of the News and Record reports that GCS Superintendent Mo Green will request that county commissioners approve a $26 million boost to the district’s budget.
Brown spends a lot of time describing revenue and expenditures from state sources. I mean, isn’t the NC GOP responsible for GCS’s funding hardships?
NC Department of Public Instruction financial data tell a different story.
Missing from the article is the fact that federal funds have plummeted in recent years. In 2012, the district spent $91 million from federal government sources. Two year later, federal funds dropped to $79 million. That equates to a loss of $170 per student.
During the same period, local funding increased from $188 million to $207 million (or an additional $268 per student). Last year, the district had the 12th highest local per pupil expenditure and the 49th highest total per pupil expenditure in the state. And that does not even consider the fact that only 10 districts spent more on capital outlay (per student; 5 year average) than GCS did last year.
While there was a nearly $24 million increase in state funds from 2011 to 2012, the district receives only around $3.5 million more from the state than it did in 2012, a modest $38 per student increase.
And don’t get me started on the fact that GCS employed 67 central office administrators and managers last year. Local dollars paid for 39 of them.
