Fulton County Schools Superintendent Mike Looney said the school district needs to cut expenses by $95 million over the next four to five years or face financial ruin.
Looney gave his report during the annual FCS State of the Schools presentation held Oct. 27 at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center’s Byers Theatre. He said the school district’s financial house is in order, but it faces lower student enrollment, the increased cost of doing business, and an increasing amount of property tax revenue going to the state as its “Local Fair Share.”
“We have increased costs, lower revenue coming in, and if we didn’t do anything about it, if we just put our heads in the sand and ignored it, then, yes, we would be in financial ruin in four or five years,” Looney said.
FCS Board of Education Chair Kristin McCabe told Rough Draft Atlanta that the school district’s local fair share has been designated as 5 mills worth of property taxes. That’s approximately $250 million going to support rural school districts. McCabe said the state calculates based on property tax assessments. The state doesn’t use homestead and other exemptions in making its calculations.
McCabe said the federal government promises to give FCS 40 percent of what it needs for special education funding, but it only provides 11 percent. The school district spends approximately $243 million from its general fund for special education.
Read more at RoughDraftAtlanta.com.
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