School Funding Issues Subject of East Cobb Meetings

As the Cobb County School District braces for another severe budget deficit, parents of students at East Cobb public schools are being urged to get themselves educated about the subject. 

Several East Cobb PTAs have been sending out word in e-mail blasts about a public meeting next Monday at Walton High School that will detail the school funding crisis across the state and in Cobb. 

The featured speaker is Claire Suggs, who recently published a report on the matter, "The Schoolhouse Squeeze," for the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute (see attached PDF).

In the report, she details how local school districts have been devastated by a combination of decade-long austerity cuts by the Georgia legislature and a sharp drop in property taxes due to the recession. 

CCSD officials estimate the district has been denied nearly $500 million in austerity cuts alone since 2002.

In a meeting notice sent out Tuesday, the Dickerson Middle School PTSA served up a stark scenario: 

"There are no more reserves to dip into. The District has already increased class sizes, added furloughed days, implemented teacher salary step reductions and reduced funding for textbooks and other critical needs. Next year could mean lay offs, larger class sizes and even less educational resources."

The Walton PTSA, which is sponsoring next week's meeting, was especially vocal during the fiscal year 2014 budget process, decrying teacher reductions through attrition most of all. 

The Cobb Board of Education, which slashed more than $86 million to reach a balanced budget -- including teacher cuts -- is facing an even larger gap for FY 2015.

Last month, CCSD Chief Financial Officer Brad Johnson's early budget projection was $79 million (see attached PDF), and that figures to grow. 

At the same time, East Cobb-area school board member David Banks asked his colleagues to endorse a resolution supporting a constitutional amendment for a Local Option Sales Tax, or LEST.

The LEST would allow school districts to collect a penny sales tax for school expenses in exchange for a partial rollback in school property taxes.

But the Cobb school board rejected his proposal by a 4-3 vote.

An East Cobb-based group formed earlier this year during the Cobb Education SPLOST IV referendum campaign also will be holding a meeting next month on the school deficit issue. 

FACE It Cobb -- the acronym stands for "Funding Awareness Campaign for Education" -- has scheduled a forum on Dec. 12 at the InfoMart on Terrell Mill Road.