An annual report that evaluates public school funding nationwide has once again ranked North Carolina 48th among states in funding level and 49th in funding effort. The ranking for funding effort takes into account a state's capacity to fund public schools, based on its overall economy and tax base.
"North Carolina is basically a situation of missed opportunity," said the report's author Danielle Farrie, research director at the Education Law Center.
"The state is doing very poorly in terms of the overall level of funding that goes to public education, and also in terms of the effort that it's making, which means that there's room for improvement, right?" Farrie said. "It doesn't have to be like this."
Every winter, the Education Law Center releases the "Making the Grade Report" that ranks states on three metrics of public school funding - funding level, distribution, and effort. The relies on data from 2022. See how North Carolina compares on these metrics over time .
The report measures three main areas:
Funding level measures state and local funding per student, adjusted for the cost of living. The report conducts a wage adjustment for educators' salaries relative to wages for other professions. North Carolina ranked 48 among states in this metric.
Funding distribution measures whether a state provides more or less funding to school districts with higher rates of student poverty. This can also be thought of as whether the funding is "equitable." North Carolina ranked 12 among states in this metric.
Funding effort measures state and local funding for education as a proportion of the state's gross domestic product. North Carolina ranked 49 among states in this metric.
"With effort, we're really trying to get a sense of whether a state is taking advantage of its economic potential to generate revenue to fund public schools," Farrie said.
Farrie explained some states have poorly funded schools because they simply don't have the tax base to increase school funding.
"But what we see in North Carolina is that the state is not even making anywhere near the same level of effort that many other states are making to fund their education system," Farrie said.
Despite a thriving state economy and growing tax base, North Carolina spends $4,868 less per student (cost-adjusted) than the national average.
North Carolina's funding level ranking on the Making the Grade report has changed very little in recent years, and Farrie said that's typical for most states, since school funding tends to follow national trends in the economy.
"It is pretty clear, though, that North Carolina, at least pre-recession, was closer to the middle of the pack, closer to average, and then has declined (since) 2010," Farrie said.
The state's funding effort dropped precipitously after the Great Recession, also coinciding with a change in power at the statehouse as Republicans took majority control of the legislature.
The one bright spot in North Carolina's rankings is that the state's funding model distributes school funding in a way that provides more funding to public school districts with higher concentrations of poverty.
"When we're talking about that additional funding being on top of one of the worst funded systems in the country, you sort of have to question how much benefit that's giving students," Farrie cautioned.
