School funding question top task for Deal's education panel

ATLANTA (AP) A panel appointed by Gov. Nathan Deal to review the way Georgia funds education heads into a key meeting this week.

Deal asked for recommendations by Aug. 1 on changes to the state's complicated formula for funding schools from his Education Reform Commission. A subcommittee began work on the funding issue in February and on Thursday plans to continue firming up its preliminary suggestions to simplify the formula and letting districts change the way teacher salaries are determined.

Charles Knapp, chairman of the commission and a former University of Georgia president, called the meeting a ``critical time'' for the funding subcommittee.

``We've been talking thus far conceptually, and now we're really starting to work the numbers,'' he said.

The funding group's early outlines would replace Georgia's current formula of more than 18 components with a three-part model. Each student would receive a ``base'' amount of funding, with additional funding for student characteristics including poverty and state priorities such as reading proficiency by third grade. Grants for other purposes also would be available.

Knapp said subcommittee members plan to look at a model incorporating those ideas at Thursday's subcommittee meeting. He said that will demonstrate how compensating for those student characteristics will affect the ``base'' amount available statewide.

Deal, a Republican, has said overhauling school funding will be the focus of his second and final term in office throughout the 2014 governors' race. If he's successful, it would mark the most significant change to the formula since its 1986 approval despite attempts under two previous governors.

Commission members were well aware of that history, said Susan Andrews, a former school superintendent now with the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget who is assisting the funding group. Instead of following previous groups' effort to determine what it costs to educate a child, they're focusing on how state funding is divvied up once lawmakers set a total amount.

Deal set clear expectations for their work. He asked for a simpler formula overall with more freedom for school districts to decide how state money is spent and allowing state money to ``follow'' each student to their public school.

Education stakeholders have watched the commission closely, particularly the funding subcommittee. Teachers' salaries have been a key point for those discussing school funding, particularly on letting districts develop their own systems focused on students' performance rather than training or experience.

Tim Callahan, a spokesman for the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, said members were happy to see the committee acknowledge it costs more to educate some students. He said they are concerned that teachers' experience could become less important for determining salaries.

``I think it will be a real missed opportunity if educators next fall return to school and say `They didn't listen to us, and this is another top-down governors' group foisting their opinions on us,''' Callahan said.