Decatur Leaders Urge Kemp To Fund Schools, Vaccinate Educators

DECATUR, GA — As the coronavirus pandemic, Georgia’s vaccination rollout and the 2021 state legislative session continue, two Decatur leaders — Tasha White, City Schools of Decatur board chair, and Decatur Mayor Patti Garrett — are asking the public to urge state lawmakers and Gov. Brian Kemp to “fully fund” Georgia’s schools and prioritize teacher vaccinations for COVID-19.

During the Decatur Business Association’s State of the City and State of Schools event Tuesday, White and Garrett both asked Decatur residents to push their legislators to prioritize pre-K-12 education in the 2021-22 fiscal year, despite coronavirus-related budget cuts to education in the governor’s proposed FY 2022 budget.

Kemp’s proposed budget for FY 2022 includes $416 million in cuts to pre-K-12 education compared to pre-pandemic spending in FY 2020, according to the Georgia Budget & Policy Institute, out of the state’s $1.2 billion in spending cuts from pre-pandemic levels.

“We are proud that even though we have COVID[-19]-related budget cuts from the state, we were able to offer a pay increase for many of our CSD staff members who needed it the most,” White said. “But at the same time it is important for our community to stress to our legislators to restore reductions to school budgets.”

Georgia’s public schools — 180 school systems and 39 state commission charter schools — are funded through the Quality Basic Education Act, or QBE, which became law in 1985. The QBE uses a formula to calculate how much money to pay out to each school by taking the total number of students and subtracting what the state thinks each district should be paying on its own to fund its employee salaries and other expenses, called “local fair share,” according to the GBPI. This local fair share means each school system taxes their district five mills, or $5 per $1,000 of property value.

City Schools of Decatur expects an 11 percent reduction in QBE for its school system in FY 2021, according to an early budget presentation from the district. The FY 2021 budget has not yet been approved by the board, but is on the agenda for a second presentation March 10 and tentative approval June 9.

White said during the virtual State of Schools event that CSD had already exhausted its reserve fund due to the necessary changes the district had to make because of the pandemic.

“In the last legislative session, the significant cuts and expense of the additional technology, supplies and keeping the staff employed who could not work remotely has forced us to use all of our reserves,” White said. “We hope that our community will encourage our legislators to fully fund public schools during this year’s General Assembly. We really could use that help.”

Garrett agreed with White, and added that COVID-19 vaccinations for teachers and school staff should also be prioritized.

“You’ve given us a challenge: we need to ask our state legislators to fully fund our schools. And we need our teachers and school staff to be a priority for vaccinations,” Garrett said.