The Georgia Budget & Policy Institute (GBPI) provided an overview for the official 2015 fiscal year budget for K-12 education. For 2015, 7.95 billion dollars were proposed in the budget as a down payment in hopes to eliminate austerity cuts in state funding for Georgia public schools.
The GBPI further explains that class sizes within K-12 will remain large, while fewer teachers will be hired to replace the 9,000 educators that have been laid off in Georgia since 2009. More than 41 percent of districts within the state have eliminated art and music programs and 62 percent of districts have eliminated elective courses.
The austerity cut for 2014 is $1.06 billion, according to the GBPI, and the budget for the fiscal year of 2015 will apply $314 million as relief for the austerity cut in 2014.
According to the GBPI, “many districts should be able to restore the school calendar to the 180-day standard next year. Most of the ongoing austerity cuts will continue into 2015, and districts will receive $700 – $800 million less than the state’s funding formula for K-12.”
The GBPI also reported that “the austerity cuts are not new, although they grew larger after the recession started. The General Assembly first imposed them in the 2003 fiscal year. Next year will be the thirteenth consecutive year state elected officials have disregarded the Georgia’s education funding formula.”
Although there have been K-12 educators laid off, the Atlanta Business Chronicle (ABC) reported that Gov. Nathan Deal’s budget recommendations asked legislature for raises in teacher salaries, as well as pay increases to state employees.
“Like with the private sector, it is important to invest in your workforce when you have the resources to do so,” Gov. Deal said to members of the legislative appropriation committees during his presentation.
Sen. Jason Carter suggested that education spending should go into a “trust fund” separate from the rest of the state budget so that it couldn’t be tampered with to address other needs. He also said that a separate education fund would make education Georgia’s top priority, according to the ABC.
“…Jason Carter said the $547 million increase in K-12 spending requested by Deal wouldn’t be enough to make good on his promises to restore 180-day calenders, end teacher furloughs, and provide pay raises,” the ABC reported.
Jalen Heggs is an education major with a concentration in middle-grade subjects such as English and social studies. Even though Jalen said he is constantly given information that may drive him away as a future educator, he still remains hopeful because teaching is something he believes that he is called to do.
“I simply want to make an impact, one child at a time. I see there being no obstacles to overcome because teachers are going to retire and there will always be vacancies for new educators to replace them,” Heggs said.
But Heggs also said that decisions not to re-fund art or music programs as well as not hiring any new educators will affect future educators like himself greatly. Heggs discussed a friend that attends Georgia Southern University majoring in music.
“If there are no music classes available for him to teach in Georgia schools, then all that he, and even myself, along with thousands of other future educators worked hard for will be in vain,” he said.
Heggs also said that it is essential for future educators to remain confident in their choice of study.
“Without the future, which we are, education and schools will no longer be existent,” Jalen explained.
Georgia State’s College of Education (COE) says that the college focuses on collections and analysis of performance-based data to answer questions, such as “Do their students learn, and do their employers feel they are well prepared?”
The COE also states on their website that by analyzing data at the program level, the college is able to record and document the effectiveness of programs offered and improve on the ways in which they prepare educators to meet the needs of students.
“At Georgia State University, we believe educator preparation programs should be held to high standards. Our teacher preparation programs demonstrate that we prepare teachers who have a positive impact on children’s learning and development and who are committed to staying in the profession,” states the COE website.
The state will add back $314 million into the Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula. The QBE formula is calculated by measuring a district’s student enrollment and their needs. The state then adds a “training and experience” (T&E;) for teachers’ salaries in each district and the state will then deduct local fair share and austerity cuts. Finally, the state adds funding for categorical grants such as migrant education, as well as adding in funds outside of the QBE, such as grants from the K-12 lottery.
The Georgia Budget & Policy Institute said that it should help more districts and students will have more more time to learn. The added funds to the QBE formula would also mean that teachers and staff will see their income increase as furlough days are reduced.
The report states that “these are critical steps to bring relief to students, parents and teachers alike.”
The Department of Labor provides information on long-term occupational trends within the state of Georgia. From the years 2010-2020, the DOL reports that within ten years time of the starting date (2010), there will be an 18.2 percent total change in employment for Elementary school teachers (excluding special education), and the annual growth rate will be 1.7 percent.
The base employment for elementary and secondary administrators began with 7,250, according to the DOL. In 2020, the projected employment is 8,070 individuals, an 11.3 percent change in employment.
Linda L. Casker Lynn, a special education teacher at Long County High School in Ludowici, Ga., studied at Georgia State between 1989 – 1990. Linda has been a teacher within the Georgia K-12 school system for 26 years, 21 of them being at Bradwell Institute in Hinesville, Ga. She believes that the budget won’t have an immediate affect on current teachers.
“Well, this basically leaves us simply in the same boat that we have been in. It doesn’t actually change anything for teachers on a day to day basis. Having the days back is great because that means that we are essentially getting paid what we are promised when we sign a contract which hasn’t been happening with all of the furlough days that have been taken,” Lynn said.
Lynn further explained that furlough days are like being asked to do the exact same amount of work for 10 days less pay.
“I dont know any other job where they can expect an employee to simply work essentially 80 hours for free. However, with all of the new initiatives such as CCCGPS (curriculum) and TKES (for evaluation), they are reinventing the wheel and increasing the work-load again,” she said.
Lynn also said that on top of K-12 salaries being cut, teachers are subject to the same inflation as other professionals in the country.
“I also get on my soap box when someone tells me that I should be grateful because my job is secure but there are a great number of teachers that no longer have a job,” she said.
Lynn thinks education majors should think very hard and seriously about what they want prior to choosing.
“I want to add that I love the profession of teaching. I always found it a creative outlet to find ways to reach kids and instill a love of learning. I have been through 3 major overhauls to the state standards. However, a friend of mine recently retired because he couldn’t take another major overhaul and students have changed a great deal in 26 years. It is a very different environment than the one I started in,” she said.
