In Georgia, the quality of public education often hinges on two things: how many students attend your local school, and how much money your homes are worth.
This is a result of the 1985 Quality Basic Education (QBE) Act, which was enacted to combat the inequalities in funding among Georgia public school systems after the call for reforms.
The state’s funding formula, established under the QBE Act, relies heavily on student enrollment numbers. These numbers are used in calculating how much money schools receive based on a biannual student count. But when enrollment and property wealth can drastically vary from one county to another, can this model really be fair?
How Georgia’s school funding formula works:
The Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula was considered innovative when it was first implemented. But nearly 40 years later, it has yet to be updated to meet the needs of today’s society and economy.
Essentially, the QBE formula allocates funding based on Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) student counts taken in October and March. These counts measure how many students are enrolled and what types of classes they take, broken into six daily segments with each segment being assigned a “weight.”
For example, kindergarten students carry a weight of 1.6715 while high school students have a baseline of 1.0. These weights are meant to reflect the estimated cost of providing instruction for each student. The number of students is multiplied by these weights and a base funding amount, which is set annually by the state, yields a district’s funding.
What happens when enrollment drops?
David Schaefer, Vice President of Research and Policy at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute (GBPI), says with a formula almost entirely based on enrollment, funding is sure to be lost when student enrollment dips.
The formula doesn’t account for costs like facility maintenance, transportation, utilities, or equipment expenses. In rural districts where student numbers are low and school bus travel distances are far, this is especially difficult.
“You can lose students and lose money, but you still have to pay for the school building and other fixed costs,” Schaefer said.
Wealth disparities in Fulton County vs Towns County:
It could be worth comparing Fulton County, one of Georgia’s wealthiest and most populous districts, to Towns County, a small rural district with limited property wealth. Property tax revenue is a key part to state funding, but wealthier areas collect significantly more money. This is because property taxes are based on property values, and in wealthier, densely populated areas, the volume and higher property values generate more revenue.
To balance this out, the state provides equalization grants to districts with low property value-based revenue.. However, according to Schaefer, “they capped the equalization grants during the Great Recession. So they’re not as effective as they used to be at supporting low-wealth school districts.”
The last year the Equalization Program was fully funded was back in 2009, with $557 million in funds allocated to eligible school districts. The grants have been capped since 2010, with the last cap being set at $436 million by the governor’s budget in 2013. This means poorer districts are still left with fewer resources, fewer teachers, fewer programs, and fewer opportunities for their students.
Sparsity grants are another way the state has tried to bridge the wealth gap. They were created for districts with low population density, and rural schools with low enrollment that have trouble bringing in the same amount of funding as urban schools.
Sparsity grants are typically used in rural counties for student transportation funding.
“One of the things that you can imagine would show up in a sparsity grant situation is school buses have to go a lot more miles to pick up fewer students, because people just live far apart,” Schaefer said.
Underfunding in public schools:
Between 2003 and 2022, Georgia underfunded public schools every single year based on its own QBE standards. Schools were receiving on average around $500 less per student than they should have based on the funding formula.
“We’ve literally had kids during those two decades, starting in kindergarten, going all the way through 12th grade and graduating, never having a school that was fully funded,” Schaefer said.
Beyond QBE shortfalls, teacher pay has failed to keep up with inflation as well.
“Teacher salaries have lost around $8,000 due to inflation over the last 17-18 years,” Schaefer noted, which is a huge loss when many Georgia teachers earn roughly $50,000 annually.
Other areas like transportation have also seen reduced state support. Districts are now responsible for covering rising costs in diesel, maintenance, and replacement buses, further stretching already thin budgets.
Why stick with enrollment based funding?
Despite the issues, Georgia, like most states, continues to rely on enrollment-based funding. Schaefer points out one reason: “It does keep up with the student population if it’s done correctly.”
But he’s quick to add that the QBE formula hasn’t been revised since 1985, and that makes it unfit for modern challenges, especially when it comes to supporting students with special needs.
Only in 2024 did Georgia include an “opportunity weight” in its funding, which was a small victory for equity advocates. The state had previously been one of only six without that type of weight. The opportunity weight adds a weight of 0.5 to low-income students, and increases funding by around $1,000 per student in the state’s lowest performing districts.
In the beginning of 2025, Georgia lawmakers did introduce legislation to add a poverty weight to the current formula. The new addition would have increased funding for schools with a high population of students living in poverty. The grant was set to have cost about $300 million. However, it did not pass during this year’s session.
The push for reforms:
In 2022, the Georgia Senate formed a study committee to review the QBE formula. But, as Schaefer explained, “those findings were not really implemented.”
With little momentum from lawmakers and a history of stalled reforms, the burden often falls back onto the local districts and communities to support their schools.
“From an equity perspective, this is a very long running conversation that has been going on,” he said. “Is it fair for a child in Towns County to receive less of a quality education just because they live in Towns County?”
What parents and communities may not know:
Many families don’t realize how much of school funding comes from local property taxes or how inconsistent those sources can be. Schaefer highlighted the significance of being informed on this topic, noting that on average 48% of school funding typically comes from local sources, another 40% from the state, and about 12% from federal funds.
But that balance can vary wildly from one district to another due to population and geography, with some districts receiving as high as 40% in federal funds. For example, Bibb County earns around 40% from property taxes, while neighboring Monroe County collects around 55% in revenue from theirs.
And now, federal support may also be in jeopardy. Georgia currently receives more than $3 billion in federal education funding, with much of it directed to Title I schools, which are schools with a high low-income student population that receive extra financial assistance. Students with disabilities, and school meal programs also receive federal funding. Any future cuts could deeply impact Black and Hispanic students, and students in high-need areas.
A system in need of modernization:
As Georgia continues to struggle with school funding equity, other U.S. states, particularly in the Northeast, have continued to improve their own systems.
Schaefer emphasized taking inspiration from those other states that are doing well in school funding.
“You’ll see that the New England states are really making a huge effort,” he said. “They’ve got a better adequacy rank than we do. They’ve got a better fairness rank than we do, so I always find it helpful to look at what other states are doing.”
To ensure every Georgia student has a fair shot at a quality education, regardless of their zip code, more than a formula tweak is needed.
