Our Take: State funding woes‭, rising education costs and shrinking enrollment ‬

The cost of education, along with everything else in life, is on the rise. That is going to hit close to home with local property owners thanks to proposed tax increases by both the Laurens County and Dublin City school systems. 

County taxpayers might see a near 7 percent increase from the school portion of their tax bill, while property owners in the city could be hit with a staggering 25 percent increase. The tax rates are not set in stone yet. Each board must host the legally required three public hearings before adopting the proposed millage rates. The final figures may change, but you can count on shelling out more dollars for local schools.

On the county side, the board of education is stuck between handing down a tax increase or forfeiting state equalization money. The LCBOE must collect at 14 mils to qualify for its $7.2 million share of funds collected from wealthy school districts and distributed to systems with smaller tax bases. That’s not enough of a rollback to nullify the tax increase caused by new property assessments. 

That program is a complicated subject with the Dublin City Board of Education. On paper the city has a wealthy, robust tax digest thanks to industrial investment in the area. However, abatements granted to those facilities prevent tax dollars from flowing to the city schools’ coffers, even though the vast majority of the student body is economically disadvantaged. 

Such abatements are approved by the Dublin-Laurens County Development Authority. The superintendent of the Dublin City School System sits on the development authority’s governing board. 

Critics of the city schools point to its history of financial mismanagement, highlighted by the solar panels in front of Dublin High School, and the system’s top-heavy pay structure. The state’s QBE formula, which has been fully funded in recent years, subsidizes schools based on the student count. The allotment includes dollars to help offset pay for leadership roles necessary for the function of each school system such as superintendents, social workers and special education directors. Additional pay comes from local tax dollars, as well as funding for non-vital roles, like public relations specialists and athletic positions. 

For instance, state records show the Laurens County School System received about $106,500 to offset wages for its superintendent. Data shows the county’s superintendent was paid about $181,000 last year. Meanwhile the Dublin City School System receives roughly $98,500 to provide a salary for a superintendent according to the 2024 initial QBE allotment. In 2023 the superintendent was paid about $234,000 in wages. 

Also worth considering is as money spent and collected for schools continues to rise, the number of students in area classrooms is declining. 

Enrollment in the county system peaked in 2014 state records show with a student body of about 6,680. The current enrollment stands at about 6,350. However, the number of students at the high school level has increased slightly, from 1,790 a decade ago to about 1,860 as of March. In the city, the number of students has decreased continuously for about three decades. In March 1995, the system had about 3,870. That figure has dropped to just over 2,370 this year. The current number of students at Dublin’s two high schools is 615, down from 1,106 in 1995, one of the oldest records available on the state department of education website. 

Georgia Department of Public Health data shows Laurens County with a steady birth rate, In 2023, 632 births were recorded here, compared to 1994’s number, 658 births. The figure ebbs and flows over the decades but stays steady. So while budgets have skyrocketed, the number of pupils served has stagnated at best. 

Our teachers are doing the best they can, fighting an uphill battle making up ground lost during the pandemic and using what limited resources an area like ours has available. It is up to our school boards to oversee the schools as well as represent the interests of their constituents. 

We encourage the public to attend the upcoming public hearings and the boards to do what best for our students and community.