By Rachel Brown
A statewide half-cent sales tax is one solution to Georgia avoiding more cuts to education funding, Georgia Association of Educators president Jeff Hubbard says.
Speaking at a meeting of several North Georgia GAE members on Tuesday at the Oakwood Cafe, Hubbard said the Legislature should avoid adding to seven years of educating funding cuts totaling nearly $2 billion. Hubbard is still seeking a legislator to introduce the proposal. The tax would last two to three years, just enough time for the state to receive some extra funding until the economy turns around, he said. Lawmakers have already proposed a 1 percent sales tax for state transportation funding, he said.
“If people will pay for good roads,” Hubbard said, “don’t you think they would pay for a good educational system?”
Karen Roark, a 28-year teacher who works in gifted education at Roan School, said she believes local taxpayers would support the sales tax. State funding cuts mean local school systems have to cut their budgets or raise taxes to make up for lost revenue.
“I think Dalton and Whitfield County taxpayers would probably like that idea more than property tax increases,” she said.
Roark is one of five employees from Dalton Public Schools who attended a rally at the state capitol on Saturday. Some 1,300 GAE members from across Georgia rallied with signs and speeches to urge lawmakers not to cut education funding.
Jeff Adair, a counselor at Varnell Elementary School, was among about 10 educators from Whitfield County Schools who attended.
“I think it was a great start, but we just can’t do that and then it’s over,” Adair said. “This is an issue until we see the economy pick up.”
Several Murray County educators attended, but an exact count wasn’t immediately available. The GAE is sending a message of “invest now or pay later,” referring to studies that indicate lack of education leads to prison time, Hubbard said.
Several rounds of funding cuts mean public education will receive $710 million less in the current fiscal year than was allocated last year, officials said. The current year’s total state budget is $18.6 billion, though more cuts are expected, and the proposed budget for the coming year is $18.2 billion. Because of funding issues, every school system in Georgia has applied for and received a waiver to allow for slightly larger class sizes, Hubbard said.
In a press release on the state Web site, Gov. Sonny Perdue says state officials have “actively managed” the budget amid sliding revenues.
Ralph Noble, a teacher at Eastbrook Middle School and a past statewide GAE president, said he wonders what education funding will look like a couple of years from now after federal stimulus funding expires. Federal funding has partially offset state cuts, but “2012 looks like a total train wreck,” he said.
