The myth that Orange County Schools are poorly funded continues, despite financial data that proves otherwise. This News of Orange County story includes the following piece of confusing information, which serves to explain little:
Orange County Schools ranks 100th out of 115 statewide school districts in terms of federal dollars received and is fourth in local funds put forth. It falls nearer to the middle of the pack at 72nd in state funding.
It so confused me that I asked Locke Foundation Education Policy Analyst Terry Stoops to decipher it. Here is Terry’s response:
Bottom line: Combining all expenditures last year, Orange County had the 20th highest per pupil expenditure out of the state’s 115 school systems.
Like most discussions of school funding, the report failed to mention the capital expenditures. Orange County had the 9th highest per pupil capital outlay expenditure (5 year average) reported last year.
The fact that only three other localities give their school systems more funding (per pupil) than Orange County means that taxpayers in the county contribute an extraordinary amount of money per student ($3,602.28 last year).
With this data in mind, take a look at this Herald-Sun story about a debate with the six candidates for the Orange school board (emphasis is mine):
All six candidates running for the three spots on the Orange County Board of Education sat before an audience of about 70 residents to share their beliefs on a wide range of topics at a well-attended debate Thursday night.
Questions for the six hopefuls — incumbent Al Hartkopf, Eddie Eubanks, Stan Morris, Stephen Halkiotis, Jeff Michalksi and Tony McKnight — ranged from which they viewed as the most pertinent issues facing elementary, middle and high school, to how they would manage to fund the schools’ needs in a time of bare bones budgets.
My conclusions:
1. Orange County schools are well funded.
2. Terry Stoops should be the education reporter for all Orange county newspapers.
