A sobering look at Georgia's educational budget woes

[novelist_wannabe]

http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/schools-fear-budget-crash-352509.html

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Well, as long as the football team gets their new uniforms, it's all good.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Insert state name here.

 

[MU_was_not_so_hard]

Reason No. 1 Hewitt won't be canned at Georgia Tech. They owe him a hair over $7 million if they fire him.

 

[Crash]

This is happening around the country, and it's got to change. Our education system is seriously broken, from the way we fund it to the way we administer it to the way we evaluate it. The current generation of students is going to be the one of the most educated in our nation's history in terms of numbers of high school and college graduates. It's going to be one of the least educated in our nation's history in terms of actual achievement and learning used to get those degrees. Our public schools are beyond broken. Schools should be the bastion of social advancement in a healthy democracy. Ours are a prime example of how backward our leadership really is.

 

[Stitch]

Teachers get rewarded en masse in labor deals in many states. Salary increases every year, decent benefits and tenure. The challenge is finding a way to reward the best teachers that's fair.

 

[WolvEagle]

In most every school district in our coverage area, the teachers pay zero for their health insurance. Zero.

My daughter has 3+ years left before graduating. I hope the budget cuts between now and then to pay for such nonsense don't kill the quality of her education. At least my son is escaping this June.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

So you want your daughter to receive a quality public education, but on the other hand teachers make too much money? There's a certain conflict between those two views. If she went in for surgery, would you complain about what the doctors make?

 

[93Devil]

In most every school district in our coverage area, the teachers pay zero for their health insurance. Zero.

My daughter has 3+ years left before graduating. I hope the budget cuts between now and then to pay for such nonsense don't kill the quality of her education. At least my son is escaping this June.

I pay about $480 a month to add my wife and daughter, but the plan is kick ass.

 

[93Devil]

Teachers get rewarded en masse in labor deals in many states. Salary increases every year, decent benefits and tenure. The challenge is finding a way to reward the best teachers that's fair.

There is none.

Imagine I told you and another writer that the two of you are judged on the number of headlines you generate each year. I give you Chris Hoke and I give him Ben Roethlisberger. Even though you might be the better writer, the writer with Roethlisberger will have better results.

 

[93Devil]

Insert state name here.

It's worse in states that had rapid growth in the past 10-15 years.

Pittsburgh was pretty ****ty in 2000 and it's pretty ****ty in 2010.

California was freeking booming in 2000 and now it is a wasteland.

 

[qtlaw]

This is happening around the country, and it's got to change. Our education system is seriously broken, from the way we fund it to the way we administer it to the way we evaluate it. The current generation of students is going to be the one of the most educated in our nation's history in terms of numbers of high school and college graduates. It's going to be one of the least educated in our nation's history in terms of actual achievement and learning used to get those degrees. Our public schools are beyond broken. Schools should be the bastion of social advancement in a healthy democracy. Ours are a prime example of how backward our leadership really is.

This is so true in California.

I read a study where in the past 10 years the "criminal justice" per capita spending increased approx. 125% but education spending was flat. What kind of priorities are being emphasized there?

The voters need to wake up (myself included) and get the message out to the legislatures (who hold the purse strings) that this is unacceptable. We will not stand for any further neglect of our public education system and that our public education system needs to be priority no. 1. Until that happens, the education system will continue to suffer.

 

[Crash]

This is happening around the country, and it's got to change. Our education system is seriously broken, from the way we fund it to the way we administer it to the way we evaluate it. The current generation of students is going to be the one of the most educated in our nation's history in terms of numbers of high school and college graduates. It's going to be one of the least educated in our nation's history in terms of actual achievement and learning used to get those degrees. Our public schools are beyond broken. Schools should be the bastion of social advancement in a healthy democracy. Ours are a prime example of how backward our leadership really is.

This is so true in California.

I read a study where in the past 10 years the "criminal justice" per capita spending increased approx. 125% but education spending was flat. What kind of priorities are being emphasized there?

The voters need to wake up (myself included) and get the message out to the legislatures (who hold the purse strings) that this is unacceptable. We will not stand for any further neglect of our public education system and that our public education system needs to be priority no. 1. Until that happens, the education system will continue to suffer.

Well, part of the problem is that the government's only solution to education reform is to throw more money at the problem. But that only works if you throw money in the right places. We need vast improvements in facilities (research shows that better facilities = better student confidence in their schooling = better results), particularly in the inner city schools that are falling apart with a quickness. We need to stop funding schools solely on property taxes (where that still occurs), and we need to add incentives to good education. Teach for America and programs like it need to be expanded. No Child Left Behind needs significant reform. Grants for top students need to be expanded to get them to teach.

And the biggest problem with government-led reform is that it won't address one of the fundamental problems: parents and kids. Everything is a fault of the system, the teachers, or the administrators. Good education starts early at home, not the first time a kid shows up at kindergarten or first grade.

 

[Bob Cook]

There is no system that gets funded solely with property taxes. It's a combination of property taxes and state funding. In states where both have cratered (like Georgia, California and Virginia), the districts are in hurtin', hurtin' shape. For what it's worth, here in Illinois, the state funding is so minimal that cutbacks -- while they hurt -- don't have the same impact.

A lot of people notice school funding cratering now because it's not just the poor districts suffering anymore. Some of them getting the worst of it are the fast-growing exurbs that had nothing but housing underlying their tax base, and had all sorts of bonding issues out to build new schools (by necessity to absorb the population). Here in Illinois, you hear of exurb schools built for 1,500 kids that have 200 kids in them. The problem is, the schools have to project future years' enrollment based on building permits, and no one has ever been in a situation where building permits when from 1,000 to zero in a year.

 

[93Devil]

You need a person with a master's degree in business running a school division. Not a master's in early childhood education.

Imagine a business that had 24,000 customers, 3,000 employees, 3.5 million square feet of facilities, $315 million in sales every year and not one business degree running (or on) the ship.

 

[93Devil]

There is no system that gets funded solely with property taxes. It's a combination of property taxes and state funding. In states where both have cratered (like Georgia, California and Virginia), the districts are in hurtin', hurtin' shape. For what it's worth, here in Illinois, the state funding is so minimal that cutbacks -- while they hurt -- don't have the same impact.

A lot of people notice school funding cratering now because it's not just the poor districts suffering anymore. Some of them getting the worst of it are the fast-growing exurbs that had nothing but housing underlying their tax base, and had all sorts of bonding issues out to build new schools (by necessity to absorb the population). Here in Illinois, you hear of exurb schools built for 1,500 kids that have 200 kids in them. The problem is, the schools have to project future years' enrollment based on building permits, and no one has ever been in a situation where building permits when from 1,000 to zero in a year.

Bob, I think we have 10 new building permits. and 3,000 empty homes.

Get your facts staright.

 

[Bob Cook]

You need a person with a master's degree in business running a school division. Not a master's in early childhood education.

Imagine a business that had 24,000 customers, 3,000 employees, 3.5 million square feet of facilities, $315 million in sales every year and not one business degree running (or on) the ship.

Better yet, with a board of directors that consists of local ding-dongs who are more interested in such pressing issues as making sure intelligent design gets its own class, or that their kid is guaranteed a spot on the volleyball team.

 

[Bob Cook]

There is no system that gets funded solely with property taxes. It's a combination of property taxes and state funding. In states where both have cratered (like Georgia, California and Virginia), the districts are in hurtin', hurtin' shape. For what it's worth, here in Illinois, the state funding is so minimal that cutbacks -- while they hurt -- don't have the same impact.

A lot of people notice school funding cratering now because it's not just the poor districts suffering anymore. Some of them getting the worst of it are the fast-growing exurbs that had nothing but housing underlying their tax base, and had all sorts of bonding issues out to build new schools (by necessity to absorb the population). Here in Illinois, you hear of exurb schools built for 1,500 kids that have 200 kids in them. The problem is, the schools have to project future years' enrollment based on building permits, and no one has ever been in a situation where building permits when from 1,000 to zero in a year.

Bob, I think we have 10 new building permits. and 3,000 empty homes.

Get your facts staright.

Here's what you do -- close down some schools, and spread kids out to be taught in the empty houses! Win-win!

 

[93Devil]

You need a person with a master's degree in business running a school division. Not a master's in early childhood education.

Imagine a business that had 24,000 customers, 3,000 employees, 3.5 million square feet of facilities, $315 million in sales every year and not one business degree running (or on) the ship.

Better yet, with a board of directors that consists of local ding-dongs who are more interested in such pressing issues as making sure intelligent design gets its own class, or that their kid is guaranteed a spot on the volleyball team.

The hammer just met the head of the nail.

Honestly, some School Board members do have some business chops. But there are a ton of soccer moms as well.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

In my experience, our local school committee is made of very bright and hard-working people who want to do the right thing, but none of whom have the time or background to supervise capital-intensive construction projects, negotiate contracts, or any of the other things school systems do.
So the superintendent runs the show. And our town has run through more of them than the Clippers have head coaches, because the complaining parents (which is a big number of them) know to get their way, making the super's life hell is the path to success.
This is, BTW, one of the best public school systems in the entire U.S. And we've got the test scores and tax rate to prove it. So even successful school systems are semi-dysfunctional. Nature of the beast.