Today, in a letter to the appropriations chairs of the Georgia General Assembly, Governor Nathan Deal outlined the upward amount of revised revenue for the coming fiscal year.
Today, in a letter to the appropriations chairs of the Georgia General Assembly, Governor Nathan Deal outlined the upward amount of revised revenue for the coming fiscal year. While there is a long list of items that will receive additional or new funding, the most surprising and welcome is just over $166 million towards the Quality Basic Education funding formula or "QBE". QBE is the filter by which state dollars are allocated to each school that covers everything school and student related. During the recent financial downturn starting about ten years ago, QBE has been underfunded. Gov. Deal inherited an underfunding amount of almost $1 Billion and has slowly worked to decrease that amount as state revenues have rebounded.
With this latest announcement, that $1 Billion deficit has been wiped clean and Georgia's students will be fully funded by the state for the first time in a decade. This news comes as the 2017-2018 legislative session draws to a close and is overshadowed by the passing of an education policy giant, former Governor Zell Miller, who will lie in state at the Capitol this week.
Also included in the Governor's budget letter are increases and bonding funds for School Bus funding, the Technical College System of Georgia and many conservation and transportation projects, among others.
