raleigh free press

school funding, a primer: part 2

After an unintentional hiatus, I’m back with the second half of our local school funding discussion; this time with hopefully a bit more of an infusion of brevity.

Last time, we explained how funding is controlled, the dynamics between boards of education and boards of commissioners, and the fundamental issues surrounding funding priorities in Wake. As we discussed, the bulk of school funding is appropriated by the state of NC and is beyond the purview of this article (simple answer: state income tax, more or less). This time, I’d like to wrap it up by asking the question: where are the sources of the local bit of school funding?

Essentially, the local funding comes from property taxes. With all the explosive growth around here, you’d think there would be no problem paying for schools to accompany that growth. You’d be wrong, because of two basic factors: the relatively low property tax rate in Wake Co., and the lack of impact fees.

First, property taxes provide the lion’s share of the funding for schools. Our property taxes in Wake are well below the tax rates of all other urban counties in NC, most of which I would humbly offer are less desirable places to live than Wake County. Without getting into too much number crunching (which you can find here: www.wcpss.net/faqs/582.html), our property tax rate in Wake is surprisingly low. Further, the tax on property in Wake is the lowest of any Triangle county except for Chatham, which just underwent a recent revaluation. Simply put, the taxes paid on property in Wake County pay for schools, with some small exceptions. There are many positives to such a relatively low tax rate; paying for school funding to keep up with the growth of the county is one of the few pitfalls of such a rate. Don’t worry, though, don’t look for any of our commissioners to buck up and vote for the increase of a nasty t-a-x…their re-elections are more important than that.

While I’ll pass on the opportunity to craft a sentence using the terms “developers”, “lobby”, “pocket”, “general assembly”, “local government”, and “burn incense to the altars of real estate interests”, the fact remains that the construction/real estate lobbies in this state (and Wake co., specifically) have a quite comfortable deal. Impact fees effectively do not play any role in paying for Wake Schools. What are impact fees? They are one time fees on new construction to pay for the commiserate impact that such new construction will have on the local infrastructure. Sounds too simple to be true, right? It is. Had there been such fees for the last fifteen to twenty years, I’d not be needing to write these columns and the annual hand wringing over funding wouldn’t happen. It would help to have impact fees enacted now, but the dent they would put in the overall need would be small; still, I advocate them.

Another salient stat for number crunching is per-pupil expenditure (PPE), which is just like it sounds: the amount of money spent to educate a student in Wake for one year. For Wake County, the PPE is a hair over $2,000, regardless of the fact that nobody under the age of four score and seven years ever uses the word “pupil.” In contrast, Charlotte-Meck., Chapel Hill-Carrboro, Guilford, and Durham schools all have higher PPEs; only Forsyth has a lower statistic among urban districts. State-wide, of course, the NC contribution for PPE is essentially equal.

While I realize that there are many other intricacies to school funding in Wake County, I trust that some of the most basic and germane questions have been addressed in these past two columns. If you have further such curiosities, feel free to leave them in the comments section. Finally, I encourage all readers to remember their municipal elections this Tuesday, October 9; despite popular political misconception, local elections and the subsequent governments often have a greater impact on our daily lives than any national votes. There are several important town/city elections, as well as three bond referenda, and—of course—a majority of the school board seats. See my previous column on some major issues to consider in that particular election. Happy voting and I’ll see you all next time for something not related to local education issues.