Gov. Deal To Focus On Education Funding With New Advisory Board

The state’s current funding formula has been around for decades, but it’s never been fully funded, and that’s a problem, said Claire Suggs, the senior education analyst at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.

“You don’t get to excellence by starving your schools,” said Suggs.

She says previous efforts to reform school funding haven’t been successful.

“They have looked at the formula in the past and they’ve set up several different task forces to do so and each one of those task forces has not, in fact, led to a change in the funding formula basically because they have not wanted to put additional dollars into it,” said Suggs.

Cobb County interim superintendent, Chris Ragsdale, is one of the new members of the education advisory board. 

He says he’s also concerned about money for schools.

“These past economic times have proven that significant cuts had to be made to education at school districts that had negative consequences,” said Ragsdale. “When you have to lay off teachers and take furlough days that means students are not having a full 180-day academic year.”

Despite this, Ragsdale said he’s optimistic.

“Hopefully, these things can be discussed and debated and we can come out with a productive solution that’s going to benefit everyone,” said Ragsdale.

The board will have its first meeting at the beginning of January.