{"id":11951,"date":"2012-05-23T15:00:55","date_gmt":"2012-05-23T19:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=11951"},"modified":"2012-05-23T15:00:56","modified_gmt":"2012-05-23T19:00:56","slug":"wakes-per-pupil-spending-how-low-can-you-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/2012\/05\/23\/wakes-per-pupil-spending-how-low-can-you-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Wake&#8217;s Per-Pupil Spending: How Low Can You Go?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><\/strong>The talking points of Wake County schools 2012-13 budget are that it asks county commissioners for an increase in funding and protects teachers. The quieter truth is that the school system\u2019s overall budget has not increased for five years and 13,000 students have since moved to the county, driving per-pupil spending down.<\/p>\n<p>In per-pupil spending, Wake is at the bottom of North Carolina (96 of 115) and North Carolina is at the bottom of the nation (45th), according to the most recent statistics from NC Department of Public Instruction and the National Education Association.<\/p>\n<p>This year Wake is proposing to spend $8,255 per student, which is well below the national average. But, the schools generally spend less than they budget for. In 2010-11, Wake budgeted $8,307 per student, but spent $7,561.<\/p>\n<p><center><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/www-958.ibm.com\/me\/visualizations\/603a3d44a47511e1a4fb000255111976\/comments\/603d22dea47511e1a4fb000255111976.js?width=425&#038;height=350\"><\/script><\/center><br \/>\n<em>This data comes from the National Center for Education Statistics and represents fiscal year 2009.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When it comes to the budget, Superintendent Tony Tata often touts a report that suggests <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wakeedpartnership.org\/In%20Context%2006.09.11.html\">Wake is one of the leanest running districts<\/a> in the nation.<\/p>\n<p>When Chief Financial Officer David Neter uses that word in a sentence it\u2019s usually to say \u201cwe\u2019re about as lean as we can get,\u201d as he did at the board\u2019s May 1 meeting. He added, \u201cIt would be difficult to cut any further without having a direct impact on people and classrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michael Maher of NC State University agrees that it\u2019s not a question of <em>if<\/em> cuts hurt but <em>when.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe [Wake County] get pretty good results for the money we\u2019re spending,\u201dMaher said.<\/p>\n<p>But, he said, the question left unanswered in his mind is, could we be doing better with more?<\/p>\n<p>Bigger districts like Wake get less money in state and federal dollars and are forced to fill the gap with county appropriations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-11960\" title=\"Stack Graph PPE\" src=\"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Stack-Graph-PPE-1024x644.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"614\" height=\"386\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system gets the highest per-pupil amount of county appropriations in the state. Wake ranks 20<sup>th<\/sup> in the state in county appropriations, 113<sup>th<\/sup> in state money and 108<sup>th<\/sup> in federal dollars.<\/p>\n<p>Wake and Charlotte-Mecklenberg schools have similar budget trajectories. They are the first and second largest school systems in the state and are month the 20 largest districts in the nation.<\/p>\n<p><center><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/www-958.ibm.com\/me\/visualizations\/32fe3f76a0f911e19261000255111976\/comments\/3300c5b6a0f911e19261000255111976.js?width=425&#038;height=350\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n<p><a name=\"_GoBack\"><\/a>The spike in Charlotte\u2019s proposed budget for this year comes from asking the county commissioners for significantly more money. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/news\/2012\/05\/22\/no-tax-increases-in-county-budget-86-positions-cut\/\">Like Wake,<\/a> it appears Charlotte <a href=\"http:\/\/www.charlotteobserver.com\/2012\/05\/17\/3245260\/cms-to-county-we-need-more-than.html\">won\u2019t get the full funding<\/a> it asked for.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think there could be some really negative outcomes for us,\u201dMaher said. \u201cThese type of cuts hurt you in the long term\u2026 What are the long term consequences for these children who are entering kindergarten or kids who are in fourth or fifth grade who\u2019ve seen three consecutive years of cuts?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Maher points to fewer language classes in elementary school as proof of the potential impacts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook at Wake County and how many elementary schools do we now offer second language in? It wasn\u2019t too long ago that we offered second language in most of our schools,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>You can email Will Huntsberry at wehberry@raleighpublicrecord.org or follow him on twitter @willhuntsberry or #wakeschoolboard<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Much has been made of the school board&#8217;s decision to ask county commissioners for an increase to its budget as well as the fact that it\u2019s not cutting teachers. The Record takes a larger look at the budget, and Wake\u2019s rank near the bottom of the nation in per pupil spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24024,"featured_media":11956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,23,55],"tags":[77],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11951"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24024"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}