A study released Tuesday by the Public School Forum of North Carolina “once again illustrates a chronic and growing gap in public school funding between the highest and lowest-wealth counties in the state,” according to the group. The Public School Forum has called the gap “chronic” and “stark” in previous years as well.
The 2019 Local School Finance Study found that the 10 highest spending counties spent on average $3,200 per student compared to $755 by the 10 lowest spending counties, with a gap of $2,445 per student. That gap is the largest since the Forum began tracking the figure in 1987.
“Year after year, our poorest counties fall further behind our wealthier ones in terms of resources available to their local schools,” Keith Poston, president and executive director of the Public School Forum of NC said in a statement. “These funding disparities have a real impact on educational opportunity for students, particularly in in terms of the ability of lower wealth counties to fund local supplemental pay to attract and retain the teachers they need to serve students.”
