In Response to Jabs from Carter, Deal Defends Education Record

Deal spokesman Brian Robinson said despite the worst economy since the Great Depression, the state has held firm on education funding.

“Governor Deal has increased education spending every year he’s been in office even as we cut government everywhere else. We have increased scholarship levels and we have expanded the HOPE grant so we are taking tremendous steps to keep education whole in this state and it’s going to be the governor’s focus moving forward.”

But critics say the state is barely keeping up with growth, while teacher furloughs, larger class sizes, and staff reductions have become the norm.

If re-elected, Deal has pledged to reform the formula that’s supposed to be used to calculate state funding for schools.

“We are running on a 1985 formula that is terribly out-of-date. We need to update it. Governor Deal has said he would,” said Robinson.

According to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, the state since 2010 has spent about billion less each year than the formula has called for. And since 2002, state education funding per student has decreased by roughly 15 percent.