BCSS among state’s most conservative in spending

The BCSS spending on a per student basis is among the lowest in the state at an average last year of $7,815 per student. The system’s overall per student spending ranked 147th out of 180 school systems, putting it in the most conservative 20 percent in Georgia systems. (The overall state average last year was $8,593 per student.)

One reason for this tight fiscal spending is that the system’s administrative expenses are among the lowest in the state in just about every category.

To an extent, part of any school system’s spending can’t be controlled. A county that is large geographically, for example, will require more transportation costs than a smaller system. The percentage of special needs children can also affect a system’s spending pattern. And the size of the system can also affect its per student numbers.

Even so, last year’s numbers indicate that Barrow continues to be among the most-thrifty systems in the state when it comes to spending tax dollars.

That’s good because the BCSS doesn’t have a lot of money to throw around. The system is already at 18.5 mills in its property tax rate and the state maximum is 20 mills. Add to that the large decline in the county’s tax digest due to the housing bust and the fact that the local tax base is largely dependent on residential owners for its revenues. There just isn’t much tax money to go around in Barrow County. (Local taxes made up 31 percent of the BCSS’ revenues last year; the rest was paid by state and federal dollars.)

There are those who argue that Barrow should spend more money in its school system in an effort to improve its academics. Traditionally, throwing money at education has been the political answer to lackluster academic results.

But spending more money doesn’t mean a school system will achieve better results. Two nearby examples prove that.

First, the City of Jefferson School System is among the best academically in the state. Year after year, that system’s test scores rise to the top 20 percent in Georgia; in some categories it is a top-10 school system.

But Jefferson is the second lowest in per student spending in the state at just $6,651 per student. The Jefferson system isn’t successful academically because it spends a lot of money; it’s successful for other reasons.

Contrast that to the Clarke County School System whose spending is the ninth highest in the state at $11,810 per student. But for all that spending, Clarke remains one of the state’s worst school systems with test scores that consistently fall in the bottom one-third of Georgia schools.

So just spending more money isn’t the answer to improving public education; better management (getting rid of weak teaches) and more parental involvement are the keys to building academic success.

The BCSS doesn’t have a lot of money and perhaps because of that, it is one of the state’s most fiscally conservative school systems.

(To see a list of area school systems and how much they spent per student last year, see the Jan. 25 issue of the Barrow Journal.)

Mike Buffington is co-publisher of the Barrow Journal. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.