Education

Study Finds Stark Gap In North Carolina School System Funding

88.5 WFDD - Public Radio For The Piedmont | By Neal Charnoff

Published February 19, 2019 at 11:59 AM EST

A new study highlights a growing gap in public school funding between the highest and lowest-wealth counties in North Carolina.

The report was released by the Public School Forum of North Carolina.

It found that the highest spending counties spent on average $3,200 per student.

That compares with $755 invested by the lowest spending counties, with a gap of almost $2,500 per student.

WRAL-TV reports that gap is the largest since the group began tracking the figures in 1987.

A Public School Forum official says that with the financial burdens placed on residents in lower wealth districts, their schools are more poorly resourced than those in wealthier counties, particularly when it comes to funding supplemental pay to attract and retain teachers.

A General Assembly committee has been considering a major overhaul to the state's education finance system. A final report is due in October of this year.

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Neal Charnoff

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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Study Finds Stark Gap In North Carolina School System Funding

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