| County shortchanged
in school funding bill
RELATED HUR HERALD STORY Sweeping Changes In Works For School Funding
By David Hedges Publisher
thetimesrecord.net
Roane was one of a handful of counties shortchanged when the state legislature did some tweaking of the formula that funds local school systems.
House Bill 4588 adds $30 million to be distributed to counties, with the funds based on student population density in each county.
Some of the larger counties came out well, with Kanawha receiving an additional $3.2 million and Raleigh and Berkeley each gaining over $2 million.
Roane was one of nine counties that will get nothing from the bill. Others in that category include Clay, Mason, Ritchie and, ironically, Lincoln, where the school funding court case that resulted in what became known as the "Recht Decision" began.
"The rich get richer and the poor get poorer," David Kinison, Roane County's assistant superintendent of finance and administration, said about the bill passed during this year's legislative session.
Local officials had hoped the bill would address some problems in areas such as transportation, where rural counties have to spend more of their funding than more populated counties.
"In Kanawha County you might run a bus two blocks and pick up 20 students," Kinison said. "In Roane County it might be 20 miles."
Kinison said too much of the state formula is based on student population, which results in inequities in areas including transportation.
"You could cut the number of students in Roane County in half, and you might not be able to eliminate one bus," he said. "There would still be kids living up each hollow that have to go to school, and you have to provide transportation."
A major change to the formula included in the bill is dividing the 55 counties into four categories based on student population density. The counties placed in the "high" and "medium" density categories came out the big winners, while all of the counties that gained nothing in the bill were in the "low" category, including Roane, and the "sparse" category.
But perhaps the biggest change was the elimination of the double-weighting of special education students. Counties such as Roane that exceed the average for special education needs will actually be penalized under the bill.
Roane is one of only 12 counties in the state where voters have not approved an excess levy for schools. Kinison said those counties, in particular, are pinched when it comes to finding ways to cover costs.
Roane already has 17 more service positions (aides, bus operators, cooks, custodians and secretaries) than the state will pay for, and Kinison said any more cuts would have a serious impact on the county.
"We only want the state to fund the positions that they require, but they don't," he said. "Their answer is always to pay for it out of local funds, but that money only goes so far. It's already stretched as far as it will go."
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