Local

Cobb Parent Group Focuses on Schools’ Deficit

December 17th, 2013

Some Cobb County parents have formed a group aimed at solving the school district’s projected $79 million deficit.

Meghan Ritchie Wohlfarth has three children in the Cobb schools. She was alarmed to learn at a parent meeting last year the district was running such a large deficit. Wohlfarth talked with other parents, who were also surprised by the news. She then co-founded the Funding Awareness Campaign for Education, or FACE It Cobb.

“This is a grassroots movement and we’ve been committed to a focus of educating people on the facts,” Wohlfarth says.

Wohlfarth admits there are limited options: district officials can continue to make steep cuts; the county can raise the property tax rate; and the state can increase education spending. Wohlfarth says FACE It Cobb encourages the public to pressure legislators to devise a solution, but the group itself doesn’t endorse one.

“People talk about the 62 exemption, ‘What can we do about that?’” She says. “People talk about the millage rate in Cobb County, I think it’s at 18.9 and caps off at 20. Could we go to 20? Again, we’re not advocating anything, but just saying, ‘These are options.’”

The 62 exemption excuses Cobb homeowners who are 62 years of age and older from paying school taxes.

Wohlfarth says FACE It Cobb does want state officials to fully fund Georgia’s education funding formula. Gov. Nathan Deal has called that an “unrealistic standard” but said he hopes to increase education spending next year.

FACE It Cobb plans to hold him, and other lawmakers, to that during a rally at the state Capitol next month.