Wake schools want $30 million more from county amid pandemic. Is it too much to ask?
When schools do reopen after the pandemic, the Wake County school system says it will need nearly $30 million more from county commissioners to educate its 162,000 students.
The Wake County school board approved Tuesday a $1.8 billion operating budget proposal for the 2020-21 school year that includes a request for a $29.9 million local funding increase. School board members said they realize that the coronavirus pandemic will strain local, state and national budgets but that they have to lay out their needs regardless.
“I ask that the public continue to trust and support us as we recognize that this will seem hard and heavy at a time that everyone in our community is being hit in tremendous ways and everyone is experiencing some form of overwhelming exhaustion,” said school board member Monika Johnson-Hostler.
The school board is asking for the majority of its money from the state. But the $545.9 million it wants from the county, a 6-percent increase in funding, represents a major source of the district’s budget plan.
Commissioners approved a $45 million increase for schools last year, but the budget picture is different this year.
Wake County government could cut $30 million in local government services in the upcoming budget to offset the coronavirus’ financial hit, The News & Observer previously reported.
The county expects to lose millions in sales-tax revenue because of store closings and people staying home to comply with government orders to stop the spread of COVID-19.
School board says district has real needs
“We have real needs in our schools,” said school board member Chris Heagarty. “COVID-19 has highlighted just how bad some of those needs really are.
“I think we have to be honest and I think we have to tell the commissioners what educating our children really costs and we can hope that they come up with the money, and we can understand if they come back to us and ask us questions.”
The coronavirus pandemic has closed North Carolina’s public schools since mid-March. Wake is serving an average or more than 23,000 meals a day to families during the closures and has handed out 28,402 computers for students to use at home to continue learning online.
School leaders say $18.4 million of the $29.9 million increase is needed to fund state requirements, including more money for charter school students and rate increases for employee state benefits.
School board member Bill Fletcher said the remaining $11 million of the local funding increase is to provide “essential things for student success.” He says the $29.9 million increase is a modest one that’s part of an effort to ask the county to help fill the gap between what the state is providing and what the community demands.
“The reality is that the state perpetually underfunds public schools,” Fletcher said. “The percent of the budget to fund public schools continues to decline.”
This story was originally published May 6, 2020 at 11:24 AM.
