Here we go again on the Education funding. This editorial states that more local tax dollars should be given to rural counties that are deemed less wealthy and cannot collect equitable local tax dollars. It then goes on to admit that these same less wealthy counties have artificially low local taxes and that big agricultural businesses and large land owners are exempted from taxes. It also states that the wealthy (land owners) in these less wealthy counties then go on to send their children to private schools and do not support raising local taxes to support their local public education. What's amazing is it then concludes to state that the solution is for other wealthy counties to further fund these counties instead of placing that responsibility on every county to equally fund locally first before putting their hand in the cookie jar.
Our resolutions, although needing some wording tweaked, was right on target and the legislation by Jan Jones asking every county to locally fund through local tax dollars first is important.

OUR OPINION: EDITORIAL: Give rural schools more metro money

Staff
Sunday, January 4, 2004
Whether a child obtains a quality education in Georgia is often an accident
of geography.
Because of a funding formula that includes local property taxes, children in
wealthier areas typically enjoy better schools than their less affluent
peers. Even though Georgia has attempted to reduce the disparity by giving
grants to poorer counties, a significant gap remains.
State Sen. George Hooks (D-Americus) calls school funding "one of the
biggest bombshells sitting out there in state government." The General
Assembly ought to act before this bomb explodes.
Already, a band of rural schools is preparing a lawsuit to force the state's
hand. That suit might be defused if Gov. Sonny Perdue assembles his promised
task force and if he makes more money available next year to equalize money
between tax-rich and tax-poor school districts.
Georgia will ultimately have to rethink the way it finances schools and
whether the current approach cheats rural students. For example, metro
Atlanta school systems are reaping millions from the special-purpose
local-option sales taxes approved by voters to underwrite construction.
Yet, 30 percent to 40 percent of SPLOST is coming from outsiders as they
stop at restaurants along the highways or shop at the malls. Is it fair that
these metro systems are getting millions of extra dollars because I-285 or
I-75 runs through their counties? Should that windfall be shared with rural
counties that don't have malls and major freeways?
Many states have struggled with the ethics of school funding and at least 45
have ended up in lawsuits over them. Repeatedly, the courts have said that
states must provide an equitable and adequate education for all children.
However, the courts have left it to state legislatures to determine how to
fund that equitable education. Most are doing a terrible job.
Georgia stacks up pretty well in how much money it sends from the Gold Dome
to poor districts. And Georgia's teacher salary scale is not as lopsided as
other states. "Rural teachers are paid fairly well, and not much below other
teachers in the state," concludes an analysis of Georgia by the Rural School
and Community Trust.
It's a shortfall in local dollars that hampers rural schools and prevents
them from offering language classes, technology labs and special reading
programs. Once considered extras, these programs are now essential for
students to compete and meet the new standards set by the federal No Child
Left Behind education reform law. On average, rural and small-town students
in Georgia score lower on standardized tests than metro area students.
Several factors contribute to why rural counties can't raise enough property
taxes to match the offerings of their suburban and urban counterparts. In
some cases, rural counties have kept local property taxes artificially low.
The town fathers often send their own children to private academies and
aren't concerned with the quality of their local public schools. The state
has imposed penalties for counties that undertax themselves, so less of this
shortchanging of schools should be occurring.
But even the counties committed to public education and willing to pay their
local fair share lack a tax base deep enough to build and support schools.
The Legislature hasn't helped by exempting more and more landowners and
agricultural interests from property taxes. Every time lawmakers exempt
another agribusiness from paying taxes on their vast acreage, they increase
the tax burden on others, including the young family living in the county
seat.
The solution is as obvious as it is controversial. More of metro Atlanta's
money --- obtained through either a statewide sales tax or higher income
taxes --- will have to go to rural schools. No one likes Robin Hood
economics, but the state has a responsibility to educate all children well,
not just those in middle-income communities.