Last week I objected to a tax decrease proposal by Fayette County Board of Education Chairwoman Marion Key, given the reductions in classroom staff and increase in class size during the past few years.
The editor questioned whether I was ignoring the fact the total dollars spent on schools has increased by $13.8 million while student population has decreased by 1,573 student FTE over the past decade.
Using data from the state of Georgia website, spending per pupil full-time equivalent (FTE) in Fayette County has gone from $7,315 in 2005 to $8,572 in 2015, an increase of $1,257 or 17.2 percent. During the same period, the state average has gone from $7,426 in 2005 to $8,665, an increase of $1,239 or 16.7 percent.
So yes, we are spending more dollars on less students.
However, it is important to recognize that spending per pupil in Fayette County has been and continues to be near the average for the state of Georgia while delivering above average results on most commonly accepted measures. There are questions about the Common Core-driven CCPRI which is unproven and will be addressed another day.
But we must recognize that inflation factors which include the cost of money, increases in teacher seniority and other cost of goods.
Using the inflation calculator provided on the Bureau of Labor Statistics, I found that the $7,315 per pupil in 2005, would cost $8,919 in 2015, which is $247 or almost 4 percent more than 2016 actual spending in 2015 dollars. Similarly the $7,426 state average per pupil FTE in 2005 would be $8,706 in 2015 dollars which is $41 or 0.5 percent more than actually spent.
The good news is that our board and staff continue to effectively spend the resources at hand to deliver outstanding results. However, we have recently closed four schools, increased class size, and eliminated a number of parapro support positions which could suggest even more of a drop in cost per student FTE.
Some of this can be attributed to growing staff seniority which results in higher cost per student, but the editor notes a growing headcount in the recent budget.
Nearly 60 positions are being added to address class size, K-1 support and other student population driven positions most of which were eliminated a few years back during the recession. Because we do not treat our students as widgets, but rather invest on the future of Fayette’s children, there is a small but built-in inefficiency in classroom staffing as the children do not always move to where we have “capacity” driving more headcount. But this is not the concerning cost driver.
The editor notes 12 non-classroom positions are also added to the recent budget. In fact recent spending reflects increases in headquarters even when we are reducing classroom support and increasing class size.
While we may disagree on whether this is a “camouflaged jobs program” or unwise spending, however, I agree with the editor that this merits further analysis and discussion.
We can all agree that ever increasing spending on schools may not deliver the results we desire, however, on a per student FTE basis, our excellent Fayette County schools continue to deliver great results on average cost per student. Can we do better in spending or educational results? That remains to be addressed. Is our spending out of control? No.
Neil Sullivan
Peachtree City, Ga.
