As Wake school system grows, funding needs to grow along with it
With nearly 160,000 students, the Wake County school system is the largest in North Carolina. Many argue that it’s also the best.
That combination of size and quality has served the county well. Students attend well-equipped schools staffed by teachers paid above the North Carolina average. And the county’s reputation for good public schools has been a major draw for new residents and businesses in one of the nation’s fastest-growing counties.
But now the link between size and quality is being strained. The county is adding more than 60 people a day. The school system is growing by more than 2,000 students a year. School costs keep rising even as state support remains flat or decreases.
Something has to give. In recent years it’s been Wake County taxpayers. Since Democrats took control of the Wake County Board of Commissioners in 2015-16, they have raised county property taxes every year to meet rising funding requests from the Wake County Board of Education. Over that period, Wake has increased school funding by nearly $90 million to bring the county’s total school support to $430 million in the county budget approved in June. The school system’s overall budget, including state and federal funding, is $1.6 billion.
School board members are grateful for the increase, but they say it’s not enough to maintain high-quality schools. Indeed, they’ve said it’s not enough to properly maintain schools, period. As a cost savings measure, schools have cut back on cleaning, heating and air conditioning.
Tension between boards
In North Carolina, there’s always natural friction between school boards and boards of county commissioners, because North Carolina is one of the few states in which school boards do not have taxing authority. They rely on the understanding and cooperation of their county commissioners for their funding. But the friction in Wake suggests a problem deeper than typical budget wrangling.
Both boards are run by progressive Democrats who campaigned on a promise to support Wake’s public schools, yet the boards can’t agree on how much is needed to support and even enhance schools. The school board asked Wake County for a $45.2 million funding increase. The commissioners gave it less than half – $21 million.
In one sense, $21 million is a generous increase, especially on top of three previous increases. But if the school board says funding is coming up short, Wake Schools may be falling behind. Given the other forces weighing on traditional public schools – the decline in state funding, the rise in charters and vouchers and a shift to more students from low-income families – a failure to progress can quickly become a slide into decline.
It’s time for Wake County to take a harder and broader look at the condition of its major asset, its schools. It’s time to get a true idea of what maintaining a high-quality standard will really cost. And it’s time for Wake County taxpayers to decide whether they’re willing to pay that price. This could be done with a special review commission. Or it may be wise to hire a consulting firm to review the school system’s costs and its goals.
Taxpayers back good schools
Wake Commissioner Matt Calabria notes that school funding isn’t just about meeting today’s costs. It’s also about meeting tomorrow’s goals. “It isn’t just about the (tax) rate, it’s about the rate of change,” he says. “There’s a tendency to do this (budgeting) year by year, but the reality is we can’t do everything in one year. At the same time, we shouldn’t be dragging our feet in making progress.”
The focus on school budget requests that are not fully met distracts from the strong funding Wake does provide and the quality of teachers it supports. In truth, Wake schools are in good shape and in good hands.
But the pressures of growth will change all that if not addressed. Wake’s leaders and its citizens need to review costs and agree to spend what it will take to maintain a quality public school system – while it still has one.
This story was originally published July 1, 2017 at 8:00 AM with the headline "As Wake school system grows, funding needs to grow along with it."