SCOTT MOONEYHAM: School Budgeting Disparity Continues
Thursday, December 29th, 2005
By Chris Fitzsimon
Raleigh
As it has for nearly two decades, the Public School Forum of North Carolina recently issued its annual report looking at the gap between the haves and have-nots among state public schools.
The report found that the divide in local school spending between poor and wealthy counties continues to grow, even while legislators fund programs designed to close the gap.
That gap in local school spending between the 10 wealthiest counties and 10 poorest counties now stands at $1,650 per child and has grown by 62 percent since 1997.
John Dornan, who heads the school think tank, acknowledged that the divide has a lot to do with issues that go beyond education and schools.
The study noted that this gap has little or nothing to do with the desire of county commissioners, school officials or the public to improve their schools. Counties with little wealth and low tax bases generally have higher property tax rates than their wealthier counterparts.
Instead, the spending divide correlates closely to growth in real estate wealth, and hence the tax base, in the wealthier counties. In other words, the rich are getting richer, and it is a lot easier for them to pump some of this wealth into school operations.
“What they (poor counties) are able to get from their taxation is very, very limited,” said John Poteat, the forum’s director of policy research. (more…)
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