If there were any doubts, they have been cleared. Education will be the focus for Gov. Nathan Deal in 2016.
While Deal discussed several issues that must be addressed in Georgia’s ‘Ocean of Opportunity’ in 2016, he spent most of the 33-minute State of the State address Wednesday morning talking about the importance of education funding, education reform, improving the state’s failing schools, and the importance of workforce development. His new budget includes an additional $416 million for education.
“My administration has spent more of the state budget on K-12 education than any other administration in the past 50 years, which included over $1 billion additional dollars for the past two years and an additional $416 million for FY2017,” said Deal. “However, our Education Boat is still leaking and needs some repairs.”
Deal’s FY17 includes over $58.3 million dollars to cover costs of “Move On When Ready,” reflecting a 654 percent increase over FY2011. There are currently 22,059 students involved in MOWR and Dual Enrollment.
Deal is also including $17.1 million for programs intended to close the skills gap which will help allow Georgia businesses to fill vacancies. This initiative includes 100 percent tuition HOPE Grant funding for students pursing training in high demand career fields as identified by the Strategic Industries Workforce Development Grants. This currently covers 140 programs, and Deal is now recommending that the state add industrial maintenance to that list.
While graduation rate have shown an 11 percent increase to 78.8 percent over the past five years, Deal is concerned with the state’s dropout rate that has remained “unyieldingly stagnant at an average of 3.66 percent.”
“To put it more bluntly, 96,660 students dropped out of school between 2011 and this school year. That is over 4,000 more than are currently enrolled in our entire Technical College system. That is a wind that is blowing in the wrong direction, and we must continue to trim our sails to bring that dropout number down,” Deal said.
Deal praised the efforts of the Education Reform Commission, and asked legislators to fully study the recommendations as they move forward this session, stressing the importance of “getting it right.”
Deal said will be creating by Executive Order a Teacher Advisory Committee similar to the Governor’s Education Advisory Board that has been in existence for the past five years.
While statutory changes are necessary to implement some of the commission’s recommendation, other recommendations can be achieved through the budget process. As an
example, Gov. Deal’s proposed budget provides funds to implement a new compensation model for the state’s Pre-K programs in order to retain lead teachers, increase assistant teacher salaries and maintain classroom quality. The Pre-K budget recommendation is in excess of $358 million, which includes $26.2 million for salary increases and an additional $7.9 million for a 3 percent merit pay increase.
Deal will also be appropriating an additional $300 million for K-12 education, which will allow for a three percent pay raise for teachers.
He explained that the money be distributed to local school system under the existing QBE formula, “but it is our intention that your local school system pass the three percent pay raise along to you.”
Deal said the state has provided local systems with large increases in funding for the past three years and allowed them the flexibility to decide how to spend it. Apparently, 94 percent of school systems used those funds to reduce or eliminate furlough days.
Deal believes with the additional funding this year furloughs should be a thing of the past and teachers should receive the three percent pay raise.
The Governor is also calling on the state Department of Education and local school systems to evaluate their testing requirements, and eliminate all tests that are not necessary to advance and tailor instruction.
The Education Reform Commission has recommended a student based funding formula to replace the 30-year-old QBE. Instead of spending money based on rigid, impersonal criteria, the state would move to funding based on the characteristics of each student. Deal stressed that for the first time, poverty will be one of those characteristics to be considered.
Deal also made reference to the Opportunity School District Constitutional Amendment which will be on the ballot this November — referencing the approximately 74,000 students who are required to attend chronically failing schools.
Other items in my proposed budget include:
Mandated expenditures growth in the areas of health care and education– the discretionary portion of the budget, which is now roughly 17 percent, continues to shrink and must be addressed.
Rising health care costs continue to be a major factor. The state currently contributes $842 million for health care coverage for state employees while also paying over $1 billion for the employer share of health insurance for teachers in FY2015.
The budget includes a three percent pay raise for all other state employees, to match that for teachers. Four agencies have a more than 20 percent annual turnover rate, with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities losing almost one third of their employees last year. For those agencies with the highest turnover rate, the budget allocates additional funds to be used to raise pay scales in addition to the overall three percent increase.
