Annual Grady Cluster Meeting Calls for Tax Reform

The Council of Intown Neighborhoods and Schools (CINS) held its annual Legislative Meeting Wednesday at . Over 50 people – including members of the Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education – attended the event to hear discussions on this year's theme: 2011 Legislative Agenda for Education.

CINS, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering schools in the Grady cluster, gathered a group of state representatives, civic leaders, and policy experts to participate in a roundtable discussion about current issues affecting education in Georgia.

Former President of the Atlanta Board of Education and current business and civic leader Joe Martin insisted that the state needs to contribute more toward education.

According to Martin's calculations, the state of Georgia currently spends 39.1 percent of its total state funds on education. Local school systems receive their share of these funds through calculations under the Quality Based Education (QBE) Formula.

The problem is that the QBE formula is “seriously outdated and unrealistic,” Martin said. Additionally, the state often decreases its calculated contribution, a process known as implementing austerity cuts.

As a result, local governments have had to contribute more funds and rely on federal stimulus money to meet educational needs, he said.

“Stimulus funds are running out,” Martin cautioned.

When coupled with the deep cuts proposed for the 2012 budget and the fact that local governments are not experiencing a surge in property tax revenue, Martin said there is “a critical problem here in Georgia” and the problems will be “worse in 2012.”

Budget cuts are implemented across the board in the state budget; education is not the only area significantly affected by decreased funding. As such, the solution is not simply decreasing another department's allotment and putting it toward education, Executive Director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute and roundtable participant Alan Essig said Wednesday.

“Unless we change the tax structure so that it increases . . . revenue is not going to come in,” Essig said.

Essig also stressed that tax changes are critical and must not be thwarted for political reasons.

“Everyone is not going to agree on everything. But, there is a way to do it, if [we] choose,” he said.

Karen Van Atta, the CINS representative for Springdale Park Elementary, said “the numbers are very depressing, very scary.”

Van Atta, who has two children at Springdale Park, said she is “feeling the call to action.”

Van Atta hopes that everyone in her neighborhood will get involved to ensure Georgia students are properly educated.

“Even the people on my street who don't have kids – it's going to take them, too.” Van Atta said. ““It's going to take a log of work and a lot of conversations.”

Representative Kathy Ashe encouraged parents and community leaders to also focus on discovering new ways to help students learn, especially by using modern technological advances.

“The time has come for your creative minds to figure out how we [should] do it differently,” she said.

Ultimate success in reforming education, though, will be determined by the strength of those who demand change.

Presence, said State Senator Jason Carter, is key.

“We want to see you at the Capitol. Don't just come to see the people you know. Go all over the place and be heard,” Carter said.