Dear Editor,
I am writing this letter as a wake-up call to those who believe in public education. Recently, there has been a renewed push to “Let the money follow the child.”
Legislation to accomplish this passed the Georgia Senate in 2023 but failed in the Georgia House when a handful of rural Republican legislators realized what a disaster this would be for their counties.
Often, those who believe that such a law would improve the performance of public schools cite the example of Arizona. Well, let’s look at Arizona. In 2018 a version of “Let the Money Follow the Child” was placed on the ballot. Sixty-five percent voted NO. But that did not stop the true believers.
Some five-to-six years later, a two-term limited Republican governor and the Republican House and Senate voted it into law. To do so, they added some sweeteners. In order to pay for all the home school and private school students who had never received state monies, $650 million was allocated from the General Fund. They also added $900 million to the education budget in the first year of the law and $545 million in the second year.
How did that work out in Arizona? A 2023 US News and World Reports ranking of K-12 public schools by state rates Arizona [48th out of 50] overall, 45/50 in college readiness, 47/50 in high school graduation, 33/50 in math, and 30/50 in reading.
Well, maybe Arizona will get better, some say, despite the fact that it is ranked 46/50 in pre-school. In 2023, Arizona has a Democrat as governor. Her main campaign approach was to run against “Let the money follow the child.” The Republican majority in the State House and Senate was reduced to one seat in each body.
Now where does Georgia stand? Georgia K-12 public schools have an overall rank of 26/50, 23/50 in college readiness, 31/50 in high school graduation, 21/50 in math, and 19/50 in reading. Georgia public schools rank 14/50 in pre-school. Yet despite these facts, some still argue passionately that Georgia should follow Arizona.
As in any discussion of public schools, we should also look at the money. According to The Economist magazine, 90 percent of the extra $650 million in Arizona went to pay for the education of students in private schools who had never been enrolled in public schools. Recent publications suggest that in the second year, more than $900 million extra will be required in Arizona.
The failed Georgia bill contained no extra money for education, even though it would add 10-15% more students. In other words, the Georgia Senate passed a bill that would decrease the amount of state money to public K-12 schools by 10-15 percent.
Since most Georgia K-12 school systems spend about 90% of their budgets on personnel, they would either raise local property taxes, lay off staff, or use some such combination to compensate for the reduction in state funding, [providing] an example of taking money from those who make less and giving it to those who can afford to send their children to private school to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
What would this look like in Putnam County? Since we are defined as a “wealthy” district, the equivalent of the first 5 mils of property taxes is withheld by the state and given to poorer counties. Thus, ever since the Fair Share Act was passed, the State of Georgia has paid between 25% to 35% of local K-12 education costs. We pay the lion’s share of local property taxes.
However, the failed Georgia law also required that local property taxes follow the student. Thus, based on the estimated 10-15% of students in Putnam who are either in private school or home-schooled, our revenues would be reduced by 10-15%, with the money going to private and homeschooled students.
I believe the bottom line would be an increase in local taxes even if no students switched schools. For those of us who remember the Nuwaubians or have read The Messenger recently, I wonder how we would feel about giving them $10,000 per school-age child, of which $7,000 was from our local property taxes.
Steven A. Weiner
(Mr. Weiner is the current chairman of the Putnam County Board of Education – Ed.)