Last week, the Clarke County Board of Education shared out 6 proposals for the sake of improving the quality of education. It was presented to the legislative delegation last week.
One of the issues addressed in the proposal was related to the 34-years old Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula, the major difference between the pay of the pre-K and the elementary teachers, recruiting new teachers, and retention.
CCBD Members are all set to improve public education
The state Republican Spencer Frye said – it’s too difficult to get Republicans for funding public education.
Also, it’s the Republican Party group who handles both the legislature houses and even the governor’s house. They all have locked it up, and no Republican group – be it the Athens, Houston Gaines – attend any town hall meeting that’s been conducted.
While the legislature of Georgia is planning to fund QBE this year. Even though this move is praisable, there’s one issue here. The formula that provides the local district schools with dollars was prepared in the year 1983. Things have changed, like a lot many things.
During that time, the school thinking and technology level was so much different. Even the way of teaching has evolved a lot with time.
There’s another metric of funding, and that is transportation. District board member Kara Dyckman said, in 1991 almost 54% of the transportation cost of the Clarke County children was taken care of, of which now only 15% cost is covered by the state. Therefore, she adds the school district has to make up with the difference.
Frye still thinks one of the main issues that still remains important is resolving the pay-difference of the Pre-K teachers. He also adds, ‘as per my knowledge, I am only the Georgia House Member with the kids studying in the public school’.
The legislature is currently focussing only on the teaching sector, as it is the only profession that most of the members understand compared to any other profession.