The days of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners giving the Guilford County Schools everything the school board asks for are clearly over.
This year, the Guilford County Board of Education requested a $55.5 million increase for the school system’s operating and capital budgets for fiscal year 2024-2025, which begins July 1; however, the county manager’s proposed budget presented on Thursday, May 16, calls for the county to give the schools an increase of only $8,371,927.
The Board of Commissioners could increase that amount – in fact, it’s a good bet they will – but, even with a few extra millions thrown in by the board before the final budget is adopted in June, the final number will get nowhere near what the schools were requesting.
Of the $8 million and change increase proposed for the coming fiscal year, the county is allocating just over $5.87 million for operations – such as salaries and paying heating bills, etc. – while $2.5 million is to be used for capital projects such as building repairs and buying new HVAC units.
In his annual budget message to the commissioners, County Manager Mike Halford stated that “Normal revenue growth next year will not support the more than $55.5 million operating and capital budget increase that has been requested by the Board of Education.”
He said that fully funding that request without additional revenue, would mean “eliminating 30 county departments, whether or not those departments provide mandated services.”
It’s important to remember that the $55.5 million request is the increase requested by the school system. The recommended budget includes $266 million for Guilford County Schools’ operating budget. Roughly 45 percent of the county’s budget goes to education (which includes funding for Guilford Technical Community College). Halford said he determined the amount of the increase by keeping that percentage the same this year as last year.
The school system gets money each year from the federal, state and county governments, and Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston has been leading an effort to get the cities and towns of Guilford County to help fund the schools as well, however, so far, that effort appears to be going nowhere.
The commissioners will put a quarter-cent sales tax increase option on the ballot this November, and they will pledge for that additional estimated $25 million each year will be used to increase salaries in the school system. However, the citizens of Guilford County have never voted for a sales tax increase before.
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I’ll never forget the late Carolyn Coleman. I met her a few times at the home of Alma Adams when Alma lived in Liberty Valley. They were friends.
We were NOT on the same page politically, but she was friendly enough to this white boy (as was Alma Adams).
Two things stick in my memory about her. We were talking about the Sales Tax on groceries, infamously imposed by “Food Tax Terry” Sanford in 1961 amid much furor. It’s just very regressive, hurting low income working families particularly. I had brought up this subject because I felt sure it would be an issue we could agree on.
Oh no! She was adamantly AGAINST repealing of the Food Tax – because it would benefit rich people in addition to poor people. So she would cut off her nose to spite her face. In other words, she would deny a great benefit to thousands of struggling working families in North Carolina because it might also benefit a few rich families.
I was genuinely shocked. That’s just spite. Or socialism.
Sorry for seeming to digress, but the reason she came to mind is because a few months later she publicly uttered a sentiment as a Guilford County Commissioner which I remember thinking that I could finally agree with – but not in the way she intended.
She said – “We never seem to find enough money for our public schools”.
Ain’t that the truth.
God Bless You Carolyn, even though we never agreed politically on anything.
And the crap government schools already get way too much money.
Hear, hear !
As a product of the “crap government schools” I think it is critical that we have well funded public schools and pay our teachers what they deserve. I have benefitted from some of the best educators in the county, not because they were doing it for the money, but because they had a passion to teach! It is a long game, so get the idea of instant ROI out of your heads. Dumbing down our public schools by underfunding them is truly shooting ourselves in the foot. Judging from some of the crap in the Rhino, it’s clear that education should be made a priority.
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I agree, “Nope”.
US High School students regularly rank around 27th or 28th in global testing, behind many Third World countries whose budgets are infinitesimal compared to ours.
I too believe that our teachers should be paid what they’re worth, so we need to reduce their remuneration so they become the 27th best paid teachers in the World.
Fair enough?
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That sums it up perfectly Austin.
Hopefully the trend continues and all vote NO to Skips more tax request. The schools , just like city and county governments , need to cut out the deadwood employees instead of having top heavy assistants and other social programs that drain the budget. Money continues to be thrown to the schools and year end grades continue to regress.
I applaud Manager Halford for standing up to the Peoples School Board and their outrageously ridiculous demand for OUR tax dollars. Now to see if stands his ground on this or if Skippy and his cronies cave to their buddies and give them what they want…not need, want.
Good little Manager…give those Commissioners something to do and fodder to run for reelection!
In all of my 61 years on this planet, it never ceases to baffle my increasingly scattered brain, how seemingly civilized, well-meaning, and adequately educated folks put such an unending amount of faith in politicians. I consider politicians to be in a category just below car sales and those freakish pyramid scheme shysters. There is no other group of people who give us such hope every few years and yet for decades upon decades have steadfastly disappointed their constituents they were elected to serve and dishonored the office for which they were privileged to hold. If you can name one politician who doesn’t fit this mold, then you are most definitely just as disillusioned, unethical, aloof, autocratic, conceited, egotistical, haughty, pompous, prideful and you fit in well with these elected folks whom you continue to put so much faith in.
I agree – except that car salesmen are much more honorable than politicians, in my experience.
Until there is accountability in our schools (grade level reading, writing, arithmetic, and science) I am NOT in favor of giving another dime to administrators and educators.
Abolish the Department of Education and ban unions without accountability!
Money will not buy a good education. Abe Lincoln & Harry Truman come to mind.
You’re right, Miller. The financial Black Hole that is the Government Schools system ingests vast amounts of money and excretes the most poorly educated students in the free world.
It’s a scandal – but the political Left enables it because it turns out Democrat voters, by the millions. And the “educators” are 90% Democrat. They know which side their bread is buttered.