EDUCATION
Cobb school board plans to fight for funding under Gold Dome
By: Chart Riggall
MARIETTA — Eyeing the 2022 legislative session, which
began in January, Cobb school board members last fall agreed
to vigorously defend the district’s funding sources under the
Gold Dome.
e board unanimously approved during a November work
session a slate of legislative priorities aimed at boosting cashows
to public education and scuttling eorts to divert money to
private and charter schools.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said the priorities for 2022
would be “some familiar, some new,” before turning the
presentation over to Gretchen Walton, the district’s legislative
liaison.
Among her focuses, Walton said, would be trying to equalize
funding for students taking virtual classes and those learning
in-person. Currently, the state funds each virtual student at about
60% the amount for an in-person student.
Ragsdale and Walton would later add there is a possibility
lawmakers could seek to reduce virtual funding even further,
which he said was based on “a fallacy” that online classes require
fewer resources.
“A teacher is a teacher is a teacher … It makes sense on paper
to say, well, if you’ve taken 30 kids out of this elementary school
that are now virtual, well then you should have less classrooms …
that’s not the way that works,” Ragsdale said.
Walton added that other priorities would include pushing back
on attacks on the state’s teachers’ retirement fund, ensuring Gov.
Brian Kemp follows through on promised raises for educators
and blocking attempts to increase funding for education vouchers
for private and charter schools, which she said come with “almost
zero accountability.”
Board member Jaha Howard asked whether the district
would consider pushing for changes in the state’s Quality Basic
Education (QBE) formula, a complex calculation devised in the
mtparanschool.com/experience
32 FORECAST 2022
1980s which determines how much funding each district receives
from the state.
“It seems to make sense that as a county, we can have a strong
position encouraging our legislators to revamp the QBE formula,”
Howard said, calling for a more “proactive” stance on the issue.
Walton and Ragsdale agreed that was a worthy cause, but that
the main priority would be encouraging the state to fully fund the
formula — something that has happened only twice since 2012,
Walton said. Ragsdale likewise noted that past proposed changes
to the formula had actually threatened to cut Cobb’s funding
levels by millions of dollars.
Later on in the meeting, district Chief Financial Ocer Brad
Johnson said it would be worthwhile for the district to push for
greater education funding in the coming year’s state budget,
particularly given its unexpected $2 billion-plus surplus.
“ere is money down at the legislature this year,” as Johnson
put it.
TUESDAY TOURS
Cobb schools
Superintendent
Chris Ragsdale
- Chart Riggall
EXPERIENCE INNOVATION
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