Georgians, please help me to understand education funding.

Once again as the school year in Hamilton County has ended the list of some of the county's most experienced and talented educators leaving to work in GA is out and I'm more than a little demoralized. TN has lost federal funding every year that Bush** has been in office and the figure that I saw ($65 million) in the last budget, came from the TN Democratic Party in a newsletter.

I understand that GA has an income tax and residents pay property taxes and sales taxes, and that the lottery has been up and running longer than TN's has been.

The music director who instructed 2 of my kids built a program from nothing and it has been a struggle as for the past 2 years there was no funding from the county and the year prior to that he received $50.00. We parents pay fees, buy or rent instruments, have fundraisers and I have about $3,000.00 in monies that I gave just to try to help keep the program afloat. He is going to be teaching in Catoosa County next year.:cry: He will be paid more, and he was given $70K to purchase instruments and $25K as a beginning balance in a booster fund. He requested an additional $4K for instruments and music - he received $8K. These amounts we could only dream of.

So, I would appreciate any info. you could share about funding. BTW, your state will also be receiving someone with 34 years of experience who started out as a classroom teacher, who kept going back to school and who was certified in exceptional ed., continued her education and was a really good principal at the middle school where my kids attended. Good for you, but very, very sucky here.

Thanks for any insights.

I attended public school from 1969-1975, then I attended GPS. I received an excellent education at a fully integrated school for 1st - 4th grades and at an all-white school for 4th-5th grades.

Here in GA, the HOPE scholarship and dollars from the lottery fund post-secondary education (Tech colleges, Junior colleges and Universities).
The lottery also funds universal Pre-K programs.

Local school taxes in each county and/or city fund schools. These school taxes are separate from our sales, local and state taxes. Of course, rich communities have better schools due to more money. In addition, I believe that we receive federal monies as well. There are Federal and State funded headstart programs.

In Athens-Clarke County we have a one cent Special Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) that we vote on every few years. These funds are used for schools, parks, greenways, road and transportation improvements and many other purposes. We have a citizen committee that oversees the funding and helps the Mayor and Commission decide how to spend the funds. Athens is fairly progressive community, but we are always fighting Republicans from outlying counties who hate us because we are mostly Democratic, have had two woman mayors (our latest mayor is Jewish too!) and have lots of minorities living here.

There are many almost all-white school systems in exclusive areas (like Oconee County), although there are more middle-class and wealthy blacks, Asians and Indians moving into the community. There is a residual population of blacks in Oconee Co. (the ones who were not run out during the time of lynchings which happened as late as the 1940's.) Mnay people move to Oconee Co. "because of the schools" which is racist speak for "very few blacks and Mexicans."

Many of these black folks from Oconee county, and other surrounding rural counties, moved to Athens, which now has a large population of urban poor (mainly black and hispanic) as well as UGA students and upper and middle class whites and blacks with many new hispanic residents as well as lots of international families and Asians (UGA).

fairing better than another. TN has lost millions in federal funding during the tenure of Bush** then idiotically (IMHO) voted for more of the same! We pay property taxes and have a high albeit regressive sales tax, but it seems that Hamilton County hires and trains educators and then because of lack of funding the educators leave. Unfortunately, we lose the experienced ones as well as those who are young and excited about getting started.

I was hoping that you would respond to this. I saw a post of yours on a thread yesterday (I think), mentioning that Purdue and his repub buddies are driving the finances of GA into the ground, and I decided to post this about something that has been puzzling me for quite some time.

Thanks. :hi:

Perdue is cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy and increasing some kinds of spending. We are going to have to cut medical services. etc. unless something changes. We have one of the lowest gas taxes in the US. The GA DOT gets massive funding for road and bridge construction but not for alterantive transportation. So, most of our improvements on a local level come from local pproperty taxes, school taxes, sales taxes, SPLOST funds and HOPE monies. I'm not completely knowledgable about the percentage of State and Federal funding for schools.

I don't understand how y'all got Frist? Is it the fundie vote?

We've got Isakson and Chambliss. :( I miss Sam Nunn and Max Cleland.

edit: No state income tax is what killing y'all IMHO. But, I don't think that you'll ever get a state tax passed there. Too bad that the poor fundies continually vote against their best interests. My property tax is low because we pay state tax too. I think it's more fairthat way. Also, we gets lots of SPLOST $ because of all the out of county visitors and workers in Athens-Clarke County.

FrankenFrist was riding on the popularity of the Contract on America before people started to figure out it was "on" America not "for" America. Same knuckledragging, knuckleheads that keep sending that *(^&^%$#@! Zach Wamp back to Congress!!! Sorry, but I've been in an even worse than usual temperment since early May when I learned that we were losing our band director.

I have a Dem friend who has told me for a couple of years that her brother, who is the music director in Kennesaw, is well paid and that his program is well funded, etc., and this just pissing me off.

Guess I'll be going about the business of "state shopping" again soon. You are correct that an income tax is fairer and that it wouldn't be passed here. I'm just sick of it all and sick to death of my kids catching the brunt of most of it.

Nunn and Cleland are missed. I grew up in GA and every time that I see Chambliss I want to hurl.

edited to add: What are SPLOST funds?

For example, in A-CC, we have a 6% sales tax. We voted to add an extra 1% (one penney) on each dollar spent in Athens-Clarke County.
So, out of county visitors help to pay for the services that we provided to the region (roads, UGA, shopping, industry, commerce, cultural facilities and parks).
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OOPS! I mispoke. SPLOST does not fund schools but it does fund many other projects (Libraries, community parks, roads, family resource centers, police facilities etc.) so that property taxes DON'T have to be raised. Property taxes include local, SCHOOL and hospital (we have a regional hospital) taxes.

My bad. Sorry. Still, y'all should get SPLOST. Properly managed, it works great for regional centers of commerece, industry and education like Athens and Chattanooga.

Did I mention that we are the smallest county in Georgia and that we have a combined city-county government? Columbus-Muscogee and Augusta-Richmond are the other two in Georgia.
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Here's a link to our A-CC SPLOST website: :)
http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/splost/index.htm

SPLOST General Information

On November 2, 1999, voters approved the SPLOST 2000 (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) referendum which allowed for the continuation of a one-cent sales tax to fund a diverse list of 40 different community projects. In 1994, voters in Athens-Clarke County approved an extra penny in sales tax known as SPLOST IV to fund a package of 29 diverse community projects over five years. In previous years, SPLOST funds provided for the restoration of the historic Morton Theatre, the creation of the Classic Center, expansion of the landfill, establishment of a regional library, expansion of the jail and the addition of an annex and parking deck to the Athens-Clarke County Courthouse.

The projects are divided into three broad categories: Public Safety, Basic Facilities / Infrastructure, and Quality of Life. An online version of a Powerpoint presentation of SPLOST IV featuring some of its projects that fall into these three categories breakdown is now available.

Cents and Sensibility

Georgia law allows local jurisdictions as of July 1, 1985 to use SPLOST proceeds for capital improvement projects that would otherwise be paid for with General Fund and property tax revenues. In some cases, the cost of these types of community enhancements would present too great a burden to the taxpayers to ever be undertaken. In other cases, the projects would be completed but at a much higher cost to the community. For instance, if a project requires the use of bonds, the cost to the community is virtually double what it would be in paid for in cash.

SPLOST Allows ACC to Remain Debt Free and Leverage Federal and State Monies

By using SPLOST funding to pay for improvements to our public safety, infrastructure and quality of life, Athens-Clarke County will enter the 21st Century completely debt free. The program has allowed ACC to capitalize on strong economic conditions of the 1990s, pay for enhancements in cash and, by the end of the program, pay off the extremely low level of General Obligation Bonds remaining.

In addition, SPLOST IV has provided the local match for a wide variety of infrastructure improvements and allowed ACC to leverage state and federal transportation funds for the maximum impact on our community. To date, ACC has used SPLOST IV funds as the local contribution to bring approximately $27 million in state and federal money for Epps Bridge Parkway and other similar transportation improvements.

SPLOST Provides an Equitable Source of Support for Capital Projects

The smallest geographic county and the 14th most populous in the state, Athens-Clarke County serves Northeast Georgia as a regional center for employment, commerce and recreation. According to the September 20, 1998 Athens Banner-Herald, roughly 1/3 of the work force commutes to the Athens-Clarke County for work. With 40,000 people in our workforce and approximately 18,000 commuting from outside ACC, we have an opportunity to use the sales tax dollars that non-residents spend here to ease the burden on local property tax payers. SPLOST has provided a fair way for citizens of the region to support the services and infrastructure they utilize in Athens-Clarke County.

SPLOST Gives Our Community a Shared Vision

SPLOST gives ACC community members the opportunity to participate in a shared vision for our future. All SPLOST IV buildings have been constructed with a minimum projected 50-year life span and all of the projects help the Athens of today live up to the oath taken by ancient Greek Athenians: to leave this community "greater and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us."

SPLOST Citizen Involvement

The success of the SPLOST programs are directly affected by the hard work of citizen volunteers and community participation. The Athens-Clarke County Commission appointed 33 community members to craft the program for the 1994 referendum and 22 members to craft the program for the 1999 referendum. Eleven members of the SPLOST IV committee have continued to work with the ACC staff and elected officials as the SPLOST IV Citizens Advisory Committee since the referendum was passed in 1994. Additionally, community meetings are an integral component of many SPLOST projects. For SPLOST IV alone, over 80 public forums and more than 40 Citizen Advisory Committee meetings have been held.

I am a teacher in Georgia. Our county's schools are well funded, with an average student expenditure of $6,177 per pupil (For a school the size of the one I teach in, that means a budget of over 5 million per year). WE have high property taxes and a local SPLOST that goes to the schools, plus a bond for building new schools. About half of our schools receive Title 1 funding (including my school). The county has done a pretty good job making up for the budget ax Perdue keeps hitting us with. Even so, we have had to cut some jobs at the county office and eliminate a few programs. My property taxes have gone up significantly every year I have lived in this county, and this year was the biggest increase yet, but it was necessary to keep our schools adequately funded.