By Tim Gardner
The Public School Forum of North Carolina has released its annual Local School Finance Study, highlighting trends in local spending in public schools across the state’s 100 counties.
The report, which is based on data from the 2020-2021 school year, reveals significant disparities in counties’ ability to allocate funds to public schools. Specific details about the Public-School Forum findings in the High Country counties of Avery, Watauga, Ashe and Mitchell are highlighted in this article.
School funding is generally considered a major factor in education equity, so such data and related statistics are essential in tracking and obtaining, and then maintaining progress.
The study focuses on the amount counties spend on schools as well as each county’s investment relative to their taxable resources, the Public School Forum stated in a press release.
The study’s primary findings included those in the following categories: Tax Base per ADM (Average Daily Membership); Ability to Pay; Base Local Appropriations; Total Local Appropriations; and Funding Effort.
Avery and Watauga rank in the top five by ability to pay.
The ability to pay is “a measure of a county’s per student fiscal capacity to support public schools,” according to the Public School Forum. The Local School Finance Study mandates that large, urban counties combining high adjusted property valuations with broad-based economic activity and high per capita incomes usually rank highest in this measuring scale.
The top five counties ranked by ability to pay:
1-Dare County
2-Brunswick County
3-Carteret County
4-Avery County
5-Watauga County
Avery’s 2020-2021 Tax Base per ADM is: $2,854,748.55. Watauga’s 2020-2021 Tax Base per ADM is: $2,531,887.73
Other High Country counties and their state ranking by ability to pay and their 2020-2021 tax base per ADM included:
Ashe, Number 17, $1,612,508.86
Mitchell, Number 31, $1,172,577.09
The bottom five ranked by ability to pay in order are: Greene County, Robeson County, Hoke County, Scotland County, and Sampson County.
Funding effort is a measure that “compares a county’s base local appropriations and revenue per student.” The Local School Finance Study found that “low-wealth counties with comparatively high spending levels tend to rank highest in this measure.”
The five ranked by funding effort in order include: Scotland County, Orange County, Cleveland County, Halifax County, and Sampson County.
In order, the bottom five ranked by funding effort are: Swain County, Dare County, Jackson County, Clay County, and Carteret County.
The 2023 Total Funding Effort Rankings and 2020-2021 Funding Effort Percentages for Avery, Watauga, Ashe and Mitchell counties are:
Ashe, Number 85, 19.20 percent
Mitchell, Number 87, 18.05 percent
Watauga, Number 89, 17.04 percent
Avery, Number 94, 14.65 percent
In North Carolina, teacher salaries are funded by both the state and the local district. The state is required to contribute a set amount of funds to each teacher’s salary. But, the differences in property tax bases across counties in the state result in a wide variety in the amount each district can contribute toward supplementing teacher pay using local tax dollars.
More urban counties often have wealthier property tax bases and as a result, can contribute more toward teacher pay supplements than rural counties with smaller tax bases.
The Public-School Forum report noted that this gap between more and less affluent districts has continued to widen over time.
In 2021, the North Carolina General Assembly allocated $100 million to help local districts supplement how they pay their teachers. That number increased to $170 million in 2022.
Late North Carolina State Budgets have become the norm for lawmakers, whether it’s because of a stalemate between the Republican-controlled legislature (House and Senate) and Democrat Governor Roy Cooper and other Democrats, as it has been the past few years, or this year, when the budget debate dragged on because the fight was House against Senate. A $30 billion budget finally passed last week in both the House and Senate. It goes to Cooper for him to sign it, veto it, or let it become law without his signature after ten (10) days. He said that he intends to let it become law without his signature as he and most lawmaking Democrats strongly objected to some of its content. Pay raises could be processed soon since the budget has become law. They will be retroactive to July 1, 2023 when the new fiscal year began.
State workers will get 7 percent pay raises under the provisions of the budget. It will provide most state employees a 4 percent raise this year and a 3 percent raise next year.
For teachers, the raises are more complex. The budget rearranges the salary schedule used to pay teachers based on years their years of experience. Beginner teacher pay would jump from $37,000.00 to $39,000.00 and again up to $41,000.00 next year, an increase of 10.8 percent over both years combined. More experienced teachers will receive smaller pay increases of between $1,000.00 and $1,800.00 per year, with the larger increases going to less experienced teachers.
The salary schedule increases range from approximately 5 percent to 9 percent for early-and mid-career teachers, over both years of the budget combined. The increases fall to 3.6 percent for teachers with 15 or more years’ experience.
Cooper proposed an 18 percent increase this year in teacher pay.
As of this year, North Carolina ranks number 34 in the nation for average teacher pay, but 46 out of the fifty states for beginner teacher pay, according to the National Education Association.
Some lawmakers have also noted that there’s also money in the budget for rural school districts to pay extra supplements to their teachers. There’s also another program as part of the budget that can provide extra pay to advanced teachers chosen by their local districts.
In 2020-2021, each of the four counties’ compiled data in the below, directly-related categories were:
*Average Teacher Salary Supplement-
Watauga-$2,355.00
Avery-$1,476.00
Ashe-$600.00
Mitchell-$108.00
*Teacher Vacancy Rates-
Ashe-0.46 percent
Watauga-0.51 percent
Avery-3.10 percent
Mitchell-3.97 percent
*Teacher Attrition Rates-
Watauga-0.00 percent
Mitchell-14.72 percent
Ashe-14.93 percent
Avery-19.05 percent
The Local School Finance Study also found that “there are significant disparities in the ability of counties with different levels of wealth to provide their schools with the resources they need.”
The report found that in 2020-21, the 10 counties with the highest average local spending per student contributed $3,189.00 more per student than the bottom 10 counties.
The funding profiles for each county in the state, which include student demographics, base local appropriations per average daily membership (ADM), total local appropriations per ADM, and the 2020-21 revenue per ADM.
The 2023 base local appropriations rankings and 2020-2021 base local appropriations per ADM for Avery, Watauga, Ashe and Mitchell counties are:
Watauga, Number 13, $3,128.18
Avery, Number 20, $2,696.44
Ashe, Number 49, $1,923.77
Mitchell, Number 85, $1,323.27
Also, 2023 local school finance rankings for those counties among the state’s 100 counties based in other criteria include:
Property Value Ranking-
Avery-3
Watauga-5
Ashe-17
Mitchell-31
The Total 2023 Local Appropriations Rankings and 2020-2021 Total Local Appropriations with Supplemental Funding per ADM for Avery, Watauga, Ashe and Mitchell counties included:
Avery-Number 15, $3,601.00
Watauga-Number 25, $3,128.00
Ashe-Number 46, $2,483.00
Mitchell-Number 55, $2,332.00
The 2020-2021 Revenue per ADM for those counties (rounded off) include:
Avery-$18,406.00
Watauga-$18,353.00
Ashe-$10,020.00
Mitchell-$7,331.00
School system superintendents in Avery, Watauga, and Mitchell County offered High Country Press the following statements about the study:
*Dr. Dan Brigman, Avery County Schools: “We appreciate the state legislators, the Governor and our Avery County Commissioners for the funding they provide our schools. We (school officials) are stewards of the funding we receive and will continue to work hard in providing the best services for all our students pre-Kindergarten through twelfth grade with the taxpayers’ money. It’s good to know that Avery ranks near the top of some of thePublic School Forum of North Carolina’s annual Local School Finance Study rankings and in the mainstream of most. We appreciate the hard work of those who compiled the study. The study’s ratings are certainly a big help to all school systems across the state.”
*Dr. Leslie Alexander, Watauga County Schools: “I am excited and hopeful that the state budget will include increased compensation for educators. We know that attracting and retaining high-quality educators is critical for student success, and this is becoming increasingly difficult across the state. We are grateful for our (Watauga) county commissioners who collaborate with us on many issues such as offering competitive teacher stipends to ensuring safe and well-maintained school facilities. We are fortunate to have a strong partnership with a common goal of providing the best environment possible for our students, teachers, and staff.”
*Chad Calhoun, Mitchell County Schools: “As always, we appreciate state and local support through funding for our students. It is our belief that our kids are worth the investment as they are our future. We (school system) do not think anyone could go wrong by increasing funding for our students. We appreciate some of the additions in the last few years from our Mitchell County Commissioners such as funding 1-to-1 Technology (an educational program where schools provide each student with their own personal learning device, which are often computers, laptops, tablets, or Chromebooks) and additional year-to-year funding for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), and an increase last year of one-time funding to address budget shortfalls for funding locally paid staff and child nutrition workers’ salaries. It would be our hope that these funding sources become permanent in the future. Also, with the increase in costs of fuel, food, etc. with our economy, it’s so important to fund education in our county.”
Of the four High Country counties detailed in this article, Watauga currently has by far the largest number of students with 4,432. Ashe County has 2,767 students. Avery has 1,769, and Mitchell has the smallest number with 1,706.
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