investments in education:
Voters clearly want fairer funding for public schools. In 2017, The Education Poll of the South found that 84% of Southern voters favored “adjusting school funding systems in their states to ensure more fairness between poor and wealthier communities.”
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At a time when some of us disagree on many things, we can come together to improve education by investing more in our public schools for our most vulnerable students.
Mr. Pierce is President and CEO of the Southern Education Foundation, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that has championed fairness and equity in education for 155 years. Follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn.
