Fairhope, Alabama.
SOLUTION TO FUNDING WOES?
At a council work session recently where various city funding proposals to supplement area county schools was being discussed, long-time city councilman Mike Ford suggested a state takeover of the financially-strapped Baldwin County school system may be the best outcome in the long run.
(video below)
"What happens if the state does take over? Would it help to cut out the $40 million we send them every year? What's wrong with the state taking over?"
Ford said he thought the county may be able to keep the money now being sent to other counties under the controversial 'Equity Funding' program, if the state took over operations from the Baldwin County School Board.
Ford: "Since we haven't been able to do anything with schools ourselves ... . Seems to me, if they take it over ... they will see the necessity of what we are going through ... and cut out this equity funding situation."
After a few moments of stunned silence, councilmember Brewer: "That's not going to happen."
EAC member Hill Robinson: "Its a myth were not getting money back."
[Councilman Burrell told the Times' education reporter several days later: "I don’t want the state to take over the system. I think we are a long way away from that ever happening"; the district's school board representative Cecil Christenberry called Ford's ideas "scary, if he really said that."
EAC member Bob Riggs explained to Ford that every county in the state is required to contribute the equivalent of 10 mils to the equity funding program; but since property values are considerably higher in Baldwin County we contribute a greater monetary amount than most of the other counties.
The money is given back on a per-pupil basis though: the same ratio for every county.
SOLUTION TO FUNDING WOES?
Ford, seated at head of table |
At a council work session recently where various city funding proposals to supplement area county schools was being discussed, long-time city councilman Mike Ford suggested a state takeover of the financially-strapped Baldwin County school system may be the best outcome in the long run.
(video below)
"What happens if the state does take over? Would it help to cut out the $40 million we send them every year? What's wrong with the state taking over?"
Ford said he thought the county may be able to keep the money now being sent to other counties under the controversial 'Equity Funding' program, if the state took over operations from the Baldwin County School Board.
Ford: "Since we haven't been able to do anything with schools ourselves ... . Seems to me, if they take it over ... they will see the necessity of what we are going through ... and cut out this equity funding situation."
After a few moments of stunned silence, councilmember Brewer: "That's not going to happen."
EAC member Hill Robinson: "Its a myth were not getting money back."
[Councilman Burrell told the Times' education reporter several days later: "I don’t want the state to take over the system. I think we are a long way away from that ever happening"; the district's school board representative Cecil Christenberry called Ford's ideas "scary, if he really said that."
Bob Riggs |
The money is given back on a per-pupil basis though: the same ratio for every county.
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