|
ATTACHMENT B
<br /> LOCAL FUNDS
<br /> The nearly century-old division of state and local responsibility
<br /> for school funding still shapes the way North Carolina pays for LOCAL SCHOOL FUNDING:
<br /> public education today, with 64 percent of instructional IMPACTS ON SCHOOLS
<br /> expenditures coming from the state and 97.9 percent of capital
<br /> expenses paid at the local level. However, the division has AND CLASSROOMS
<br /> eroded somewhat, with counties funding 18.8 percent of . .
<br /> principal and assistant principal positions, 6.5 percent of
<br /> teachers, 11.8 percent of teacher assistants, and 20.9 percent Differences in counties' levels of investment in their
<br /> of professional instructional support personnel; and with the school systems translate into dramatically different
<br /> state paying 2 percent of capital expenses. options at the school and classroom level.As an illus-
<br /> tration,at a statewide average class size of 20 stu-
<br /> Considering local expenditures on programs and personnel in dents per classroom,the ten counties that spend the
<br /> 2014-15, the ten counties that spent the most per student most per student would spend,on average,$60,526
<br /> averaged $3,026 per student compared to the ten that spent per classroom. By contrast,the ten counties that
<br /> the least, which averaged $710 per student. That represents a spend the least per child would spend,on average,
<br /> gap of$2,316 — and 60 counties are below the state average of $14,205 per classroom -a difference of$46,321 per
<br /> $1,537. The bottom seven counties combined spend $432 less classroom.At the state's average elementary school
<br /> than Orange County spends on its own. size of 490 students,that translates to a difference
<br /> of$1,134,859 per elementary school.At the state's
<br /> One of the primary challenges from the five low-wealth average high school size of 848, it translates to a
<br /> plaintiffs in the Leandro case dealt with the inequities between difference of$1,964,002 per high school.
<br /> varying levels of county support for schools. However, the
<br /> state Supreme Court ruled in 1997 that "the 'equal opportuni-
<br /> ties' clause of Article IX, Section 2(1) of the North Carolina FEDERAL FUNDS
<br /> Constitution does not require substantially equal funding or
<br /> educational advantages in all school districts. Consequently, Resources from the federal government accounted for 12 percent
<br /> the provisions of the current state system for funding schools of North Carolina public education spending on instructional
<br /> which require or allow counties to help finance their school expenses in 2014-15,and totaled $1,449,542,854. Federal resourc-
<br /> systems and result in unequal funding among the school es are given to states in the form of direct grants,state applica-
<br /> districts of the state do not violate constitutional principles." tions, state plans,or a combination of the three.
<br /> ' ! I III ill",; 7 �1 ..
<br /> thn
<br /> a I P0. _ - -° -- € ! ,.
<br /> 0 - . 0 — +
<br /> 4,zI --�4•'. i J .w�. re
<br /> , .' ,, ,— „„„A
<br /> , , r �y.k-- '} /
<br /> ;it --, ' t ....41
<br /> Etk-
<br /> ' j"
<br /> ta I
<br /> e +
<br /> ►s
<br /> ilielliP6‘ 4 1 00,
<br /> \ ,
<br /> .-; 4 _. , •
<br /> lir , ,...
<br /> ,r
<br /> �. ,�
<br />
|