Schools
School Funding Woes at 'A Tipping Point'
Parents heard some grim numbers and a call to action at a Walton High School meeting earlier this week.
Judy McNeill tried to keep her composure as she read a letter from a longtime Walton High School teacher who had decided to retire last spring.
McNeill, the Walton principal, said the unnamed educator felt she was no longer effective helping struggling students because of larger and larger classes she was asked to teach:
"Sheer class size challenges that possibility," McNeill said, reading from the letter.
On Monday, around 200 parents from the Walton district and East Cobb heard personal stories like those that have resulted from increasingly grim school funding and budget numbers and that figure to grow worse.
The Cobb County School District, which continued teacher cuts and furloughs and raised class sizes in closing an $86.4 million budget gap for the current year, is already facing a $79 million deficit for fiscal year 2015.
"It's the first step to get educated," said Hilary Hill, co-president of the Walton PTSA, which organized Monday's meeting. "I don't think a lot of parents realize the extent of our crisis. We are reaching a tipping point."
The Walton PTSA invited Claire Suggs of the Athens-based Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, author of two recent reports, "The Schoolhouse Squeeze," and "Cutting Class to Make Ends Meet."
(Both reports are attached as PDFs)
Suggs laid out both state and Cobb education funding shortfalls that have been brought about through a decade of austerity cuts by the Georgia legislature and the recession. A few examples:
- State school funding is down 16.9 percent in Cobb County since 2002;
- Cobb student enrollment has risen by 11 percent in that time (to more than 108,000 currently);
- The Quality Basic Education Act, a state law, has been underfunded by $7.6 billion over the last 12 years (and nearly $450 million in Cobb since 2002);
- Cobb schools were denied $66 million in QBE funds for FY '14 because of austerity cuts;
- The Cobb property tax digest fell by 17.8 percent between 2008 and 2012 due to the recession;
- Cobb has lost 1,400 teaching positions since 2009, mostly through attrition.
"They're not just numbers on a page," Suggs said.
For Walton, one of the largest high schools in Cobb with 2,700 students, and one the top academic achieving high schools in the Georgia, the cuts have taken a heavy toll.
McNeill said she has 20 fewer teachers on her staff than four years ago, and that a "very large class" is now 34 students, up from 28 in 2008.
She said the effects have been especially noticeable in writing instruction, which is important "no matter the career field" of the student.
Education advocates hoped the information will spark parents to lobby state lawmakers for money, although they admit it's hard to find other areas of the state budget to cut.
One of the attendees Monday was State Sen. Judson Hill, an East Cobb Republican and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. He's also a Walton parent.
Walton PTSA legislative chair Karen Hallacy said it's important for parents to learn who the decision-makers are, at the local and state level, and to develop relationships with them.
Since Gov. Nathan Deal "has said he will be making education an issue," Hallacy said the time is right to start getting busy (she offers more suggestions in the video).
"The bigger the voice, the more powerful the coalition will be."
Hill said another public meeting will be scheduled in January, right before the 2014 legislative session begins.
Another East Cobb parent-driven organization, FACE It Cobb, will have a similar public meeting at the InfoMart on Terrell Mill Road on Dec. 12.
The name of the group, which was formed earlier this year by parents of students at Dodgen Middle School, stands for Funding Awareness Campaign for Education.
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