Kemp seeks to restore over half of Georgia school cuts

ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp want to restore more than half of Georgia’s cuts to K-12 education made last year, on top of the $1,000 bonuses he wants to pay to teachers from federal money.

With tax collections running ahead of what was predicted last spring, the Republican Kemp on Thursday proposed to add a net of $650 million to the current year’s budget, boosting state spending to $26.3 billion. Kemp proposes a $27.2 billion budget for the 2022 year beginning July 1, $935 million above current spending levels.

Legislative leaders had been signaling that schools could hope to recoup at best a third of the $950 million that was cut from Georgia’s K-12 funding formula last June, part of 10% cuts that were made basically across the board. Kemp, though, wants to give $567 million more to schools in the remaining months of the current budget year.

Kemp proposes total funding to the formula of $69 million less in the 2022 budget, in recognition of an enrollment decline. Like Republican legislative leaders, Kemp is declining a request from some school leaders to not monetarily penalize school districts for enrolling fewer students this year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Enrollment is likely to rebound at least partially next fall, because a large chunk of the student decline was related to kindergartners who were never enrolled in schools. That could mean lawmakers face a bill for a large midyear adjustment in January 2022.

Kemp’s proposals for this year and next year would leave Georgia’s Quality Basic Education formula more than $300 million short of full funding each year, a point of criticism for Democrats.