Memorandum from Mary Kay Murphy
Mary Kay Murphy, Ph.D. District 3  School Board Member and 2004 Chairman of the Board

June 15, 2004

   Several community members have asked me for information on ways to increase funding for band, orchestra, chorus, and other components of Fine Arts and Performing Arts programs in District III public schools.

   We have had a number of helpful meetings to discuss options for such funding. I welcome having such conversations in the future.

   As we have met in Norcross and in Duluth, I have discussed with District III community members the basis of funding for public education in the State of Georgia. 

   The current funding formula, the Quality Basic Education Act, dates back to 1985 when Governor Joe Frank Harris led an initiative that resulted a unanimous vote of both houses of the Georgia General Assembly. 

   The QBE Act put into place a logical and comprehensive framework for providing a quality basic education to every student in Georgia. Although it did not address all aspects of an adequate education, the new law improved the funding for what it defined as a basic program.

   There was a significant increase in the level of State and local support. The QBE took into account the varying resources of local school systems.

   The new funding program has held up well, many believe. Others challenge its relevance as a reliable way to provide the funding for even a basic program for all of Georgia's students.

   We were quite a different State in 1985 when schools had Libraries, not Media Centers; adding machines and not computers; and copiers, not laser printers. We did not have bands and orchestras of 300 students-all needing their own instruments and at least two teachers.

   Georgia is one of the many states to use what is described as "the foundation approach" to funding public education. It prescribes a basic program, referred to as "the foundation." Then it acts to ensure that the basic program is offered to every student in the State. 

   This approach allows local systems such as Gwinnett County to go beyond the basic program if they are willing to raise additional property taxes. This layer of supplemental funding is financed through local taxes and grants from the State to assist systems that do not have as much taxable property per student as others in the State.

   In 1985, the QBE Formula was projected to cover 80% of the cost of public education in the State. Local districts were to generate funds through property taxes for the remainder that the State and the Federal governments combined did not fund.

   By FY 02, Georgia provided only about 60% of the General Fund expenditures by all local systems. Nearly all the remaining 40% was paid through local revenues. However, these percentages vary widely from system to system.

   In FY 05, the State of Georgia will provide approximately 51% of the funding for Gwinnett County-with 135,000 students the largest public school system in the State. As part of the State funding formula, Gwinnett County also will contribute approximately $114 million to other, smaller, less well-funded school systems in the State through the 5 mill buy-in. 

   Gwinnett County and other large systems in the State redirect property taxes generated in their jurisdictions. The State routes these funds to communities that either cannot or will not tax their residents at the minimum of 5 mills of property taxes to support their local public school systems.

   Governor Sonny Perdue has determined that it is time to revisit the Quality Basic Education Act of 1985. He appointed a fifteen-member Task Force to revisit the QBE funding-in a State with 180 public school systems, with an economy that has been declining for three or more years, and in a Sun Belt state with a burgeoning public school enrollment. 

   Governor Perdue appointed Gwinnett County Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks to this important Task Force. The group will begin its work in fall 2004. This is very good news for Gwinnett County and the parents and community members who want to revisit the definition of a Quality Basic Education and the State's role in its funding.

   State Superintendent Kathy Cox recently committed to revising the Quality Basic Education Act to include funding for Fine Arts and Performing Arts programs. The 1985 QBE Act does not include any such line item funding. 

   Until such changes are made, band, orchestra, chorus, and other of the Fine and Performing Arts programs vie with one another and with athletics to find a funding stream at the local school level. Some schools can provide this funding, but many cannot.

   To our parent and community volunteers who have provided continuous support for their students to participate in Fine and Performing Arts, we own unremitting thanks and appreciation. We look forward to better days ahead that include State funding of these vital programs.

061504

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