An updated version of this report is available
Georgia’s effort to overhaul the formula it uses to split about $8.5 billion per year in state money among its 180 school districts is gaining momentum despite important omissions. A governor-appointed commission appears ready to adopt a new funding method that leaves issues critical to students’ success unaddressed.
- The plan is not based on an examination of the cost of ensuring Georgia’s students reach the high learning goals the state has set for them.
- It locks in $466 million in austerity funding cuts even as school districts already struggle to bring down class sizes that ballooned and provide the elective classes they once did.
- It lacks a careful implementation plan that connects funding reform to broader instructional and organizational reforms.
Georgia’s last school funding formula change stood for 30 years in part because it is so difficult to reshape it into something clearly better. Georgia needs to take time get this right. Download the full report.
